Deep Gloss Auto Salon: E60 M5

Deep Gloss Auto Salon
E60 M5 –Interlagos Blue

This vehicle was dropped of for full paint correction, Working with Interlagos Blue is always a treat. It is such a vibrant and dynamic palette when corrected.

Before Pictures:











As you can see, the vehicles paintwork looks dull, flat and lifeless. If you are familiar with the potential of BMW Interlagos Blue, you know how magnificent it looks when properly detailed.

As with every job I always begin by cleaning the wheels and rims. Below are the products used and some in process pictures:

Wheels/Rims/Arches Process:
P21S Wheel Gel
Laitner Brush (powered by drill)
Meg’s APC for tires
Meg’s Super Degreaser on Arches

P21S being applied:



P21S Dwelling:


Laitner Wheel Brush in Action:


Rinse:


Q-Tips for Small Areas:


They Had a Good Life:


Before:


After:


On to cleanse the paint

Paint Cleansing Process:

Pressure washed
Surf City Grime Destroyer to lower half of vehicle
P21S Total Auto Wash sprayed on upper half of vehicle
Pressure Washed
Foamed with Chemical Guys Clear Wash via Foam Cannon
Pressure Washed
Two Bucket Wash with Meguiars Hyper Wash
Pressure Washed

Below are some paint cleansing in process pics

Grime Destroyer Dwelling


P21s Total Auto Wash


Foam after about several minutes of dwell time


Rinsing off the foam


Two bucket wash


Cleaning the arches:


Embedded contaminants were removed from paintwork and rims with Riccardo yellow clay using ONR as clay lube. The paintwork had low levels of embedded contaminants.

Claying Paintwork


Clay after one panel:


Embedded contaminants were also removed from the rims:


Clay after one rim:


Exhaust tips were cleaned with blue magic metal polish and #0000 Steel Wool and then further refined with Surf City Maximum Metal (pics are before Max Metal application)


Before:


After


When the hood was popped it was observed that the dual K&N filters were not quite as tight as they should be. That was also taken care of:

Loose (see gap):


Tight:


Well now that that vehicles paint work was all clean, it’s time for some pictures of the defects present. I started this job at 8pm at night so all pictures of defects were done via halogens, which I am not that good at– no worries, the sun was bright and full for post correction inspection!

As you will see, this paintwork had an assortment of defects from swirls, marring & scratches. All of these defects are what cause the dull, lifeless appearance of the vehicle as delivered.

I have yet to master capturing defects when the sun is not available, below is a sample of what I was able to capture which does not fully convey the condition of the clear coat.























Paintwork Correction: I spent a good hour playing with different combos before settling on the below process - this clear was hard as nails

Meguiars 105 Via 3M Wool
Menzerna Super Intensive Polish via LC orange pad
Menzerna Super Intensive Polish via green LC medium polishing pad
Menzerna 106ff via white LC Polishing Pad
Menzerna 85rd via black LC pad


By the time the Makita was fired up, I had lost my photographer as it was pretty late. When I am on my own taking pictures is not my 1st priority as I charge by the hour and exhausting that time to take pictures would not be prudent. Below are two pictures I did manage to take while correcting the clear coat:

Before:


After M105:


Before:


After M105:


After I was done with correction it was well past the night and into the morning… Below are some post correction shots with no lsp:







Last Step Product(s):

For this step I decided to go with a Zaino treatment. 3 layers of Z2 that was enabled with ZFX was used. After each layer of the Z2 was removed, the paintwork was wiped with Z6. After the final layer of Z2 was removed a final wipedown of Z8 was used:

Finishing Touches:
1z Gummi Pfledge for weather stripping
Arches dressed with Undercarriage spray
Tires dressed with Surf City Tire Pro
Glass Cleaned with Surf City Clearly Better
Brightwork treated with Duragloss 501
Rims treated with 3 layers of Z2

A few sun shots – she is such an unforgiving mistress







Final product pictures:














Below are some High Dynamic Range pictures courtesy of Milan Vincent (milanvincent.com):












Pictures cannot truly do this color justice as when you view it from different angle is changes shades of blue and even to purple. The owner made notice of this for what I thing was the first time in his ownership.

Thanks for looking.

 

Jason..I honestly think that was one of your best efforts!! You got it like a mirror but with a wetness as well. I didn't think Zaino gave off that kind of look. A couple of questions for ya:
How long?
Did you only do the exterior?
The wheels came out great...I couldn't believe what you got off the clay after using the P21s..pretty amazing! You should be very, very proud of this one! This is my favourite shot of the group:

 

How did this get duplicated?

 

Thanks Bud!

I was very happy with how the Zaino treatment looked on this color.

To your questions: I spent 25 hours on just the paint, I also did the interior but I was in the zone and did not take pictures.. Basic extraction, and leather master 3 step treatment for the hides. I left the P21S to dwell for a good amount of time but there was some tenacious contaminants on there!

Thanks again man!

 

Really nice job Jason! Great pics as well.

 

Percosat not working yet?

 

Great Job Jason, the blue looks outstanding, especially out in the sun.

 

Thanks Dana... I was just glad that the sun was out when I finished... I loathe finishing without the sun there to provide me the final inspection!

 

Wow great Job! I totally agree with your statement about how Interlagos looks when fully corrected. That M5 looks amazing.

 

holy shit!!!!

 

Awesone Work Player!

 

that looks great!!!

 

WOW! WOW! WOW! Just truely phenomenal work Jason. I was floored by the level you achieved. The paint does look like a mirror! I guess there goes the "Zaino has that plastic/sterile look" arguement some like to say. Hell if you had done one more coat of Z2 it might have actually looked like the High Dynamic pictures in real life!

 

Ok two posts and I say you are just bragging! LOL!!

 

wow Nice, And very nice final pics too..........
I can see your motions with the two bucket washing in some of your pics....LOL

 

Looks good....Love that shade of blue.

 

Jason, that is simply amazing! Dude, you gotta teach me that HDR technology, with those type of pics you can get a whole lot of new clients!!!

 

Looks great there J! We used to have the same color on our 530i.

 

Thanks Ken!

Thank you!

Thanks Brio... Me brag .... ha ha

Thanks Kei... the exposure on the camera was set long for those pics so I would be blurred

Thanks,... yes, Interlagos is a beautiful color!

 

Thanks Dave... yes, when corrected this color really comes to life.

Ha ha, thanks man.. glad you enjoyed it!

Hey Bro, Thanks a lot man! It's funny, some people love Zaino and some people don't.. I think you see what category I fall into... Don't get me wrong, I still love nuba as well but, I like to switch it up now and then!

Another coat and it may have shaved some track time off this car....lol

Thanks SC'd.... I wish I knew more but I was not behind the camera for the HDR's.. Only thing I do know is that for every HDR pic three pictures are actually taken at 3 differemt exposure rates and then they are merged to give the HDR effect...

Thanks again man!

Thanks Denzil... You must have loved the color... Were you into detailing at the time, hopefully so so you could see just how dynamic of a color it is... when not properly maintained it is just blue....