Guys,
I joined Autopia earlier this year and have been reading many of your posts with interest and noting down what seems to look good to me and what was available here in the UK, turns out that most stuff is, even if you need to get it shipped from the US. I have bought into the Zaino process in a big way and use their products wherever possible.
I have been working on the two cars in our house using the knowledge that I gathered on this forum, and would like to share the results with you.
The first car is an Imola Red 2002 E46 M3, with 45000 miles on the clock. I am the 3rd owner, the first 2 did not take good care of the car, so when I bought it back in February the paint was badly swirled and the front of the car was covered in paint chips. I have swopped the wheels for a set of 18" BBS RXII's, would have liked to have 19's but went for the 18's as the roads here aren't brilliant.
I bit the bullet and had the front bumper, bonnet, and front edges of the wings repainted. I found a very good body shop near where I live run by a guy who was trained by BMW but his prices are a lot more affordable, I wouldn't have been able to afford getting all that work done if I had gone to my dealer.
Anyway once I had it back from the body shop and the paint had cured (about 2 months) I proceeded as follows:
Exterior:
1) wash with washing up liquid
2) Poorboys SSR2.5 on all swirled panels using a PC with Sonus Orange pad at 4.5
3) Poorboys SSR1 on the whole car using a PC with Sonus Green Pad at 4.5
4) Klasse AIO using a PC with Sonus Green Pad at 4.5
5) 3 coats of Zaino Z5 with ZFX by hand
6) 3 coats of Z2 with ZFX by hand with an application of Z6 between each one
7) Z8, by now I have about 6 coats on the car.....
8) Z12 glass polish inside and out
9) Einzeitt glass cleaner inside and out
10) Einzeitt metal cleaner to polish the exhausts
Wheels:
1) wash with P21 wheel cleaner
2) Klasse AIO
3) multiple coats of Z6
4) Zaino Z16 tyre gloss
Interior:
1) clean all the leather with Z9
2) treat all leather a few times with Z10
3) Einzeitt Cockpit Spray on all plastics
the carpets were okay as they had been cleaned and Scotch Guarded by the dealer.
Now for the good stuff, the pictures:
I joined Autopia earlier this year and have been reading many of your posts with interest and noting down what seems to look good to me and what was available here in the UK, turns out that most stuff is, even if you need to get it shipped from the US. I have bought into the Zaino process in a big way and use their products wherever possible.
I have been working on the two cars in our house using the knowledge that I gathered on this forum, and would like to share the results with you.
The first car is an Imola Red 2002 E46 M3, with 45000 miles on the clock. I am the 3rd owner, the first 2 did not take good care of the car, so when I bought it back in February the paint was badly swirled and the front of the car was covered in paint chips. I have swopped the wheels for a set of 18" BBS RXII's, would have liked to have 19's but went for the 18's as the roads here aren't brilliant.
I bit the bullet and had the front bumper, bonnet, and front edges of the wings repainted. I found a very good body shop near where I live run by a guy who was trained by BMW but his prices are a lot more affordable, I wouldn't have been able to afford getting all that work done if I had gone to my dealer.
Anyway once I had it back from the body shop and the paint had cured (about 2 months) I proceeded as follows:
Exterior:
1) wash with washing up liquid
2) Poorboys SSR2.5 on all swirled panels using a PC with Sonus Orange pad at 4.5
3) Poorboys SSR1 on the whole car using a PC with Sonus Green Pad at 4.5
4) Klasse AIO using a PC with Sonus Green Pad at 4.5
5) 3 coats of Zaino Z5 with ZFX by hand
6) 3 coats of Z2 with ZFX by hand with an application of Z6 between each one
7) Z8, by now I have about 6 coats on the car.....
8) Z12 glass polish inside and out
9) Einzeitt glass cleaner inside and out
10) Einzeitt metal cleaner to polish the exhausts
Wheels:
1) wash with P21 wheel cleaner
2) Klasse AIO
3) multiple coats of Z6
4) Zaino Z16 tyre gloss
Interior:
1) clean all the leather with Z9
2) treat all leather a few times with Z10
3) Einzeitt Cockpit Spray on all plastics
the carpets were okay as they had been cleaned and Scotch Guarded by the dealer.
Now for the good stuff, the pictures:
