I've been asked to either detail, or help detail, so many people's cars now, that I recently decided to start making a little money at this. This is my first customer. Mark owns the shop that takes care of all my alignments and my race tires for my Honda S2000. He's the only guy in town that I *know* will be careful with my set of irreplaceable, one-off CCW wheels, so he gets all of my business. Anyway, Mark is a BMW guy, and through a friend of a friend, he purchased this 1999 BMW 323i for...are you ready for this...$500! The kind of thing that never happens to me! Well, the car was in very rough shape. The previous owner was a heavy cigar smoker, and near as we can tell, he "used it as a truck" for the 9 years he had it. It was seriously filthy. Mark and I agreed that with a $500 car, it was hardly worth trying to go after the perfect finish. So we agreed on a single-stage polish, with the goal being "make it better." This wasn't going to be one of those "shine the halogen lights on the paint to show off how perfect it is" details, because that's not what he wanted. In talking with him about the car, I noticed that a few things grabbed his attention. All of the door shuts were disgusting. The interior was disgusting. When we popped the hood, he said "that actually looks pretty good," but I knew that using JL's technique for engine bays, I could make it look amazing. So I drove it home and set to work. Products used: Paint: - Regular dawn dish soap, two bucket method - Lowe's "Pro Line" grout sponge - what a great find for $3, thanks detailingbliss! - Majestic Solutions blue clay bar - Menzerna 106FF - thanks for the sample, JL! - Makita 9227C with Meguiar's "So1o System" backing plate and yellow foam pad - Porter-Cable 7424 with 4" orange Lake Country CCS foam pad - Lots of green 3M auto body tape Interior: - Majestic Solutions Leather and Plastic Cleaner, full strength :yikes: - Mr. Clean Magic Eraser on the plastic bits - Meguiar's APC, diluted 5:1 - Lexol Vinylex on the dash, door panels, center console, and the weatherstripping - Stoner Invisible Glass - Majestic Solutions "Super Duty" aerosol carpet cleaner - Lexol leather conditioner on the seats after they were clean - Lots of brushes - A staggering number of microfiber towels :gasp: Engine bay: - Various brushes - Majestic Solutions Super Green Stuff, 3:1 - Meguiar's Hyper Dressing, 4:1 - Credit for this one goes to JL - his technique works awesome Trim: - Stoner Trim Shine for the black plastic bits like the kidney grills - Lexol Vinylex for the rub strips and the weatherstripping LSP: Werkstat Acrylic Jett Trigger Engine bay, incredibly, was among the cleanest parts of the car when I got it: :gasp: All the door shuts and hinges were really nasty: The interior was really, really nasty. Some of the defects on the interior can't be saved - like a lot of European cars, this one had a lot of that "soft touch" rubber all over the plastic, and in the high wear areas, it was peeling off. Yep...the guy was a heavy smoker: More of the door shuts: The area behind the door handles was something Mark thought couldn't be saved. The area around the driver was the worst of the whole car: The paint was totally dull and lifeless. Here's why: This photo in particular should give an idea of what I was up against: For the entire weekend, the weather was nasty. Which was fine, as I used that time to work hard on the interior. Here are some afters: Wish I'd taken a before shot of the trunk. It was full of sawdust. Not anymore though... Center console looking much nicer now: Underside of the hood is actually white now: Mark was blown away by the difference in the engine bay: With the interior wrapped up, I taped it up to get it ready for polish: And finally, the finished product! I thought I'd taken a lot more pictures of the car than I did, but they'd all pretty much look like this: Mark was also thrilled that the door shuts didn't look like hell anymore: Driver side door panel is much improved: Thanks for looking! C&C welcome.
Dude!!!! When we talked I had no idea that the car would turn out looking so freakin' incredible!:yikes: That has got to be the absolute best $500 car find in the entire world after you got through with it. Man Karl you did some fantastic work and I'm sure Mark was pleased beyond belief. Glad everything worked out for you and what an awesome first detail. With a calling card like that you will have more business than you can stand! Congrats on some phenomenal work.
