98 M3. Techno Violet. Esoteric Auto Detail.

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The owners of this M3 also have another `98 M3 that I recently polished and performed leather restoration on. Next up is their brand new black Z06 Vette!



This 10 year old classic has about 110K on the odometer, and was actually in pretty good shape. It had moderate swirls, but time had left it with some deeper scratches, water spot etching (some severe), and bird poop etching as well. The interior just required a thorough cleaning (gotta love black interior!).



When I worked on their silver M3 a few weeks ago, I found it to have pretty hard clear coat, so I allowed for more time on this one since I was going for a higher level of correction, and because it is a darker color. After doing a test section, I found the M105/PFW combo to work the best for correction. It was doing a tremendous job correcting, and I was able to get an amazing finish afterwards for such a strong combination. The finish was so good in fact; that I was able to skip an intermediate polish as would be required with many compounds, and go straight to PO85RD/blue. After cleaning, IPA wipe downs, and sun inspections I was very happy with the combination, and confident that it was finishing down completely and not masking any potential marring and/or holograms.



Now on to the details:



Interior:

Clean all surfaces with Woolite/water

Treat leather with Zaino Z10

Megs Interior Detailer on console/controls

Optimum Protectant Plus on all vinyl & plastic surfaces

Vacuum

Clean rubber mats with Megs APC+

Windows cleaned with Stoner`s Invisible Glass

Door shuts cleaned with Optimum No Rinse



Exterior:

Wash with Chemical Guys Citrus Wash & Clear at paint prep ratio (2oz/gal)

Wheels cleaned with P21S Wheel Gel

Megs APC+ on wheel wells

Clay with ONR lube

Wash #2 to remove residue from claying process

Stoner`s Invisible Glass

Sonus Tire Gel

Chemical Guys VRP on plastic trim



Paint correction:

Carbon fiber hood: SIP/white followed by PO85RD/red

The rest of car:

Megs M105/PFW on compounding stage

Menzerna PO85RD/blue for finishing polish



Protection/LSP:

Optimum Opti-Seal

Optimum Car Wax



Tools Used:

Makita 9227c rotary

Porter Cable D/A (used with 3� PFW in tight areas)

Blaster Sidekick blow dryer

Canon Rebel Xsi with 18/55mm lense



Total time: 10 hours.



Upon initial sun inspection, I found the car to have moderate swirls (severe in a few areas…trunk lid and spoiler in particular), RIDS (more on these later), water etching, and bird poop etching as well.



Bird bombs can be hazardous to paint!













Nice carbon fiber hood:













Here’s my test section for the painted surfaces.





After 1 pass of M105/PFW (1000rpm). Notice how nice the finish looks for a compounding stage!





When a surface is covered in swirls, it’s sometimes hard to tell if there are any deeper scratches (RIDS) in the finish. Many times you don’t find out what you’re really dealing with until you’ve done at least one pass…sometimes it comes out clean, and sometimes you get a few surprises. Take a look at the photo below, and you can pick out one scratch in particular on the wing. It’s about an inch back from the leading edge, and you can see it’s about as wide as the reflection of the light.







Now take a look at this photo. This is after 2 passes with M105. That long scratch we picked out in the photo above is gone, but there is another one that is clearly visible about an inch below where the other one was. In the first photo you don’t notice this one much, but after cleaning up the surface, you then see how bad it really is. The wing had a lot of deep scratches, and you can see how much water spot etching there is. Even after 4 passes with 105 at varying speeds and applications of water, some of the defects and etching just wouldn’t come out. It would have taken a lot of wetsanding to completely get rid of them. Upon initial inspection however, it was hard to tell that the condition was this bad.

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Okay, now I’m moving on in the process a bit.



After the compounding stage was complete, I pulled the car out for wash #3 with CG CW&C at paint prep ratio. It’s imperative to do a thorough wash after compounding to completely remove the residue and dust. Since it’s so abrasive, you don’t want to risk getting some of that in your finishing polish otherwise you’re going to have to re-do a lot of work! The extra time of washing is definitely worth it. It’s also good because you can have a very clean surface, and inspect the work in the sunlight (which kept coming and going).







Now fast forwarding again…



I’ve finished up the carbon fiber hood, and the PO85RD/Blue combination did a tremendous job of bringing out the gloss and showing off the details of the CF. There were a few deeper imperfections that remained afterwards, but overall it looked fantastic in comparison.







Got gloss?







Techno Violet may be a horrible color name, but it’s a beautiful paint! Look at the details and the amount of colors that go into it.







Now to some after shots:



Before any LSP

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I forgot to change the white balance on the camera when I pulled the car outside and took the first few photos, so they show up blue instead of purple…you’ll see below where I realized the mistake because the photos go back to more of a purple color.







No more swirls!







Bird poop etching gone.















As you can see, a few deeper scratch remnants remained











The roof is now looking much better.







A few shots while the sun was still out. For a 10 year old car with more than 100K miles on it, it still looks spectacular.

[imported_weekendwarrior]

Great Job Todd.

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And that quickly, the sky went completely cloudy on me…































I cleaned up the last bit of polish residue from the body molding area afterwards...













Thanks for checking it out!

[Pats300zx]

Beautiful work as always Todd...

[Rickrack]

Todd, your attention to detail is amazing!! The car looks absolutely incredible now that you have worked your magic on it! It honestly looks like a pool of water...



Your skills are getting better and better every time I view your work! The pics came out great!



PS: If you like the purple foamed wool pad, you should definitely pick-up a black lambs wool pad from Micro-Surface.

[Old Pirate]

Truly a awesome correction Todd, love the color on the M3.:2thumbs:

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Great Job Todd.

Thank you!

Beautiful work as always Todd...

Thanks, I appreciate the kind words.

Todd, your attention to detail is amazing!! The car looks absolutely incredible now that you have worked your magic on it! It honestly looks like a pool of water...



Your skills are getting better and better every time I view your work! The pics came out great!



PS: If you like the purple foamed wool pad, you should definitely pick-up a black lambs wool pad from Micro-Surface.

Thanks Rick...I just keep learning from Yoda-Masters like you! Thanks for the tip on the wool; I`ll definitely give them a try (you haven`t steered me in the wrong direction yet!)

Truly a awesome correction Todd, love the color on the M3.:2thumbs:

Thanks. The color is really impressive in person for sure!

[somebody]

Very nicely done, I love those body styles.



Brandon

[Thomas Dekany]

I`ve done one last year I think, had pretty hard clear and was happered.



Your after shots are amazing!!!



The car looks super.



I bet the owner was happy.

[connorb850]

Very nice job, I love the M3 sedans!



Did you polish out the plastic headlights? They look to be in great shape for the age/mileage.

[gdal]

Awesome work ...



Those M3 sedans are rare1!! I have never seen a sedan in that color. Is it stick or auto??

[Thomas Dekany]

Awesome work ...



Those M3 sedans are rare1!! I have never seen a sedan in that color. Is it stick or auto??

Here is the one I did (OP I hope it is ok)

[gdal]

Here is the one I did (OP I hope it is ok)

Nice pic ... One day I will own one ... lol.