1st post, 1995 BMW M3 (approx 16hr detail)

Zakko · 05-24-06, 10:49

(I'm reposting this from my other forum, M3Forum.net's detailing board)

I spent 6 hours on Friday, maybe 8 hours on Saturday, and two or three hours on Sunday detailing my car. I finally convinced myself, like the others have said before me, that it's better than 99% of the cars on the road and I should be satisfied. I swear I feel like I should've earned a badge saying I'm an official detailing OCD nutcase.

This was my first weekend to get to use my PC and I was stunned at the results! Took a bit more work than I expected but not too bad really. Got TONS of scratches and swirls out, though some still remain, was running out of time with other things I had to get done.

Friday:
Meguiar's Hot Rims All Wheel cleaner
Meguiar's Deep Crystal car wash
Gold Class Leather Cleaner & Conditioner on all seats + steering wheel + lux trim
Porter Cable + SSR2.5 + Edge Blue pad (switched to green pad after trial and error)

Saturday
Tide to Go Stain remover on the steering wheel stitching followed by another round of conditioner (blue/red stitching is brilliant now!)
Nevr-Dull Wadding Polish on the exhaust tips + about 1" inside
More PC + SSR2.5 + Edge Green pad
PC + SSR1 + Blue pad
Meguiar's NXT Tech Wax
Cleaned the windows
Dusted interior
[rush to the clean car concours BMW Iowa meet in town and find out it's SUNDAY, not Saturday. Come home with a free can of engine degreaser from the mechanic that hosted]
Detailed the engine with degreaser, sprayed everything down, wiped everything down, used the Nevr-Dull on some misc metal parts, got absolutely anal about getting the brake fluid cap and dipstick top perfectly clean.
Black Magic on all engine compartment hoses
[8pm grocery run and WHAM huge devastating door ding... *sigh*]

Sunday
Black Magic on all exterior plastic trim
Touch ups on windows and main body panels
Cleaned doorjams, door edges, trunk edges, hood edges
Pulled the K&N filter and cleaned/oiled, slightly stronger and definitely smoother acceleration now
Fixed a loose kidney grill
Fixed a loose air intake
[10 minutes to clean wife's black Explorer lol]
Off to the meet! Quick detail and dusting
[got a glowing recommendation for a mobile dent removal service from the guy who won the M class trophy with his M5 *rock* \m/ ]

I'd say at this point the only thing I'd like to see is a little bit more on the scratch removal for some spots I didn't get as well as I'd like to. Also, the shine I've got isn't quite as deep/wet as I'd like. I'm guessing this is a possible combination of two things, I think I need to ssr1 again a bit more thoroughly and I probably need something a bit more than a single coat of NXT Tech Wax to finish it. Any suggestions?

images:
before

before

after

(more below)

Zakko · 05-24-06, 10:51

more pics

This is the roof which was so badly scratched/swirled in the before pics:

The stitching was so dark that I didn't even know that the M3 colors existed on the steering wheel until about four months after I bought the car. If I had to pick one favorite result of the weekend it would be a tight choice between the scratch/swirl removal and this.

The absolute worst part of my weekend, a present someone left for me on my door....:banghead: I'm hoping to have this worked on here in about four weeks, will return with before and after shots if it comes out good. The guy who I want to fix it was recommended highly enough that I'm willing to wait until he can fit me in.

And finally, one at the show. It was fun to get compliments and gawkers

:

Many sources of info, including Autopia's guides and forum helped me to get this car looking like it does today. Thanks all!

Diesel1 · 05-24-06, 12:05

Looking good! Looks like that dent on the door can be fixed by a PDR guy! Would def give it a try since it will be much cheaper and won't require paintwork!