Before/After on a 2006 BMW 330i

[Matt S.]

Picked up a new daily driver, a 2006 330i 6spd with sport, premium and cold weather packages. The car had 2 previous owners and while you'd never guess by looking at it, it has 112k miles on it. It's obviously been very well cared for by its previous owners. But, as with most cars on the road today, it appeared that the paint was never properly polished.

I haven't been on here in awhile, but I've been detailing a little here and there. With all the new products being released these days, I couldn't help but make a trip to the Geek to pick up some new stuff. I decided to keep my products as German as possible for obvious reasons

Basic rundown of products used:
-Wolfgang Auto Bathe
-Pinnacle Ultra Poly Clay
-CarPro IronX
-Wolfgang Uber Compound w/LC Hybrid Foamed Wool Pads
-Wolfgang Finishing Glaze w/LC Crimson Foam Finishing Pads
-Wolfgang Perfekt Finish Paint Prep
-Wolfgang Uber Ceramic Coating

I washed with Wolfgang Auto Bathe and followed with a full IronX treatment on the entire car (paint, glass, wheels). It looked like a blood bath to say the least. After this, only light spot claying was needed so I used Pinnacle Ultra Poly Clay since it's fairly gentle.

Knowing how hard Arctic White BMW paint is from past experience, I decided to try out Wolfgang Uber Compound with my Makita 9227C and LC Hybrid Foamed Wool pads. I then finished with Wolfgang Finishing Glaze on LC Crimson foam finishing pads. Overall, I'm very impressed with this 1-2 punch and it made removing heavy swirls and RIDS on this hard paint relatively easy. Minimal dusting and easy wipe-off were icing on the cake. I washed again with Wolfgang Auto Bathe and some Megs APC mixed in, dried and wiped down the entire car twice with Wolfgang Perfekt Finish Paint Prep. After that came the coating process.

I'm thoroughly impressed with the Uber Ceramic Coating. I've only applied a few coatings over the past few years, and starting with the original Optimum Opti-Coat, technology has come a long way in terms of user friendliness. This stuff was incredibly easy to apply...thin application is key. I would apply to a panel, apply to an adjacent panel, then go back to the previous panel to knock down any high spots. Apply to another, knock down the high spots on the last panel, etc. I worked my way around the entire car this way...only took about 15 minutes. After that, I went around the entire car and gently rubbed a few high spots I missed with a soft edgeless microfiber. PROPER LIGHTING IS KEY HERE - you don't want to miss any high spots on the finish and let them cure so go over every inch of every panel with proper lighting from different angles. Overall, the coating left a SUPER SUPER slick finish and made the paint look extremely wet. In fact, I've never seen white paint look so deep and wet. I'm really happy with it.

Being a 10 year old car with 112k miles, there were some deeper scratches which wouldn't come out. I could tell the front bumper has been resprayed in the past, and it's seen better days. Still looks acceptable, but given this fact coupled with the license plate holes...I may end up getting the bumper resprayed. Overall, I'm very happy with the way the car the came out, and at the price I got it for, I really can't complain.

Before shots:

[Matt S.]

Some pics I snapped during the wash process, followed by the polishing process.

Uber Compound with the rotary and wool pads, just like any other compound used with a rotary and wool pads (lol) left some hazing as you could see from the photos. This was very easily removed with Finishing Glaze and Crimson pads.

[Matt S.]

Pics of unboxing the coating:



This is what I used on the entire car (paint, glass, wheels)



Aaand the money shots, followed by some images I took just playing around with a new fisheye lens I got. The interior didn't need anything but a vacuum and wipe down with Optimum Leather Protectant. Oh, and the tires were dressed with Eco Touch. Hope you enjoy!

[Jaretr1]

Very nice. This is the second glowing review of Uber Coating on a white car! There might be something here...

[DetailGroove]

The last pic is pretty sweet- awesome work!

[Joe@NextLevelDetail]

Do you live in Orlando ?

[roguegeek]

Very nice. Next time you do something with that S2000, show some pics from that as well.

[Matt S.]

Thanks guys. I'm in Palm City, which is right next to Stuart. In other words, only 5 miles from Autogeek.
Here's my thread from last year when I detailed the S2000:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/...006-s2000.html

I'll be doing another light polish on it soon this winter and applying a cost of Uber Ceramic Coat to that car as well. Getting rubber off the paint from track days is a ##### and I'm hoping the coating will help.

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Beautiful new DD Matt! Congrats! She looks phenomenal now. The white paint looks great.

I'm sure you know that the '06 model e90 was a one year only for the 325i and 330i. 2007 brought the arrival of the 328i and 335i.

Any plans on modification? Time to de-badge...

Thanks for sharing.

[haris300]

Great pickup and excellent work! Love the s2000 as well.