Sparkling Gray BMW 335xi Detail

Rickrack

New member
This Sparkling Gray BMW 335xi has only 2K miles on the odometer. The owner contacted me right after he took delivery of the car to set up an appointment for a total protection package, including clear-bra film to prevent any future stone chips.





The car had been sitting at the port for a little while without any protection on the paint, so there were minor defects on the top surfaces which required moderate correction. Even with only 2Kmiles, the infamous BMW brake dust had already started to bond to the wheels. The rest of the car was in good shape, but the paint felt pretty rough and needed extensive claying.





Here are picture of the car before the detail….



f97ffa8c.jpg




9da1897d.jpg




14d1fa49.jpg




92ba2e61.jpg




16c110ee.jpg








I started by performing the normal wash, cleaning of the tires & wheels and claybar treatment to the complete exterior. The paint had a considerable amount of bonded contaminants present, which were removed by the claybar and left the paint feeling silky smooth.





My goal was to get the paint 100% perfect before the clear-bra was installed the following day. To remove the more serious defects on the top surfaces and front bumper, I used Menzerna SIP x 2 on a yellow Meguiar’s So1o foam pad followed by an alcohol wipe down. A few tiny stone chips were present on the front bumper, which were touched up using the factory touch-up paint supplied by the owner. Next, I buffed the complete exterior with Menzerna 85rd using a gray foam finishing pad. This really brought the paint back to life and completely increased the gloss, clarity and sharpness.





After all of the polishing was complete, I wiped down the complete exterior with 91% alcohol to ensure the clear-bra would properly bond to the paint surface. The next day, my clear-bra installer applied the film to the front-end and mirrors.





Now that the clear-bra was installed, it was time to add proper protection to all exterior surfaces. The wheels, exterior glass and exhaust tips were polished with Werkstatt’s Prime, then sealed with Zaino Clear Seal. The clear-bra and paint surfaces were wiped with Zaino Z6, then 2 coats of Z5 pro were applied by hand.





The interior received a quick cleaning using Meguiar’s Quick Interior Detailer, mainly for it’s UV protection.







.
 
Such a big difference on a really great car!

You do fantastic work with prepping and maintaining the clear bra.

I've eagerly been anticipating what your latest project has been.
 
Sweet job! I love that color.



My father has that car (in boring silver) and that brake dust is so incredibly annoying I can't begin to type. It's the worst. If you don't stay on it, you'll be in trouble. It's a blast to drive too.



The clear is hard on it. It withstands weekly tunnel washes and wipe downs with barely marring.
 
The metallics are acutally pretty tough, luckily it's great against marring. The flat colors like jet black are prone to marring easily.



Great job on the car! What did you use on the windows?
 
snowskate- Thanks Jack! I am trying to catch up on click & brags of all of the details I have done over the past month. So many cars, so little time!



Spilchy- Thanks! The brake dust was horrible and already starting to bond to the wheels. It's funny because the owner was like "Oh, don't worry about cleaning the wheels", and I was like "I don't think so. They are getting cleaned!" Ha, ha... The paint was definitely nice to work with.



porta- Me too! It looks amazing in the sun.



BigAl3- Thanks Al! The paint was pretty hard, but I detailed a black one a while back that had super-soft paint which was much more difficult to work with.



Chris330Ci- Thanks Chris! I love the interior color too. It really grows on you the more you look at it.



artikxscout- Thanks! I have a metallic black one to detail next week. I used Werkstatt's Prime, followed by Zaino Clear-Seal on all exterior glass



SilverLexus- Thanks Lee!



Denzil- Thanks Denzil! The wheels were awful. I feel much better now that they are clean :)



1 Clean WS6- Thanks Mike!



D&D Auto Detail- Thanks a lot Dan!
 
Looks great... very familiar car, not sure where I've seen one like that before. :D



Interesting you found the paint hard. The paint on mine is rock hard too, totally in contrast to the black e92s (same model and year).
 
Back
Top