CMC Detailing-BMW Z4 M Coupe

mikenap

mikenap

New member
A friend of mine recently talked his Dad into trading his Hyundai Genesis in for this low mileage M Coupe. This is a car I've always had a thing for, so when my friend asked if I could detail his Dad's new-to-him car, I was pretty excited. And I made him a deal...help me from start to finish, learn how to care for it, and the detail would be on me. This M Coupe was in pretty good shape, although it had some repainted panels, rock chips, shoddy touch up in one spot, and one REALLY ugly scratch.

We got a late start on this car, around midday, and only had a few hours to do what we could with it. He mostly wanted to see if I could remove the large scratch......I couldn't. It was fairly deep and wide, so I could only do so much. Even if he'd had touch up paint, the color and metal flake of the car would have made for one really obvious repair. :( We decided due to the color, condition and time-frame, a one-step would be the best course of action.



The car was 3 days from the dealership, so it was relatively clean to begin with. It had decent shine, leftover wax around emblems and panel gaps, and a clean (non-greasy!:bigups) interior.

Process:

Wheels: Sonax FE
Tires and wheel wells: Optimum Power Clean 3:1
Foam and rinse: Meguiar's Shampoo Plus/Dawn
Wash: Optimum NoRinse
Clay: Clay Magic Blue
Clay Lube: ONR at QD dilution
Windows: Meguiar's D120 glass cleaner
Exhaust Tips: Meguiar's NXT Metal Polish (I refuse to spell it "Polysh". That's just stupid. :rant:)
Polished: HD Uno on Meguiar's MF cutting pad/ GG6 DA/ Meg G110v2
Wheel sealant: Chemical Guy's Factory Sealant (Got on trade, trying to use it up!)
LSP: HD Poxy
Door Jambs: Optimum Car Wax
Tire dressing: Optimum OptiBond 1:1


As it arrived: clean enough, but could use a little work. I apologize for the overcast pics, not much I could do about it.

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The scratch! :huh:

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Started with Sonax FE on the wheels

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Attacking the iron imbedded in the wheel

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Cleaned the fuel filler door with OPC 3:1, then foamed and rinsed the car, and brought it inside for the rinseless wash.

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There were some obvious spots where it was repainted. The car read mostly in the 115-130 range, with a couple of exceptions....very high on the resprays (duh) and very low RIGHT at that deep scratch!:mad: Nothing's ever easy. I would have thought that someone had tried to sand it before, but the edges of the scratch were elevated and rough, so I don't think that was the case. Just bad luck?

Normal

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Respray

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Lowest point

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Sanded with 2k

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It wasn't much of an improvement, the flash just makes it appear like it was.

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Polished with HD Uno. I chose Uno since time was a factor. Uno didn't dust at all, and I knew I could go straight to Poxy and skip an IPA wipe or post-polish wash. Win-win!

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At this point, I had to take the camera away from Sebastian and put him to work! He got the hang of the polishing pretty quickly, and he really helped me get this car done on time.

After polishing, I had Sebastian apply Poxy to the paint while I cleaned up the exhaust tips.

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Finally, we were ready for some after shots. We were going mostly for an increase in gloss and shine instead of correction, and unfortunately the camera couldn't capture the improvement very well. In person, the difference was very noticeable. Mostly though, I just love the shape of this car, so I took as many pics as I could!

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Thanks for looking!
 
Holy...! I normally don't care for the Z4, bit the M-version looks fantastic! Love the color, the wheels, and mostly the hard top!

Very nice work Mike, looks awesome!
 
CH.Detailing said:
Holy...! I normally don't care for the Z4, bit the M-version looks fantastic! Love the color, the wheels, and mostly the hard top!

Very nice work Mike, looks awesome!
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Thanks Connor, I 100% agree. I've never been a fan of the soft-top versions, but the fixed-top Coupe looks much more aggressive and racy. And the new, folding hard-top version looks pretty good too, but this Coupe is still one of my all-time favorites. Thanks again!

mjlinane said:
Beautiful work!!
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Thank you!

glfahlc said:
nice ride..... seemed to be a change in gloss to me. you amped it up my man..
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Thanks! I still need to work on my camera skills a little, and maybe graduate to a DSLR in the future. I'm glad you could tell a difference, though!:bigups

Pats300zx said:
Beautiful work Mike !!!
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Thank you Pat!
 
zoomzoom mazda5 said:
Awesome work Mike as always, how is the LSP doing for you?
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Thanks Angelo! Honestly, this is only my second time using Uno/Poxy so I can't speak to durability. I've heard conflicting accounts as far as that goes, both from people I trust. This car will stay outside, but under a car cover most likely. The other car is a DD that is garaged, so I hope to get some feedback soon.

What I can say about Poxy is that it is very easy to use, doesn't seem to dust when removing, comes off easily, and looks great. Slickness is kind of weak when first applied, but increases 10x the next day. It's very thick, almost like Poli-seal, and I think I may be using a bit too much still. So far I've only applied by hand, not machine.

rwright said:
Wow, I'm in love! Great job Mike! HD Uno on mf pad? No dust? Straight to LSP? Hmm...
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Thanks Richard, I love this car too! Yup, HD Uno on MF produced zero dust, and supposedly the "carrier" in the polish and that in Poxy are the same, so a stripping wash or IPA wipedown is of no benefit. Hopefully I'll find some time to do my own car and test Poxy with and without IPA'ing it. If it works as advertised, this would be a HUGE time saver on one-step details, since I prefer to wash in case of dust, etc. The only caveat is I haven't had a chance to use Uno on a darker color or softer paint yet. We'll see how that goes.
 
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