Tell him I will give him 600 for it:giggle: Thats one hell of a trainwreck you had to work on. Awesome results :thumb:
Thanks Pho! As I drove into the parking lot, I could actually see Mark mouthing to himself, "HOLY @$#%!" Mark was so amazed that he sent me home with his Dodge Ram tow vehicle, and his wife's E46 330i is next in line. Thanks! It was a lot of hard work. Thanks Yukon - it was really rewarding working on this car. Thanks Berscht! The interior was definitely the biggest project.
I really am speechless... truly superb work there Karl! You did an amazing turn around on that vehicle!!!
DUDE! that's some phenomenal job you have done out there, simply amazing!!! And he really stold it for $500, because that would be the cost of tires for that car, lower end tires that is! And speaking of the soft interior paint, I have the same problem in my wife's '04 325Ci, and I really hate BMWs for this! With all other cars in the family this is the only one that has this problem, which started happening as soon as warranty expired. Wonder if newer BMWs have the same problem...
WOW, Beauful Just Beautiful. I can't believe what a great job you did and the write up was great as well. thanks for sharing. I enjoyed it very much...:worship2:
AMAZING!!! What a turnaround, FAPPIN' FANTASTIC! But how on earth did he buy this car for $500? Does it have a reconditioned title or something??? I want to know the details!
Thanks for the kind words everybody. I'm really proud of this one. I don't know the entire story, but it goes something like this. A friend of a friend of Mark's is in some sort of delivery business, and he regularly called on the guy who owned this BMW. The owner had decided he was done with the car - possibly because the clutch is on its way out. He was going to have the junkyard come haul it off! Well, when the delivery guy heard this, he asked the owner how much he wanted for the car, and the answer came back $500. Basically, it was one of those things where the guy just wanted it off his property. So Mark got the call, and he drove home in the thing. As far as I know, the car has a clear title - I'll ask Mark about that when I drop off his truck. It's never been in an accident, that much we know. All the VIN tags are intact, and the fasteners that hold the fenders on are pristine. I've already asked for first right of refusal should he decide to sell it...
I really don't know why he wanted it detailed!! It looked great before. LOL Just kidding of course. You did a fantastic job. Congratulations. I think that the really abused cars can be the most rewarding to see turned around and this is a great example. Cheers, G
You guys really have made my week - thank you very much. And special thanks to JL in particular, who encouraged me to go for it on taking customer cars, and who has offered a lot of advice along the way. You've been more help than you know JL, so thank you for that. The next time you're in the triangle for a trip to Majestic, lunch is definitely on me. I'm sorry, I don't have any. I *thought* I took some - I distinctly remember taking them - but I guess I must have thrown those away by mistake. I took over 200 pictures of this car, and less than half of them were keepers. Neither machine would fit under those door handles, which I guess is no real surprise. The fix was the clay bar - getting the 9 year old dirt out of those scratches made them basically invisible. I hand-polished the area as well, but I doubt that it did much good. Still though, a real eyesore went away completely. The owner was amazed. By the way, I'd call the paint on this BMW "medium hard." Definitely harder than what's on my Honda, but nowhere near the "armor plating" that was on my old Ford Excursion. That stuff was ridiculous. 100K miles on it, and not a mark on the front of the hood. It was like it was powder coated. I know, right? It was perfectly fine! :shead: I could be wrong - I often am - but I get the impression that there just aren't many people doing this kind of work (paint correction, serious interior detailing) in the Raleigh/Durham area. Plenty of guys with mobile wash and wax setups, but I don't think there are a lot of people doing correction work. Maybe I've found my niche. I think the best part has been showing the pictures to some of my racing friends. Racers are notorious for keeping their cars looking kind of ratty. All of them who have seen the pictures have asked me when I can get started on their cars. So that's an F-150, an M3, and yet another BMW, in addition to the rest of Mark's cars. The guy across the street wants me to work on his cars now too. So in mere days, this thing has really exploded. Of course, the best part of it all is that it's fun. When I was out there busting my arse on this BMW, I was genuinely enjoying myself. I'd have been out in the garage with a bunch of Q-Tips and some paint brushes anyway...getting paid for it is just a bonus.
