er1k Detailed: My own '92 525i (lots of pics!)

Well here it is. The detail of my 1992 BMW 525i. I love this car, an amazing first car away from all of the problems. A little history on the car for you, my dad purchased this brand new in '93. Since then he hasn't taken very good care of it, mechanically and cosmetically. Now I am paying for it but I am taking the most out of it I can to really try and learn about cars. Some people view me as spoiled for having a BMW as a first car but I try and let them know that I take full responsibility in the car and work hard to keep it the best it can be. Sure it has its dings here and there but I plan on fixing all of that very soon. Hopefully business will increase, especially since half of my teachers somehow found out I detail. How? I don't know:shrug: but the thought of detailing my math teachers car is quite funny:

Now on to the detail! Well this car has seen its share of automatic car washes and actually a few inexperienced details. This was my first detail with my Makita so it was a learning experience as well. Some parts of the detail lack pictures due to time, but the car sat in the garage for over a week!

Since this is my car it is fairly clean so no engine detail was needed. I started out by giving the car a good foam with CG CWG while I attacked the wheels and tires. Tires were scrubbed down with Megs APC diluted 4:1 and the wheels got Megs Wheel Brightener (I got my stock/winters on). I then used Megs APC and a Megs side lock brush to clean off all plastic trims before starting the wash. After that I proceeded to wash the car with the two bucket method using CWG and a Zymol Sponge. Dried the car off using WW MF and pulled it into the garage.


All it took was the flash of the camera to capture the swirls/imperfections in the paint



The claying process was completed using some special yellow clay with CG Luber


The car had a fair amount of contamination


Using 3M Green Masking Tape all plastics trim pieces were covered up


Using halogens I inspected the paints condition a bit more. As you will see the reflection and depth in the paint just isn't there and it looks to have some oxidation.



I know knew what I was up against and I already had a good clue on what my combo was going to be, SIP followed by 85RD. Using my Makita with a 3M BP with a 5.5" Orange Pad I tried out SIP. Here are the results after two passes


So my guess was right, SIP would work just fine. Now here are a bunch of correction or in process pictures, I took lots because I know how much people like picturesicture:







Now on tight areas like this I would use my good old PC





Back to more correction shots. I do have to apologize for the bluriness and dark quality in some of the pictures:sorry:






Now here are some pictures after the car was polished with 85RD









Tail lights were polished using SIP on an Orange 4" pad via PC


Next up was applying Swissvax Cleaner Fluid via yellow foam applicator. Here are some pictures after application.




Then I applied 2 coats of Jetseal109 allowing one coat to cure for 7 hours, then the next cure for 20 hours overnight and throughout my school day. Here are some pictures after the 2 coats of Jetseal. Once again sorry for the dark quality. My wax of choice was CG 5050. I applied two thins coats, each coating getting around 20 minutes or cure time. Here are the final pics. I have yet to get outside shots due to weather but I will update this thread this weekend with sunny shots.







Overall I am pleased with the outcome. I would say the car is about 90% corrected. Thanks for looking! Comments and criticism are welcome!

Erik

 

Hi Eric, I would like to commend you on a job well done. Atta-boy. Think about keeping your pad a little flatter if you can.:thumb:

 

Cool car/color. It appears that you have debadged it too, nice. :thumb:

I don't see how one could think you are spoiled for having a Bimmer as your first car, I mean it's not like that thing is worth any more than $5000. :shrug:

Good work.

 

You're not spoiled as long as you appreciate it and take care of it. Nice work on the correction, I look forward to your outside shots.

 

Definitely not spoiled if you take care of the car yourself... I think other people are just jealous really. I'm surprised your Bimmer's clear isn't as hard as mine because mine is such a PITA, LoL.

Thanks for sharking Erik! I can't wait to see some outside shots as well.

 

Nice ride and great work!

 

Great work there man !! Looking really good. Looking forward to the sun shots !!!!!!

 

looks good. color has more depth and clarity. cleaned up nice :thumb:

 

I want to see some outside sun shots, bet it looks wicked!

 

Oooh nice car, man I love the old school BMW's not sure what it is about the 1990 to 1995 year old vehicle that I like but I sure appreciate them :druling:

Vehicle looks great well done :applause:

I enjoyed all the pictures...by the way how did you know we enjoyed pictures here :giggle:

 

Bunch of stuff. Mainly All That Remains while I detail though.

Thanks buddy! And thank you for the tip, much appreciated.

Thank you bigpoppa. Yeah I debadged it to give it a more clean look in the back.

Thanks Reflect!

The clear seemed a lot harder in some areas compared to others which was interesting. But thanks for the comments Denzil!

:headbang:

Expect sun shots tomorrow!

I just happened to figure the more pictures the better:giggle:

But thank you very much Nica!

 

Great work...awesome result Erik...one question, what is cleaner fluid for? since you dont use any SV wax? does it have bonding issue with jetseal or 50 50?

 

good stuff, i am guessing you recived my package...

 

Thanks man. Not yet, I will let you know when I do.

Just to clear the paint of polishing oils that will get in the way of Jetseal bonding with the paint. Also I noticed that cleaner fluid adds a little bit of a shine.

 

Sorry, Its probaly held up at Customs, you should get it This Week for sure... Please PM and let me know ASAP you get it. Thanks

 

Isnt it awesome having a nice car at a young age? haha everyone thinks im spoiled too, but i payed for my Supra myself dammit! haha That is a gorgeous BMW man, love the color. Darker colors always have such great depth to them, sadly mine is white so it only looks deep at night

 

Great job, E34's are some great cars. To bad I was laid off from work I could hooked you up with parts.

 

Don't worry about it it's all good! I'll let you know when I get it.

Thanks sal!

:headbang: I love the Calypso color of the car.

 

wow clean car.....love the reflection

 

Beautiful car and nice job. Did you do the interior too?