Carn and the E46 ///M

Discussion in 'Show and Shine' started by Carn, May 30, 2010.

  1. Carn

    Carn Welcome to Detailing

    After a short break from detailing due to other commitments, last weekend was time to get back into the swing of things. What better way to start than with one of my favourite modern sports coupe's, the E46 M3 :worship2:

    Righty then, 1st up the car as she arrived...
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    The car was pretty dirty with alot of accumulated dirt and muck all over the place
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    Some polish residue from previous valet/detail excursions...
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    Tailpipes were nasty
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    Wheels were in need of some attention as well
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    As were the arches
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    As usual I set about cleaning the wheels and arches 1st. Sonax was applied liberally and left to work...
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    Sonax starting to work on the brake dust deposits
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    Raceglaze XL wheel brush came in handy on these wheels. With the solid amount of dirt on the barrels the Ez-Detail brush just wasn't up to the task!
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    Arches were cleaned with the mini toilet brush and worked a treat
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    With the wheels and arches taken care of it was time to wash the rest of the car. All the odds and ends were cleaned with APC and various brushes...Only 1 pic of the shuts being cleaned (sorry for the lack of pics, due to the condition of the car I needed as much time as possible to complete the work)

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    Tailpipes restored...
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    I foamed the car twice with a strong solution of CG's CWC and APC to remove as much dirt as possible before washing using the 2BM, CWC and Raceglaze lambswool wash mitt...

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    After washing the car was thoroughly rinsed before being clayed. Smartclay was the clay of choice and as you can see, the paintwork was filthy!

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    With the clay process completed it was time for a final rinse before being dried and inspected.

    You name it this paint had it. Swirls, RIDS, fine holograms, marring...
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    Inside under the halogens and LED torch
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    With the inspection completed it was time to tape up and start correcting the paintwork. In the end I wound up using Menzerna's new S100 compound on the really bad bits, with P203S taking care of the rest. Some of the deeper defect were not fully removed but I estimate around 85-90% correction was achieved over the entire vehicle :thumb:

    Before
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    After
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    After
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    Some random afters...
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    With the majority of the correction work completed it was time to call it a day. Day 2 started with me taking care of the interior...As with the exterior, the interior was in need of some TLC!

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    The leather didn't come as clean as I would have liked but overall the interior was markedly improved

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    With the final correction work finished I washed the car one last time before drying and applying the finishing touches.

    LSP was a pre-production sample of a new wax from Raceglaze while the trim was treated to Werkstat's Satin Prot. Tyres got a helping of a new dressing I am testing (so far so good)

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    Wheels looking much better, although they weren't perfect with some stubborn deposits that wouldn't budge!
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    All finished
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    Some reflection shots...
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    And the final one...
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    Overall this was a challenging detail which consumed almost all of 2 full days. With more time some of the worst affected areas (wheels and leather) could be further improved, but overall I was happy with the outcome.

    Thanks for looking :thumb:
     
  2. detaildoc

    detaildoc Guest

    Awesome job dude!
     
  3. Legacy99

    Legacy99 Wax on..Wax off

    Very nice job.
     
  4. cnut

    cnut Guest

    Great work as usual!
     
  5. kei169

    kei169 Wax on..Wax off

    Nice job! Loving that dude!
     
  6. domino

    domino Welcome to Detailing

    you gotta be very careful with those VMR branded replica wheels

    the clear coat finish is quite poor, my friends VMR wheels suffered clear coat failure just with regular washing, and another owner on our local forum got scratches from using a quality wheel brush, so id hate to imagine what a wheel cleaner is doing to them in the long term

    i had to chuckle at this.....so it seems Raceglaze are trialing one of Vic's new Mayhem or Chaos wax's :applause:
     
  7. supercharged

    supercharged DB Forum Supporter

    amazing work, David! You haven't posted in a while, we started to miss you...
     
  8. JoeyZ

    JoeyZ Obsessive Detailer

    NICE Job. The clay really shows just how dirty the surface was.
     
  9. Carn

    Carn Welcome to Detailing

    Thanks gents, appreciate the comments :thumb:

    @ Domino, the clear coat had failed in some places already before I even touched it...No surprises there I guess!
     
  10. Brynjar

    Brynjar Birth of a Detailer

    Very nice car and also a brilliant result:)

    Did you remove the side M-vents on the fender before corretion? These ones are really easy to remove, and also the bimmer badges..
     
  11. dsms

    dsms DB Forum Supporter

    Lovely work Dave! Tires look very nice.. of course the paint correction is most important and impressive as always!
     
  12. Tire Shredder

    Tire Shredder Jedi Nuba

    love these cars. Must have been nice to work on. I love that rear 1/4 shot. Now, if it was seca blue...you'd really be driving me nuts!
     
  13. domino

    domino Welcome to Detailing

    i remove my side grilles when correcting

    but theres only so many times you can remove them before the tabs start getting all chewed up
     

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