Well this car has a real good story behind it. It all started with my wife seeing a white BMW 325i at a car dealer here in town, with the owners of the dealership being very good friends of ours. My wife had said how much she liked it and thought she might want it. Well I told her she needed to drive it as she has not owned a car since 1995. She has only had SUVs since then so I wanted her to drive one before saying she wanted one. Well long story short the car belonged to a gentleman here in town and it was a lease that he was way over his mileage on and he owed more than it was worth and before my wife could get a chance to drive it he took it back home. Well jump ahead about 3 weeks and the owner of the dealership calls me and says she has another one that was bought for a girl here in town and she will be coming to pick it up the next day. I call my wife and she goes on her lunch hour to drive it. She calls me after the test drive gushing about how much she loved the car and how nice it was. Well the next day the owner calls my wife and leaves her a message that the girl didn't want it and if she wanted it she could get it. The dealer then calls me and tells me about it. Well while talking I tell her I want it and we decide to do this as a surprise Christmas gift. So when my wife calls me back to tell me the car is available I tell her that Teresa (owner of the dealership) had called me too and told me that and then called me back later and said the girl changed her mind and decided to buy it. My wife was livid to put it mildly, and I'm thinking "Damn I'm good!" Well I play this up the whole night and my wife is crushed that she got her hopes up and now the car is gone. Well the next day I go to do the paperwork and realize that my kids are with me and there is no way in the world they will be able to keep this a secret for a day so I decide to take it to her work and get one of the girls up front to get her and tell her to come look in the parking lot. So I dress the kids up in Santa hat and reindeer antlers and put a bow on the car and park it in front of the office where my wife works and one of the girls up front goes and gets her and she comes out to see her dream car with a bow and the kids standing in front of it! She was surprised to say the least. Well sorry for the long story but I was really proud of myself for pulling this off. Well the car is a 2006 Jet Black 330xi with 20k on the clock. The car was pretty clean but man was it swirled up when you got it under the lights. I also think that I got the best compliment to my abilities when I asked my wife how she liked it and she said I love it but I can't wait to see it after you detail it. This detail took a couple of days to complete and here's what I did: Tires/Wheels/Wells: First of all the wheels were in pretty good shape especially for BMW wheels. One thing aiding that is the installation of covers inside the wheel to cut down on brake dust. I'm still on the fence if I like these or not so guys weigh in if you like them or not and help me out. They do seem to be doing their job as they are keeping the brake dust down to a real minimum. Well I started with CGs Sticky Wheel Gel cut 1.5:1. I used a green foam finger pocket, lug nut brush and Swissvax wheel brush. For the tires and wells they got the ol' standby Majestic Solutions Super Green Stuff at 2:1 in a Solo 418 handheld pressurized sprayer, and some of the brushes I got from Home Depot. The tires were first dressed with Megs Hyper Dressing @ 1:1 with a round Majestic Solutions tire applicator which makes for easy application on the lo profile tires. I then dressed them with the same method with another Majestic Solutions tire applicator and Swissvax Pneu. Wells were dressed with my combo of MS Mr. Natural/Megs ASD. I also coated the wheels with MS Enviro Shield. Man this product has done so well on my Jeep that I put it on all my cars' wheels, exhaust, and glass. It is just so easy to use and the protection results are phenomenal. I mix up 3 oz of Enviro Shield in a gallon of demin water and put it in a Solo 418 handheld pressurized sprayer. While the wheels are wet spray them down and let them sit for a couple of minutes then rinse off and dry. I really love this stuff and in '09 it will be an upsell for me for protecting the wheels and glass. Exhaust: I used Megs Wheel Brightner first on the exhaust with 0000 steel wool and then polished them with Autosol and 0000 steel wool. These were also protected with MS Enviro Shield. Wash: Well this was done in a couple of ways since after the first one my wife was wanting to drive it to show her friends and family what she got for Christmas. The first time was to make sure if there was any kind of LSP on the car it came off so I went with the foam cannon with 2 oz of CGs Citrus Wash Clear and 1 oz of CGs Strong Wash. I used a Swissvax Waschpudel wash pad and man I love that thing. The bugs got CGs Strong Wash @ 4:1 in a Solo 418 handheld pressurized sprayer, and a Majestic Solutions bug sponge. The entire