A father’s gift to his son, an American soldier

This detail is pretty special in many ways, so when I was contacted about it, I gladly accepted. Most importantly, this vehicle belongs to CPT Austin McNaul, of the US Army, who is currently on his second deployment in Afghanistan. While he is away, he asked his parents to safeguard his dog, Bruce, and this fine example of German engineering, his 2007 BMW 335i. The other reason this detail is special is that CPT McNaul’s father, Eric, has been a leader, mentor, and above all, a very good friend to my wife during her 8+ years at her job. For this, I also consider him a very good friend. When I first evaluated the vehicle with Eric he mentioned that he wanted lots of pictures and possibly some video, which he could later send to CPT McNaul to show the before and after condition. After looking the car over I suggested a 2-step correction and an interior detail to get the car looking better, but secretly my wife and I had discussed going “all out” on the car as a surprise for them both.

Here is the proud owner, CPT Austin McNaul




The condition of the car was pretty rough on the outside with some very nasty water spot etching, heavy swirls, scratches, and door scuffs. The interior was about average but the leather needed a good cleaning. Detailing the engine bay wasn’t planned, but after seeing how much dust/dirt was built up, I figured I’d give it a quick once over too.

Interior before










The years of dirt and grime could be seen packed down in all the textured groves of the leather.














Yummy!


I did an initial cleaning of the seats using Optimum Power Clean at 10:1 and a leather brush. Below you can see my rinse water after doing just the drivers seat.


I then let some Leatherique Rejuvenator Oil soak in for 48hrs (Reapplied after 24hrs).


Moving on to the engine bay, you can see why I decided to clean it up a little with all the accumulated dust/dirt.




Hands down, I spent the most time on the exterior and addressing the water spot issue. After a good wash with Meguiar’s Hyper wash and decon with IronX and Tarminator, I brought it back in for a closer inspection. The damage done by the hard water spots was some of the worst I’ve seen and they literally changed the texture on the hood and fenders. If you look at the hood picture below you’ll notice the lack of gloss and the overhead lights look fuzzy/distorted in the reflection.


Zooming in close to the surface of the hood, we get a much better idea of why there is such a lack of gloss and the reason for the distorted reflection.


Closer yet (crop of the above pic)


And another taken with my cell phone. The texture of the paint almost resembles that of the vinyl interior panels! Amazing how much damage hard water can do!


To remove these water spots would require a good amount of wet sanding. First thing I needed to do was take some paint readings to make sure there was enough clear coat to allow for sanding. BMW’s of this year tend to have a good amount of material on them and as can be seen below, readings were in the 160’s to 180’s throughout the car.


However, before sanding I wanted to touch up some of the larger rock chips that were on the front end. My method for doing this is to first build up the paint/clear, then I shave them down with my cool little Festool Denibber, which you can purchase from Kevin Brown.




After the chips were taken care of, I wet sanded the roof, hood, and deck lid with Meguiar’s 1500 and 3000 grit “Finishing” discs. I paired the finishing discs with a Meguiar’s interface pad as the intention was to remove the water spots while minimizing the removal of the OEM orange peel. All sanding was done via my Mirka Ceros DA sander, compliments again of Kevin Brown.




Some remaining etching could be seen after sanding, but I’d say 95% of it was removed and would be very hard to spot after polishing.


The rest of the paint was pretty swirled up after years of automatic car washes and improper washing.






Scratches and scuffs








For those of you reading this who've ever gotten the “hub scrub” option at the automatic car wash, this is what that long spinning “street sweeper” brush is doing to the finish on your wheels, and in this case, the paint lower rocker panel. Notice all the vertical scratches?



I also spot sanded the deep scratches and door scuffs.






Eric was hoping I could clean up the silver trim, which was also affected by the hard water spots. I’ve not always had the best luck with the various types of BMW trim, fortunately these cleaned right up after a few passes with Meguiar’s M101.






The initial paint correction step was done using my Flex rotary with Meguiar’s Solo wool pads and M100 compound.


My intermediate correction step was done using my Rupes LHR21 with HD Adapt beta sample I had and Meguiar’s MF Finishing pads.


Final polishing was done using the new Optimum Primer with my Rupes LHR15 and green B&S foam pads. I chose the new Opt Primer for finishing as I would be applying Optimum’s Opti-Coat Pro coating, which eliminates the need for IPA/Eraser wipe-down, aids in bonding, but most importantly, eases application. While HD Adapt actually left the paint in very good condition, Primer was able to really bring up the gloss to another level.

How about some 50/50 shots?






Eric recently put the winter wheels and tires on the BMW, but I went ahead and cleaned, polished with Opt Primer, and coated them with Opti-Coat Pro. The barrels were pretty trashed from years of brake dust eating into the paint and the brown/rust colored staining required a good amount of polishing to remove.


Cleaned up the wheel wells a little, nothing crazy.


Wheels coated and ready to go back on


"Twerking" wheels back to factory specs


As per my usual, I was working down to the wire and Eric arrived before I had a chance to get all the after pics I wanted, though I feel I captured enough. For some reason I have a hard time remembering which shots I need to take when someone is waiting for me. Eric was very pleased though and as I went around getting my pics, he kept snapping his own and wanted one of me next to the car.


Time for some after pics!






















All paint was corrected to the same level, even the lower rocker panels. Vertical “hub scrub” scratches removed.






The hood turned out great, aside from a few bug splatters that had etched though the paint.










I love Black Sapphire Metallic!




A proud father giving his approval






















Eric sent me several pictures when he got home, but I really feel this last photo sums up the whole job! CPT Austin McNaul, I hope you enjoy your reconditioned car and, most importantly, Thank You for your service!!!



Thank you for taking the time to view my work,
Rasky

 

amazing work! this is one the best I have seen in a long time.

 

Speechless. Phenomal job and wonderful gester to someone who really deserves it.

 

Top notch man, both the work and the gesture behind it are upstanding. Great job man!

 

Your best write up yet. I see you use a D600! Any issues with oil spots?

Excellent work!

 

Thanks guys!

Thanks Thomas!

I did a bit a research before buying the D600 and I had seen the complaints about the oils spots. I'm not sure I'd even see them if they were there, but I've not noticed anything yet.

One of these days I'll take a camera class and learn how to better use this thing.

 

You are some good people. Great work!!

 

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/board/7 - this is a great form for Nikon stuff.

 

Amazing transformation!!

 

Great work as always car looks amazing

 

Superb job and great writeup! I really enjoyed it.

 

Amazing job and great write up!

 

Amazing job and so well deserved for an American hero.

 

Well done! :usa:

 

Awesome job! What exactly is the Primer polish you used before opti coat? I never heard of that polish

 

It is a modified "Hyper Polish" - you can use your version if you have any.

 

As Thomas noted, it has the same abrasive package as Hyper polish, but it also has the addition of a catalyst in it. The catalyst will aid in bonding and it makes thew application process smoother too. The best way I can describe it is that the resin seems to bond faster, leaving behind more of a rainbow look on the surface as it flashes off, which I assume are just solvents sitting on the surface. Unlike coating without the catalyst, it seem to be more forgiving in when you level off the high spots now. I haven't have any issues with smearing now (even on Brilliant Black Audi paint) and I don't get that grabby feeling when you've waited to long to level high spots off.

 

Is this effect compromised if other compounds and polishes besides optimum compounds/polishes are used prior to the use of hyper polish?

 

Truly that is amazing work the best I have seen from you yet. :usa:

 

You can only use Hyper Polish in this fashion.