A Detailer's Intervention

mjlinane

mjlinane

My name is Mike
My buddy, Jason AKA MugelloM, purchased an Estoril Blue 2013 BMW 335i about six months ago. While he was waiting for delivery, I told him to not even allow the dealer to remove the plastic, much less prep it. He waffled a bit and gave in to the plastic removal but otherwise left the lot unmolested. He drove it straight over but it was dark so only cleaned it up and put some BF CS on to tide him over to the weekend when we would do a new car prep.

Fast forward 6 months and he still hadn't brought it over. I had maintained it with more or less weekly washes but it was now time for "the Talk" -

Me: "It's time to new car prep the BMW."
MM: "I don't know. I still haven't decided whether to coat it or not."
Me: "Still needs a thorough decon, a finish polish and then we can reseal it until you make up your mind."
MM: "But...."
Me: "Look, if you are going to roll with me, your car MUST look better than that."
MM: "What do you mean. It looks really good and only you have touched the paint...."
Me: "If you don't bring it over, I will hit you in the head, take the car and do it myself."
MM (dejected): "OK."

(It didn't really go down like that but close enough for Hollywood to tout it as "Based on a True Story.")

Not really sure why it took so long to do this. I'm sure me yelling "Oops!" in the middle of my test spot didn't help reassure him.

Wheels -
CG Diablo 4:1 (just for you, Roshan ;) )

Decon -
Foamed with CG Citrus Wash
GDPWM with CG Honeydew Snow Foam
Carpro IronX/IronX Snow Foam
"Clayed" with Nanoskin Autoscrub Pad + GG6 + DP Rinseless

The paint had no swirls and few, if any, other defects so jewelling was really all that was needed. No Before pics - didn't see the point.

Polish -
RUPES + LC CCS Green + Megs 205

Post-Polish -
IPA/D114 mix

LSP -
Migliore Cima Sealant

Tires -
BF Total Eclipse Tire Shine

Trim -
UTTG

Afters
JB_08.JPG

JB_09.JPG

JB_10.JPG

JB_16.JPG

JB_11.JPG

JB_13.JPG

JB_14.JPG

JB_15.JPG

JB_04.JPG

JB_05.JPG


Obligatory sun shot
JB_03.JPG


Sorry for the long story in the beginning. Felt proseful.

Thanks for looking. Questions welcome.
 
I love that color blue and bet it looks even better in person!

Couple questions:

1) Was it all rupes 21? If yes, do you even use your 15 anymore?
2) What size was the LC pad?
3) What's the IPA/D114 mix and what's the purpose?

*sigh* my OCD tendencies will forgive you for the ratio... this once! :D j/k j/k


Great work!
 
ihaveacamaro said:
I love that color blue and bet it looks even better in person!

Couple questions:

1) Was it all rupes 21? If yes, do you even use your 15 anymore?
2) What size was the LC pad?
3) What's the IPA/D114 mix and what's the purpose?

*sigh* my OCD tendencies will forgive you for the ratio... this once! :D j/k j/k


Great work!
Click to expand...

Thanks, Roshan. Yes, it did.

1) I used the 21, Jason the 15. The GG6 also made a cameo with a 4" bp.
2) 6.5", 5.25" & 4", respectively.
3) It removes any polish residue before the LSP. D114 adds a little extra cleaning and lubricity.
 
Great job, as always. I don't know which version of blue I like better, BMW's or the classic Subaru.

Couple quick question...
1. How do you like the CG Diablo?
2. In the picture below is this slight orange peel? It's something I've seen alot both on cars I work on and in after pictures here on the forum. If it isn't "orange peel" what is is that is distorting the reflection? I hope what I'm tying to ask makes sense.
mjlinane said:
JB_14.JPG
Click to expand...
 
Custom Care said:
Great job, as always. I don't know which version of blue I like better, BMW's or the classic Subaru.

Couple quick question...
1. How do you like the CG Diablo?
2. In the picture below is this slight orange peel? It's something I've seen alot both on cars I work on and in after pictures here on the forum. If it isn't "orange peel" what is is that is distorting the reflection? I hope what I'm tying to ask makes sense.
Click to expand...

Thanks.

1) I do like it. http://www.autopiaforums.com/forums/detailing-product-reviews/38279-review-chemical-guys-diablo.html

2) Yes, it is orange peel. To remove, you would generally need to wet sand. Unfortunately most mfg don't send the cars out with enough paint to do so. So you are forced to make it shiny and live with it.
 
Thanks for the information, that question has just been bugging me for awhile so thanks again for clearing it up for me.
 
Hmmm. "If you don't bring it over, I will hit you in the head, take the car and do it myself."

An interesting shade of blue. Nice job.
 
Thanks Todd.

Bunky said:
Hmmm. "If you don't bring it over, I will hit you in the head, take the car and do it myself."

An interesting shade of blue. Nice job.
Click to expand...

When you have a friend in denial, sometimes tough love is required.

What prompted "the Talk" was Jason going on about a BMW 1-series in his parking lot that he claims looked really good. Now, I work at a different site but full of the same kind of Dell employees. This is what I see:
Parking_Lot.jpg
 
Greats Job!!! You are a good friend Mike, now be a great e-friend and steal that car for me:D

Can you see a diffrence bewteen the Migliore and BFCS?
 
mjlinane said:
Fast forward 6 months and he still hadn't brought it over. I had maintained it with more or less weekly washes but it was now time for "the Talk" -

Me: "It's time to new car prep the BMW."
MM: "I don't know. I still haven't decided whether to coat it or not."
Me: "Still needs a thorough decon, a finish polish and then we can reseal it until you make up your mind."
MM: "But...."
Me: "Look, if you are going to roll with me, your car MUST look better than that."
MM: "What do you mean. It looks really good and only you have touched the paint...."
Me: "If you don't bring it over, I will hit you in the head, take the car and do it myself."
MM (dejected): "OK."
Click to expand...

In my defense, can't a guy simply be indecisive every now and then? ;) I knew we had put this off for way too long, but I honestly wanted to go a bit more dramatic with the protection (think OptiCoat 2.0, Permanon Platinum, Wolf's Hard Body, etc) after putting in all that hard work to decontaminate/jewel out the car. However, I still haven't quite forgiven OptiCoat 2.0 for one of my previous cars (etched in hard water spots when I never had any issues with that prior to the OptiCoat application), so I couldn't convince myself to pull the trigger and apply that to the new ride. Permanon was new to both of us, and I was pretty sure I wasn't ready to let this car play guinea pig to any completely new products - at least not yet. :) Mike (mjlinane) had been 'in like' but not 'in love' with Wolf's Hard Body on his Tibby, so cross that one off the list. Oh well, back to the drawing board! It just so happened that Mike had a pretty great experience with the Migliore Cima Sealant recently, so we gave it a go. Overall, I think we made a really good decision. It looks great, was relatively easy to apply (or at least looked that way - Mike did the dirty work for that step), and if the protection holds up at least until we can stack a series of additional products on top of it, then I'll be happy. :D
 
Bunky said:
An interesting shade of blue. Nice job.
Click to expand...

It is an interesting color, but I decided pretty quickly it was the color I was gonna' go with for this particular car. Kind of sets itself apart in sea of silver, white, and black BWMs. Strange thing about the color is it's one of those that never seems to photograph the same, it can look like several different colors depending on the picture. In Mike's pictures, it almost seems a bit lighter than it actually does in person. If anyone cares to browse through the multiple examples here, you'll kind of see what I'm talking about:

(F30) Official ESTORIL BLUE II F30 Photo Thread - BMW 3-Series Forum (F30 / F32) | F30POST
 
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