wash including wheels and engine were done with the CR Spotless System. The car was then dried with the leaf blower, and a Vroom drying MF. After some light driving for a day and before I started polishing I decided to do an ONR wash. I used the 2 bucket method and a Zymol sponge. I dried with a CGs Miracle dryer MF. Clay: Well my mainstay for clay has become the Bilt Hamber and this detail was going to be no different. Man I do love this clay better than any other clay I have used. I used the soft as there didn't seem to be a ton of bonded contaminants on the paint. Water was used as lube (man I love that) and after a good claying the paint was feeling silky smooth. Glass: Glass inside and out got Sprayway Glass Cleaner. I used a MS blue huck window towel to apply and a Walmart WW to buff off. The outside of the glass was treated with MS Enviro Shield. This stuff is as good if not better than Aquapel on windows. Trim/Pillars: I used my combination of CGs Trim Gel and Black Wow on a TW MF applicator. Rubber weather stripping/Door Jambs: Well krshultz had given me a product he picked up at Majestic Solutions by Wurth. It was Wurth Rubber Care and contained no silicones. I sprayed it on the rubber weather stripping throughout the car and wiped it down with a TW yellow foam applicator. I cleaned the door jambs with CGs Speed Wipe QD and a CGs El Gordo MF. Interior: I got krshultz to pick me up some Majestic Solutions Leather and Plastic Cleaner when he came down since he said he really liked the stuff. I see why he likes it too. I used it at 1:1. It as a chemical smell but it cleans really well. I cleaned everything including the leather seats with this stuff. I used 1z Cockpit Premium on the Nav Screen and Speedo bezel. I dressed everything with CGs Silk Shine and the leather got 1z Leather Care Lederpflege. The wood trim was waxed with Swissvax Onyx. Paint: Well the paint was really swirled up and although it didn't look too bad in the daylight when you got it under the lights in my garage it looked like the paint had been destroyed. Like FMINUS said in his post black BMW paint is hard to correct but easy to marr. After several attempts at different pads and polish combos I finally realized this was going to be a four step process. I started with M105 and the Scholl Concepts wool pad and a LC purple foamed wool pad on 3M bp on my Harbor Freight rotary at 1800 rpms. Unlike most on here I found success by putting the M105 on the SCs pad and then buffing at 1800 rpms instead of putting it on the paint and picking it up. I was really proud of myself to get the wool and M105 to work and man it did some great clean up. I buffed the M105 off with a Scholl Concepts polish removal cloth. Next up was Scholl Concepts S17 on an orange Scholl Concepts pad and 3M white polishing pads. The SCs orange pad has the cutting ability of a white polishing pad. These were teamed with the SCs bp on my Metabo at 1500 rpms. The S17 was buffed off with an Obsessive Detail Ultra Premium MF. The gloss in the paint was great now, but I wanted some more. Then I wanted to really put the gloss over the top so I went with my favorite finishing polish Scholl Concepts S40 on the INCREDIBLE SCs black finishing pad. This is the very best finishing pad I have ever used and it just glides and spreads and works the polish better than all the others I've tried. I buffed it off with a CGs edgeless MF. Man this thing was how black paint was suppose to look now! My next step was another ONR wash to remove anything left behind like dust and wool fibers. After the ONR I went with CGs Vertua Bond to get a really clean and bondable surface. I applied it with a CGs Stage 3 applicator and removed with a CGs 530XL MF. Here are some before and afters of the paint correction: Protection: I used Jetseal since I was going to be topping with a nuba (a very special nuba at that). It was applied with a CGs Stage 3 Applicator and buffed off with CGs 530XL MF. LSP: Well nothing but the best for my wife so I broke out the Vintage. I used my hair dryer method to preheat a CGs Pro-Applicator Durafoam red applicator and then applied the Vintage. I let it sit for about a half hour and then buffed it off with a CGs Edgeless MF. Then the next day I did a wipe down with Zymol Field Glaze with the Super Plush Detail MF from Ben at Rubbish Boys. Man this thing is super soft and super thick. Well here are the before and after pics: Random and reflection shots: Oh this is what my wife saw when she walked out into the parking lot the day we surprised her:
wow really really nice turn around. that paint was pretty beat up once you got it under the lights. one thing...why did you opt to not remove the white dealership decal from the back of the trunk?
Well of course, it looks awesome. But the coolest part is buying your wife a car for Christmas. These other guys don't know this, but I was standing right in JL's driveway when he hatched his scheme. And I thought, man, if I'm ever married, that's something I want to do - surprise my wife with a BMW!
