2013 BMW M5 Restoration Detail - 45hrs - Immaculate Reflections

GoFast908Z · Aug 7, 2013

This M5 came in for a full correction and coating after the dealer had "detailed" it for the owner. At first glance it didn't look too bad, which you'd expect with only 6,000 miles on the clock, but after stripping off the dealer's wax, some pretty severe paint defects were found. This was also a wheels off detail to give the wheel wells, suspension, brakes, and wheel barrels proper attention. The paint, trim, lenses, wheels, and brakes were all coat with Opti-Coat Pro. The total time on this BMW was 45 hours. With such a big job, I brought Ryan in to lend a hand again.

Car looked fairly good at initial inspection...but it got worse.

Even before stripping off the wax issues were easily identifiable.

Plenty of water spot etching to deal with...

Lots of swirls/RIDS on the truck threshold

After the wash and decontamination, the severe defects were much easier to spot

After compounding, RIDS removed, though it took several passes with M101 to achieve

Lower rockers were in very poor shape and took extensive work to correct. Low speed on the machine and a lot of patience was the key to victory on these parts

After much compounding, here is the result. A couple deep RIDS remained as they were too near edges to safely remove 100%. Medium and final polishing still to follow

After some work on the wheel well, suspension, brakes, and wheel...they were all looking good again. Calipers and wheels were fully coated with Opti-Coat Pro. Calipers were corrected as well before coating.

The hood was not spared from the dealer's mishandling....

After one pass of compounding, much of the defects were removed, but more work would be required for full removal. This may be good enough for some, but client didn't ask for 'good enough'...so the work continued.

Water spots needed to be removed

Removed

Ryan taking readings on the passenger side LATE into the night.....or was it EARLY a.m.? Sleep? Who needs that.... Ryan and I continued onto the remaining two wheels/wells/brakes/suspension until they were done, closing out another long day.

76 microns....had to tread very lightly here. Seem to be seeing this on a lot of BMW's lately....

After all the wheels/brakes/suspension/wells were done and wheels were torqued back to factory spec, it was time to return to the paint.

After many many hours of work, the paint was finally corrected to the high standards that were set for it. There was just minutes of daylight left so we got what we could with the little bit of remaining light we had. I would be delivering the car later that night after finishing the coating.

Final pictures after Opti-Coat Pro. Took these quick pics right before driving it back to my client's home.

Thanks for getting this far and checking it out!