BMW E60 545i Detail+Correction

Hello again! v|nsan|ty and I finally had the time to do another detail. With Father's day coming up I decided to give my Father's 2004 E60 545i a much needed detail. This is one of our shorter write ups as I did not take many pictures due to time constraints.

The Subject:


Total Time: 19 Hours over two days

My father purchased this 545i in Silver Grey Metallic three years ago. Since then It has never gotten a proper detail as my father has a pretty busy work schedule.

A quick look:
Vince and I knew we would have our work cut out for weekend as the car has been quite neglected, not to mention the sheer size of the vehicle.

These 18' rims were caked with brake dust, a common annoyance with BMW brake pads:


Headlights were heavily pitted from highway travel and required wetsanding:









We began by soaking the rims with Autogylm's Custom Wheel cleaner at full strength:




Cleaned the wheel wells with the EZ detail brush:


Cleaned:


Vince attacked the exhaust tips with CG Grime Reaper at 5:1 dilution, the EZ detail brush, detailing steel wool, and P21s Metal Polish to finish them off:




Cleaned:


I got working on the engine bay using Grime Reaper at 5:1 and a variety of brushes:




The entire engine bay was cleaned:






Cleaned:


We then foamed the car using straight CG Citrus Wash n Gloss:




Using the suds for additional lubricity, I washed the car using CG Citrus Wash n Gloss and a sheepskin mitt:


Vince worked on the finer details:







After the wash we brought the car into the garage and began claying:


As you can see the car was heavily contaminated:



We should have used a Bug and Tar remover on the rocker panels during the wash, Yikes!!:


While Vince began taping I started on the interior, beginning with the floor mats. I used Meguiars All Purpose Cleaner Plus at 1:10 Dilution:


While they dried I began vacuuming the interior:




There seemed to be a truck load of rocks/debris behind the accelerator pedal:


After a quick clean using a tooth brush and Meguiars APC+:


Door jams and surrounding areas were cleaned as well:




A few before/afters:
Before:


After:


Before:


After:


Meguiar's Quick Interior Detailer is now one of my favorite go-to products for interior trim as it cleans yet leaves no greasy dressing behind. Instead it leaves a stock matte finish look with a nice scent as a bonus:


Looks straight from the factory:


Interior completed:


Vince showing off his tape job, although Vince is a very skilled detailer, his taping skills are mediocre at best:



Initial paint inspection:

Plenty of holograms and deep RID's:






The Test:



My father was concerned with the idea of removing large amounts of clearcoat so we agreed deep RID's would be ignored as he would be happy with a 70% paint correction.

Armed with the knowledge that BMW has hard paint (Their black being an exception) we went with Meguiars M105 on a LC Orange pad for the compounding stage and finished with M205 on a LC White pad for the finishing stage.

Hood before:


After:


Passenger side rear door before (note the holograms):


After:


Trunk Before:


After:


Nasty scuff on the trunk lid:


After a few passes with M105:


Minor scuffing on the rear bumper:


After:


Rear quarter panel before:


After (notice the increase in clarity):


Another scuff:


After:


Driver side rear door before:


After:


Driver door before:


After (some deep RID's remain, but notice the clarity again):


Vince worked on the smaller details using a hand applicator and some M105 for the door handles and Mirrors:




The Headlights:

After the paint corrections were done I turned my attention to the headlights which were heavily pitted and required wet sanding to restore clarity.



I began the process by using Meguiar's Unigrit Sandpapers starting at 1500 grit, moving my way up to 2000, 2500, and 3000 to finish it off. Optimum No Rinse in clay lube dilution was used to provide additional lubrication for the wet sand process:


After wet sanding:


After compounding with M105 on a 4' LC Orange pad:


The same process was done to the passenger side:
Before:


After:


The side indicator housing was hazy as a result of UV exposure so I used a hand applicator pad to restore clarity:

Before:


After:



After the paint corrections we pulled the car out for a final wash to remove polish residue:


The paint was already looking miles better than before:




Blackfire Wet Diamond was used as a LSP:


We used Autogylm's Super Polish Resin to restore some clarity in the rim's clear coat, it also leaves a sealant behind:


Meguiar's #40 was used to dress the engine bay:


Autogylm's Rubber and Vinyl Care was used on the weather stripping and door trims:


After Blackfire Wet Diamond reflection shots:










The Dramatic Before and After Photos:

Car upon arrival:


After, reflection rich:


Engine bay before:


After:


Exhaust tips before:


After:


Interior before:


After:


Tire/Rims before:


After:


Headlights before:


After:


Parked safely back at home:


Thanks for reading!

 

Excellent write-up as usual Adam!

This detail left me feeling exhausted. This car is by no means small as we had to back it out of the garage to work on the front end and work partially outside while attending to the rear. The paint on this car sparkled after we finished. Definitely rewarding to see the fruits of our labour after sitting on the driveway glowing in the sunlight.

Lol taping the car is not my speciality. I think if we had some thinner tape it wouldn't look as sloppy either. Where do you guys get your tape?

Feel free to post any questions/comments fellow DB members.

 

Awesome work nicely done guys

 

Adam I thought the garage would be reserved for your car.

Great write up BTW

 

Very nice work guys looks worlds better now!

 

Great Job

 

Awesome work guys. Car looks great!
Where did you pick up the Meg's APC+?

 

Great work on this E60. When I saw the first few pictures, I didn't think an impressive turnaround could be achieved due to the color, but the afters proved me wrong!

 

That's so cool that you did all that for your dad!! I bought my dad wash supplies for fathers day, so happy he wants to take care of his new ride. He will have me detail it once a year though.

Sent from my HTC Vision using Tapatalk

 

Great turnaround

 

Thanks for all the compliments guys!

There is a preview of another write-up coming up on the first picture, top right. A certain TL-S will be transformed

I picked it up on a recent road trip to Seattle. I had a number of items shipped to the place I was staying at. U.S. sites offer some insane deals on detailing supplies. I got some items at killer deals.

 

^Agree I usually hold up on detailing supplies until I go to the US, if you don't know where your staying or just staying for a day then make a Pick up account with UPS, basically you ship it to a UPS store in the city your staying at and they hold it for $5 for the first day and $1/every box for the next 7 days...I usually do this when I go to Buffalo with my friends to pick up some new threads

 

Sorry to bump an old thread up but what do you think of the autoglym products? I live in Canada so I can pick them at Canadian Tire for a fair price.. I do have free samples of their bodywork shampoo and it does pretty good job for just a quick wash, I also have the super resin polish but haven't really tried it.

Also one more thing, sorry for the noob question but what does RIDS stand for?

 

awesome work!

 

Awesome Job!

 

Nice turn around