AWESOME....... JL the surprise and the detail! The kids are cuties too! You know if Sparkie was on here anymore he would comment on your daughters crocks:giggle: WELL DONE!!!!!!
Well done JL well done :applause: :applause: Great job on the detail but most of all well done with the surprise to the wife well done buddy :applause: As for the vehicle, man that is a great looking vehicle. Love the interior, the colour of the leather is wicked :cheerl:
JL..man that is so very cool that you did that for your wife!! That will be a great car for her in the winter being all wheel drive and those good tires on there..she'll be nice and safe! As for your detail..man you outdid yourself on this one! It's truly gorgeous...congrats!!!
Great job JL, and a very nice present indeed. Was this the one your were telling me about or the first one she saw?
Superb job on the Bimmer JL! I'm glad your wife loves the new car and how you gave it to her, hehe. Those dust covers look kind of funky and take some getting used to. I personally don't like the look but it's about functionality right? I don't know, whatever makes your wife happy, hehe.
WOW, Nice suprise for your wife JL! Did you do it, because you have a big box of scholl comming? hehe. The car looks GOOD after the detail, thats how black should be!! And the leather, love the color. Did you sell the XC 90?
Looks great I mean this in the nicest way possible, but once you start washing it you are absolutely going to hate yourself for getting a jet black BMW. Washing without marring is pretty much impossible. Hey, at least the interior color combo is nice!
Thanks D&B! I was going to remove the decal and everytime I saw it during the polishing I kept thinking I would do it but I got so caught up in the paint correction that I would keep forgetting it. It will be coming off soon though, probably on the next wash. ThanksPhoTuGo and the Vertua Bond is a very good product. It cleans the paint well and leaves a nice gloss behind. I'm not sure how much it might increase durability of Jetseal by making a better bonding surface but we'll see. Thanks Karl! Yeah Karl heard the whole plan unfold and heard me straight up lie to my wife that the car had been sold.:applause2: You must admit it was pretty cool to meet her and not let on that you knew exactly what was about to happen to her. Thanks DG! I think the kids are cuties too but I know I'm biased. Of course my son wasn't too thrilled when he saw the pic because he thought he looked funny with the antlers on, LOL. Oh and my kids love thier crocs but if you notice hers are NC State Crocs!!! Thanks and Oh Yeah! Thanks J Bell. I was really pleased with the final result of the car and how well the surprise came off. Thanks Cooter! Thanks Nica and I was wondering when someone was going to comment on the color of the interior. That is one of the things that I really loved about the car. I had seen this color on a few cars done on here and really thought it set off the interior. Needless to say I was thrilled when I saw that the color scheme on this BMW was this color. Richy thats one thing I loved about the Volvo was the safety aspect of it and I know I did just as well with this one and love the AWD option. Thanks for the props on the detail too as they are much appreciated. Thanks Asphalt and yes this was the one I was telling you about. Oh and when I was getting the M105 to work for me with wool, all I could think was "Damn Dana and Jason would be proud!" Thanks Denzil and that's how I feel about the dust covers. I am growing more used to them being on there and the look is growing on me especially if they function well and cut down on the brake dust. But really I'm going to wash this thing weekly so brake dust really won't be a problem for me. We need some more folks to weigh in on their opinions so I can decided if they should stay or go. Oh she fell in love with it the day she test drove it and wanted it badly. Thanks for the congrats and man a black BMW is a pretty sight! Thanks slanguage. I had wanted a BMW since joining here and seeing so many beautiful ones on here. I just got lucky with the timing and the dealership was in sort of a bind and I got a tremendous deal on it. Ha that's a good one Ketil! Actually the BIG box of Scholl is my Christmas present from my family!:applause2: Oh and it couldn't be coming fast enough as I used the last bit of S40 I had on this and my S17 is getting really low. I was sweating that I might not have enough to finish but I did!!! As for the Volvo they took it as a trade and the owner of the dealership has been driving it ever since!
Dude I don't doubt you any at all! Heck I was marring the paint occasionally just wiping off the polish. I know this one is going to require extra caution to keep the marring to a minimum.
Sure sounds like Bimmer Jet Black to me. I get some marring when wiping off polish too. You'll be putting that foam cannon to good use on this paint!
