Today's detail, involving all of Stu, Bryan and myself throughout the day was a rather cracking BMW E46 330d in a mid-blue metallic. Very nice car, and the colour really suited it IMHO. The detail was originally meant to be Bryan and myself... but then Bryan landed jury duty, so Stu came along to help me in the morning and then Bryan dashed over after court to help me finish of and to do all of the leather... so a busy day for us all When we arrived, the car was already washed and was sitting in the garage ready to be clayed. Meguiars Mirror Glaze Blue clay was all that was needed to remove the light contamination on the car, using Meguiars Last Touch as a lube. With the car now clayed, it was time for machine polishing... Again, the care the owner shows this car was becoming obvious, as while there were swirls, what were there were on the whole very light. It was already in good condition, though with some RDS (shallow) in the finish, I decided to go for Menzerna Intensive Polish (PO85RD3.02) for the correction work... The swirls before, hard to see in the pics due to being very light and the colour also being light: Intensive polish was worked as follows: Spread at 600rpm, 1 pass Begin to work at 1200rpm, 2 passes Work at 1500rpm, 5 passes Work at 1800rpm, 5 passes till residue clear Refine at 1200rpm, 2 passes In action... And the results of the correction stage only, burnishing with Final Finish still to follow... Onto the bonnet: Results after correction: The rear 3/4 had the same light swirling: Correcting... And corrected... Before on the driver's door... And after correction... Once fully corrected, the whole car was then burnished to a higher gloss using Menzerna Final Finish (PO85RD) on a Meguiars W9006 tan finishing pad to get the paint looking as good as possible before the Zaino treatment. Applied as follows: Spread at 600rpm, 1 pass Begin working at 900rpm, 2 passes Work at 1200rpm, 4 - 5 passes Work at 1500rpm, 4 - 5 passes Refine at 1200rpm, 3 - 4 passes Burnish at 900rpm, 2 - 3 passes Lights had some light swirling also... Corrected using the PC and Menzerna PO106FF Final Finish: Paying attention to the detail, the BMW badge also had light swirling... Corrected as the lights using 106FF on the PC, 4" pad: Some afters of the car before Zaino: Then it was time for the Zaino. First up, Z-AIO was applied to the paintwork by hand using a foam applicator pad. Worked in for a few passes with medium pressure, and the residue left as I worked around the car - took about an hour to complete and by the time I had finished the residue where I started was dry and ready to remove (swipe tested), so this was removed with a microfibre towel. The car was then wiped down with Z-6, a light spritz on the paint and then wiped over with a microfibre towel and then buffed with a dry towel. Next up was Z-2. Using ZFX, an ounce was mixed with 5 drops of ZFX and vigorously shaken until my arm near fell off (about two minutes, and anyone thinking any innuendo, stop now! ).. This was then applied to the car using the soft side of a Sonus German applicator pad, working my round the car it took about 20 mins. I then left the car for a short time, swipe tested the residue and it was good to remove, so was removed with a microfibre towel. Quite warm today, the Zaino was bonding and drying nicely. Wipedown with Z-6 as above. Z-2 applied, 2nd layer, as above. Wipedown with Z-6 as above. Third and final later of Z-2 applied, and buffed off. Before the final grand finale of Z-8 was used, the car was tidied up... Glass was polished using Z-12, Tyres and trim were dressed using Z-16. Exhaust tips were polished with wirewool grade 0, and then polished by hand using Autoglym Metal Polish. Wheels were waxes with Smartwax Rim Wax. Leather was cleaned with Z-9, and then treated with Z-10... Before the car was rolled out, it received Z-8... lightly spritzed onto the paint and then wiped quickly to spread before turning to a dry side of the microfibre towel to buff clear. Job done, time to roll the cars outside for the afters: Many thanks to Steven, the owner for the continuous supply of coffee, biscuits and bacon rolls! :thumb:
Great work and good to see another one of your details posted! Been a while since I've seen you on the boards.
Had my end of year PhD assessment at the beginning of June, and been away at a science festival just after it, but things calming back down again so I can spend more time detailing
Well done there Dave, always enjoy your details :worship2: Vehicle turned out great, lovely colour but sure it hard to capture the defects with a camera. I like this picture: Just love how the colour looks :thumb: Well done, thank you for sharing.
