I've been wanting to post this thread for a long time... i know everyone has little tricks and things that they use when they are detailing... tricks that seem obvious, but might not be to everyone. for instance...

recently on my black car it's been hard to keep water spots off when...

Intermezzo said to use a polish with a black or dark colored towel. You will see the white paint on the towel. 3M SMR is a gray color, and klasse AIO is beige. I am certain you will be able to tell the difference. BTW, your 99 M3 is clearcoated, no need to check.

Yeah, it is kinda expensive. I have tried the vac method, but didn't get the results I wanted. I definetly need a more powerful vac to get the best results.

I can do 6-7 washes on average with one can, I tend to use it as a last resort for crevises instead of trying to get all the water out.

6 to 7 washes isn't bad at all. I thought you were using the can for just about everything. If it really works all that well I guess you could buy in bulk to save even more. I wonder what the shelf life is for those can's.

a black magic marker or a sharpy works great for this

The permanent ones also do a fine, but temporary, job of touching up the key scratches on the black lock assemblies.

I have used the key in the lock once, just to see how it fit. Aside from that I couldn't manage without my keyless entry. I wonder how much scatches that has saved me so far.

I use Zaino now, but back in the days of wax I used to do this:

Use the towel that you used to buff off the wax to wipe off the outside of the windows. The dry wax dust on the towel will make the windows really shine!

Holding them upside down and spraying someone is the best part.

Ahh.. gotta agree with you there. I buy 3 packs of compressed air from Sam's. I always have a bottle standing next to the computer to get dust and depris out of my keyboard, and when im bored, i just start playing with the compressed air.. the cold stuff that comes out when you spray it upside down is absolute FUN! Especially if you have animals.. they freak when you spray that stuff near them..


note: DO NOT spray onto the animal.. spray it in the air whiole animal is close. The stuff coming outwhen upside down can burn skin easily.

No animals were harmed in the making of this post.

hahaha I used that canned air as a weapon once...... I held it point blank about an inch from a guy's neck upside down...... told him if he didnt put his hands up I'd shoot.....

he didnt raise his arms so I froze the back of his neck...... lol

this was when I was working part time as a computer repair tech.....

With a houseful of kids there are always baby wipes around. Tonight I used them to wipe down my wheels with a couple of days of brake dust accumulated. Baby wipes are just tough pre-moistened paper towels. Give them a try - if they are soft enough for baby's bottom then they are good for my other baby as well.

Baby wipes are good for quick clean-ups of spills, specially on vinyl, they work on all the stuff my 3 year old spills on the mini-van.