Mobile-Image : E92 M3 Makeover...

[Carn]

This past weekend saw yet another detail, this time in the form of a 2 year old BMW E92 M3. Having only covered a little over 13k km you can imagine my surprise when I finally got to see the car in all her 'glory'


Day started as most of them do with an early start, up at 6 and at the clients just after 7.

The machine upon arrival...Must be honest and say the E92 ///M is growing on me more and more!



A quick inspection showed some general road grime






A few bird bombs, in this instance a lovely purple one!


Some spotted trim from who knows what...


More spotty trim and some filthy tailpieces





Wheels were also pretty grubby


Close up's




Worryingly the car was also covered in areas of deep RIDS with some staining in them (more pics to follow later)



Having spoken to the client it turns out the gardener was given the task of washing the car, upon which he either used the garden rake, or fished his sponges out of the flower beds prior to getting stuck in to the car


1st things 1st and the wheels and arches were given a thorough once over...

Sonax applied liberally


Starting to work


Detail brushes being put to work


Ez-Detail brush tackling the barrels and spokes



With the wheels out of the way I set about foaming the car while getting my buckets organised

Hyperwash/APC combo doing it's thing



After getting all the tools ready I rinsed the car before tackling all the small details.

Trim getting a much needed clean up with the aid of 10:1 APC and a Meg's Slide-Lock brush






Panel gaps and shuts


And lastly the door jambs



After attending to all the small details the car was foamed again and then washed with the Raceglaze lambswool wash mitt before being rinsed once again.

With the wash completed I set about claying the car. Being white it showed plenty of contaminants and after fiddling with a sample clay and Meg's fine clay, I settled on Clay Magic's Medium bar for the cleanup operations. (no pics sorry). Overall the car had alot of small tar spots as well as plenty small rusty filings which the Clay Magic removed with ease.

With the surface prep complete it was time to dry the car off and move her inside to inspect the paintwork properly under the lights.


Once inside a quick walkaround with the LED torch revealed the following:






RIDS!!!









Not looking good thus far, lets see what the halogens have to say...

Lots of swirls and marring










Overall the paint was in a pretty poor state and would require a serious amount of machine polishing to bring back to life. Prior to hauling out the gear I spent a few minutes taking some PTG readings from around the car to see what we have to work with.

PTG readings were quite healthy all being around the 110 to 130um mark.



Paint correction started with trying a few combo's to assess what would get the job done both quickly and effectively. The deeper RIDS were polished by hand with Blackfire dual sided applicator pads and 3M FCP, machined with FCP on a green 3M compounding pad, followed by SIP & FA on the yellow 3M polishing pads. Areas with milder defects were corrected with a mix of FCP and SIP (1 drop FCP with a bit of SIP) on an orange Scholl polishing pad, again being followed by SIP & FA on the yellow pads to bring out the gloss.

With the amount of work required on this car I didn't snap many correction stage photies aside from the following 2 quick before and afters...

Before


After


Before


After



At around 6:30pm the client and his wife invited me for some traditional italian pasta with meatballs and some lovely red wine...Who could say NO

With dinner out of the way I returned to the garage a little after 8 and attended to a few spot repairs before calling it a day. Total work time for day 1 was a tad over 12 hours and I was around 75% complete with the correction work


Sunday arrived bright and early and with the missus in tow we headed off to complete both the exterior, as well as the interior (last minute request, hence the need for an extra pair of hands )

While I finished up on the exterior the missus set about preparing the interior. The results of her handiwork...

Trim got 303 Aerospace and leather got the Raceglaze twins (cleaner and balm)









With the SO's chores out of the way she headed off to procure some lunch while I finished up on the correction work.

Post correction reflections...


and gloss



LSP of choice on the white was to be my AWOL Werkstat Acrylic kit (Hi Sven ). In the absence of the Werkstat twins I decided to give the Collinite 845 a go.

All I can say is WOW! I was expecting it to be a right PITA to remove but was amazed at how easily it went on and came off. Looks wise I feel it definately added that something extra to the paintwork. Not as crisp as the Werkstat Acrylic sealant, but slightly softer and more wet looking (I think the pics will portray what I mean)...

Some reflection shots inside the garage















Lovely wet finish























Tailpipes were polished with Raceglaze Alutech metal polish. Really nice product!





Trim was treated to 303 and despite my best efforts some of the strange milky spots wouldn't budge Tires got Meg's Endurance Gel and glass was cleaned with AG Fast Glass.


Outside for some pics in the overcast weather...

















Final one



With the work completed Myself and the SO were treated to a tour of the clients newly completed masterpiece of a home, before sharing some drinks and snacks outside by the pool. Overall a challenging, but also ever so rewarding weekend spent detailing a fine automobile in the company of 2 of the nicest people I have ever met

As always thanks for looking