mjlinane
My name is Mike
No, it wasn't a Ferrari or Lambo but it was pretty cool, none-the-less: a Sapphire Black 2006 BMW M5. The owner is a coworker & a track instructor and this car had been modded a fair bit. I was told that it did 150mph in its sleep and the fastest he's been in it was 190mph (!) and it wasn't done then. It was generally well kept (minus a few uncorrectable "battle scars" - as the owner proudly called them) - especially for a sometimes track driven DD. It had some light swirling that proved to be surprisingly hard to correct. (His principle track car is a BMW M-Coupe - way more modded.) Note - I realized when editing the pics that I concentrated on the detailing aspects and didn't take full car photos. I will remedy that when he returns from his business trip to Japan.
He wanted the exterior corrected (shooting for ~80%) – it’s going back on the track after all - and Opti-Coated. He'll be coming back for the interior. I prefer to stick with one brand throughout so you will notice a lot of Optimum products.
Steps in order:
Wheels & Tires
Dupray and Sprayway Foaming Glass Cleaner (wheels) and OPC (tires) + various brushes, sponge, MFs and ONR
ONR
Sprayed pre-soak, let dwell and wiped with Bone MF sponge in snake-pattern. Used the Todd method to dry (ONR-damp CG Fur Ball MF to get most of the solution off and followed with WW MF). In retrospect, I probably should have foregone/postponed the final WW dry and gone panel to panel washing & "claying" followed by the WW final dry.
Nanoskin Towel (courtesy of Grungy - thanks) with ONR lube
This was my first time playing with the Nanoskin Towel and only intended to do a small spot to see what it was like. It worked so well and so fast that I finished the car!! It feels very natural in your hand, is much more compact to get in smaller spaces than my clay substitute sponge and left no marring (the paint was very hard though). Will be ordering a couple for myself!
Polishing
This was a bit of a challenge. It was mainly a one-step - just not with the same polish/pad combo throughout. The hood, roof and trunk-lid corrected and finished out nearly perfectly with Griots + LC Orange Constant Pressure Flat + Optimum Hyper-Polish - minus the battle scars. I did jewel these areas with Metabo + CG Gray Hex + Optimum Finish Polish for max gloss. I was pretty stoked at this point because I was making really good time (maybe 3.5 hours in to this point) and my detailing partner hadn't even showed up yet. Then it slowed down dramatically. The Orange + OHP literally did nothing to the vertical panels. Stepped up several times and found it took Cutting MFs on PC and GG6 + Optimum Hyper-Compound and/or Optimum Compound II with 2 complete section passes to (mostly) remove even the light swirls! Fortunately, what was left at this stage was a finish nearly as good as the horizontal surfaces (& battle scars, of course). Hadn't seen such a difference in paint hardness across a car before - and it was all factory paint. It took more than 4 more hours to finish the rest of this really hard paint - with 2-4 people going at it simultaneously at times! Jewelling the side panels yielded nothing so didn’t (they really didn’t need it). I’m still not sure what I think about the Opti Cutting MFs. They work but the thicker foam layer “felt” less efficient. I switched back to Megs Cutting MFs about halfway through. One of the Opti MFs didn’t survive (used by my detailing partner – it was the first time he used MFs & think he melted the center a bit). The Opti's may perform better on a curvier car/panel.
ONR
Same as above.
Opti-Coat
With Saran Wrap covered sponge wrapped by Carpro Suede MF. Only needed 5-10ml.
Tires Dressed
With Blackfire Total Eclipse Tire Gel
A couple of befores (after washing and claying). Unfortunately, the metallic paint hid the swirls far more from the camera than the eye.
Afters
The proud owner
Went to dinner with his family after and found out he is considering selling it because he wants an even faster car(!).
He wanted the exterior corrected (shooting for ~80%) – it’s going back on the track after all - and Opti-Coated. He'll be coming back for the interior. I prefer to stick with one brand throughout so you will notice a lot of Optimum products.
Steps in order:
Wheels & Tires
Dupray and Sprayway Foaming Glass Cleaner (wheels) and OPC (tires) + various brushes, sponge, MFs and ONR
ONR
Sprayed pre-soak, let dwell and wiped with Bone MF sponge in snake-pattern. Used the Todd method to dry (ONR-damp CG Fur Ball MF to get most of the solution off and followed with WW MF). In retrospect, I probably should have foregone/postponed the final WW dry and gone panel to panel washing & "claying" followed by the WW final dry.
Nanoskin Towel (courtesy of Grungy - thanks) with ONR lube
This was my first time playing with the Nanoskin Towel and only intended to do a small spot to see what it was like. It worked so well and so fast that I finished the car!! It feels very natural in your hand, is much more compact to get in smaller spaces than my clay substitute sponge and left no marring (the paint was very hard though). Will be ordering a couple for myself!
Polishing
This was a bit of a challenge. It was mainly a one-step - just not with the same polish/pad combo throughout. The hood, roof and trunk-lid corrected and finished out nearly perfectly with Griots + LC Orange Constant Pressure Flat + Optimum Hyper-Polish - minus the battle scars. I did jewel these areas with Metabo + CG Gray Hex + Optimum Finish Polish for max gloss. I was pretty stoked at this point because I was making really good time (maybe 3.5 hours in to this point) and my detailing partner hadn't even showed up yet. Then it slowed down dramatically. The Orange + OHP literally did nothing to the vertical panels. Stepped up several times and found it took Cutting MFs on PC and GG6 + Optimum Hyper-Compound and/or Optimum Compound II with 2 complete section passes to (mostly) remove even the light swirls! Fortunately, what was left at this stage was a finish nearly as good as the horizontal surfaces (& battle scars, of course). Hadn't seen such a difference in paint hardness across a car before - and it was all factory paint. It took more than 4 more hours to finish the rest of this really hard paint - with 2-4 people going at it simultaneously at times! Jewelling the side panels yielded nothing so didn’t (they really didn’t need it). I’m still not sure what I think about the Opti Cutting MFs. They work but the thicker foam layer “felt” less efficient. I switched back to Megs Cutting MFs about halfway through. One of the Opti MFs didn’t survive (used by my detailing partner – it was the first time he used MFs & think he melted the center a bit). The Opti's may perform better on a curvier car/panel.
ONR
Same as above.
Opti-Coat
With Saran Wrap covered sponge wrapped by Carpro Suede MF. Only needed 5-10ml.
Tires Dressed
With Blackfire Total Eclipse Tire Gel
A couple of befores (after washing and claying). Unfortunately, the metallic paint hid the swirls far more from the camera than the eye.
Afters
The proud owner
Went to dinner with his family after and found out he is considering selling it because he wants an even faster car(!).
After doing my reviews I have a new found respect for the guys that do them. Takes a lot more time then ever imagined. :bigups
