1989 E30 318i single step correction I did another detailing trip earlier last month, the distance between where the customer lives and the city where I live was about a two to two and a half hour’s drive away. The initial objective of this trip was to do a two step correction on a silver w202 Merc that you will see in the background of these following pictures (a write up on that merc is coming). When I got there I saw that he got this beautiful modern classic Bimmer with gorgeous staggered Alpina rims on it. As a German car fan I immediately expressed my desire to also detail this little baby after im done with his Merc, if time allows. The owner responded with “I’ll think about it”. Long story short , about midway thru the Merc’s detail (normally a two stepper correction will take me 2 days and one night to complete on detailing trips like this), the owner came up to me and said that he would really like me to do the Bimmer, but he also expressed his concerns regarding the budget. After a few minutes of me explaining the available options, we settled on a very time-conscious single step correction exterior detail program for the Bimmer (hence , this explains certain areas of the car that I don’t touch or don’t really put effort on like the under side of the car’s side panels, the thing where side skirts normally go , I didn’t do anything to that area as the owner told me that he was planning to get them repainted, nor did I do anything to the wheels or the plastic trims, these were some of the compromises that we took due to the budget constraint). At a glance, here are the things that were done to the car -car was washed with a strong dishwashing soap solution, and then thoroughly clayed while still wet. Glasses and lenses were also clayed -car was then taped up -correction was done with Scholl S17 on Uber yellow pad , this decision was taken after some experiments using other combinations was done on test panels on the car. I taped up some areas on the bonnet and the boot-lid, and I compared the results of some combinations of scholl’s polishes on different pads , we decided on the combo that would give the best possible correction with a single step polishing stage and give the most gloss (obviously). I attacked each panels with S17 on Uber yellows starting at 1000 RPM, bump it up to 1600 RPM and on the closing passes I stepped the speed down and continue polishing in an attempt to not only make sure that all holograms are getting rid off but also to hopefully maximize the gloss by burnishing. To be honest most of the panels had quite severe swirls so I had to do 2 to 3 hits for each. -a quick wipedown with my concoction of diluted otc megs qd and distilled water was done on each panel after polishing to dissolve the oils and check out the results achieved on each panel, this method had worked for me so far -car was then re-washed and crevices were cleaned to ensure no residue was left -LSP was two coats of Collinite 845 done back to back to ensure optimum (no pun intended) coverage (thanks to Ken for this tip) - The hood gets more hits with the s17 on uber yellow , followed up with s40 on LC whites High speed machine polishing was done with Dewalt 849 rotary (Thanks to my friend Jimmy for allowing me to purchase this excellent tool from him a while back) On to the pictures The first group of pictures was done the night before after I was done fiddling with different polish-pad combo on the trunk lid. These are before-after comparison shots of the driver side of the car. The driver’s side rear wing (or fender) was corrected with s17+UberYellow and the rest of the car’s right side were left untouched. I also provided a couple of videos in hope to give a better description of the comparison. Here are the of the uncorrected areas of the driver side rear door and the driver side C pillar Here is the uncorrected driver side door and wing/fender here is the corrected panel right next to those panels pictured above (rear driver side fender) Comparison shot with the uncorrected driver side C pillar Here is the video of the same panels that I hope would give better description http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtIAi-hjkx0 Out of curiosity I then proceeded by repeating the same approach to the middle part of the driver side rear door, bellow you can see pictures of that section and the uncorrected adjacent panels The upper part of the door looked like this In close up Now the section underneath it after a single stage correction with s17 on uber yellow In close up (some swirls are still there, but I remind myself that this is supposed to be a single step job) And here is the driver’s door next to it, still in its initial uncorrected state Videos of the same side bmw e30 right front wing 50 50 B‏ - YouTube After that I went to bed and the following are pictures of the condition of the other panels I managed to take in the morning This is the whole car, not too bad? Wait til you get a closer look. I have to remind you though that the bootlid was fully corrected the night before because it was used as a test panel Here are the panels on the passenger side of the car , under the camera’s flash below is the condition of the bonnet under the sun The roof under the sun Before – after shots of a section of the bonnet 50-50 of the driver’s side fender And now some corrected panels on the passenger side Before-after video of the panels above The bonnet corrected (this one gets a couple of hits of s17 on uber yellows and a hit of s40 on LC whites, I call it the “favour” panel to give this modern classic more Wow effect on the streets) And some video of the corrected panels Unfortunately when we were done with the car, it was already 12.30 AM so we immediately packed up and drove home, so no proper whole car after pics. The final level of correction I reckon was around 75-80% as some micro swirls and deep rds are still present, but all the oxidation marks and hollogramming is gone and the gloss has been restored. Total time taken including the decontamination stage but sans the testing panels was 10 hours. The owner was ecstatic seeing the end results, I was even more. Modern classic German cars have always been my passion and working on this e30 was like a dream come true for me, because most e30s here now have ended up in uncaring hands that use them mostly as cheap transport, who wouldn’t even care to maintain these cars properly, much less having it detailed and paint corrected. Having the constraint to do the correction with a single step approach made it more interesting for me as I have been obsessed lately of developing a single step correction package to give future customers more options especially in regards to budget and time constraint. This project has allowed me to develop exactly that, although the system is still far from perfect as it still took me around 10 hours to get the car to this shape. I still have lots of homework and improvement to do on this. With the support of the great people in this forum, I’m convinced that I will be able to achieve this goal. Thank you so much for viewing. Cheers, Bob
Very nice work bob, these classics are unfotuantly a dieing sight but you brought it back and I'm sure the owner is going to keep it around longer because of this detail.
thanks Hamza, they surely are dying breed. i specifically instructed the owner to always wash the car with 2bm and i also forced him to promise me that he wouldnt ever take the car to a carwash for as long as the bimmer is in his possesion
Nicely Done Bro, a bit more closser to the expecting result of one stepper solution that suits your methode and condition surround. Need another canvas to try the other 2 step methode that your teying to develope? Overall Nice touch for the Bavarian Bro...:applause:
hey nice seeing u here again Iyo. ooh i would love to try that two stepper thing on that sweet w212 u got in your garage. just wait til i got my new polishes
Thanks Brian! and so nice to see u again, its been quite a while. how u doin mate? hope youre getting interesting projects too
