E46 M3 - Carbon Black

[calypso]

Quick update, did abit of work this weekend after all the disruptions and distractions.

Foamed the car off to get rid of compounding dust.
Paint after PowerGloss on Purple foamed wool, but 2 passes per panel. Leaves things rather hazy.



Refined with some SIP on white polishing pad with a dab of FF to increase runtime and lower dusting.






Some cheesy reflection shots





Last bit of final polishing, working from top down.


And now a quick once over with Vertua Bond 408









Ok so all thats left now its to refoam to get rid of all the dried polish I cleared out of crevices and to hand polish the areas the machine didnt reach + mirrors.
After that it will be time to apply the Cquartz, and start to clean and replace the trim.
Hope to get that done tomorrow, time permitting.

[Carn]

Car looks great Lexi, well done bud

[SilverSabre]

very nicely done

[Audioholic]

Wow very very nice! Loving your garage too

[calypso]

Minor update:
Just foamed the car to get rid of more polishing dust and hand polished some parts that were in accessible via machine.

Door handle was Menz Powergloss on a German applicator using the hard yellow side. Refined with SIP on Yellow LCC CCS hand appilcator

Before:





After:





Mirrors and base plates done the same way.
Before:





After:





These all came out alright but not perfect. There are some smaller marks the camera cant pick up if seen at the right angle. One would need to do Carn's dremel trick to get to those spots. But for now, its good enough for me.

Hopefully, time permitting, tomorrow the car will be alcohol washed and the Cquartz applied.

[Carn]

Loving it Lexi

[mbl]

Looks great Calypso, love your atention to detail.

[onyx]

Diggin on this thread!

Keep it coming...

[calypso]

Cquartz


Cquartz curing on the paint

The stuff is a ball ache to use, you only have 30ml to do the whole car and the bottle leaks.

And wiped off


And just some random reflection shots of the car as I was going along doing panels.
The Cquartz added very little to the car in terms of gloss, sharpness or colour, I'd say marginal improvements all around. But the surface was pretty slick to start with, not many defects to hide.





Kidneys showed some oxidization, cleaned that up with Megs Metal Polish.




And just some more general reflection shots.
I didnt coat the side skirts as I am not happy with them, will redo another time. Also need to finish off the side trim and reattach. No plastics, rubber, or glass work has been done yet, so dont judge me of it looks abit off.
Also the camera seemed to really struggle to focus in the last few, I think its bit buggered.













Will post some pics of it outside as soon as I have a chance.

[STaX]

Looking stunning!!

I'm loving the garage, 2 generations of M3 and a Porsche.

[Wells]

Looking really stunning Alexi. nice work!!

[Sankekur]

Fantastic job!

Love the Porsche!

[calypso]

Ok well just about done. Cquartz is on and cured. Just have not done the side skirts (not happy with how they came out). And the door trim (I'm lazy, will do it on the weekend).

Anyways took a few pics in the 8am sun before work. Not ideal as the sun is at a very shallow angle with not much power, will but nice once I can take some pics of the car once its properly sunny.

Car is abit dusty now, but I can only wash it in a week as per the CQuartz instructions.

[onyx]

Deep colour and awesome reflection!

Almost looks wet

[Wells]

Saw you in the M this morning, it looks stunning in the flesh, except the make shift 3m door trim. looking good, really good!

[calypso]

Saw you in the M this morning, it looks stunning in the flesh, except the make shift 3m door trim. looking good, really good!

Haha thanks, getting abit dusty now. Will fix the 3M trim this weekend, just been abit busy with work.

[calypso]

---

Crap video of Cquartz sheeting a week dusty car.

[Sankekur]

That is epic!

It looks like you polished the whole car with that c'thru hydrophobic glass polish!

[Sankekur]

Update??

[calypso]

Nothing too new to report. Time has been scarce. But the CQuartz is holding up nicely.


Next project is to repair the door seals and refirb some of the worn interior.
Still cant decide if I prefer this to DiNoc