When Panelbeaters attack!! BMW 330d

[STaX]

This was a project I've been waiting intensely for.....a black car.

It came in the form of a BMW 330d that a friend had recently purchased. It was slightly neglected by the previous owner, with stains being present around the interior and some really funky pink stuff on the carpets, but was not beyond help.

Firstly we started with the interior as this was going to be a two stage job with the interior and exterior being done at seperate times. As it turns out 2 months apart So a quick look around the interior to see what I was in for.









It was pretty grubby, all the door cards had scuffs, the dash needed a good clean and so did the seats themselves.
Tools for the job:
- APC mixed to various ratios dependant on job
- Collinite 855
- 303 Aerospace
- Brushes by the dozen
- MFs

All of the mats were removed, sprayed with 20:1 diluted APC, scrubbed and rinsed then left to dry.
Seats got a similar treatment using 10:1 APC, soft bristle brushes and cloths, then treated with Colli 855. Two applications of 855 were done to restore some of the lustre that had been lost from that lovely BM leather. In some places were the had been a lot of abrasion 303 Aero was used over the 855 to even out the fiinish where the cream leather had worn a bit.
Door cards washed and treated to 303 Aerospace with the leather inserts getting some 855 too.
Dash was cleaned with 20:1 APC and coated in 303 Aero along with the facia.



Then a healthy two months later, after waiting for my shipment from the UK, I called him back to start on the exterior. He uses one of these paint protection policies and made use of it to remove some small hail stone damage from the panels. Unfortunately that means calling the panelbeater and this guy did not leave the paint in a pretty state. He managed to mar the paint whilst trying to remove the dents and once he had finished, gave the car a polish and proceeded to burn holograms across the whole body. Best of all.....the dents are still there!!!

The owner of the car had said before that he noticed some, what he thought was sap, on the horizontal panels, which there was. So after a wash I whipped out the clay and removed it. At first I tried my bar of Mothers clay, which is on the fine side, this did remove it but so slowly I would have been there all night. I decided to step up to Automagic Medium as it would make shorter work of the task and any marring that I add would hardly be making any extra work for me seeing as the paint was already in poor shape.




Getting to work...


Attacked the carbon deposited pipes.


Better..


Claying was slow even with the medium clay. This is just ONE panel!!


After claying was complete the car was moved outside for another wash and inspection under the sun then back inside to get under the halogens.
Greeting me was this........

Mess from the panel beater and previous owner.


My weapon for the job was my newly acquired 3M Polisher


Great bit of kit but review to come another time.

I worked my way up the pad/polish combo ladder to find that BMW paint is hard.....no I mean really really hard.
Eventually the toughest combo I had was the 3M green compounding pad and Menz FG500 (replacing S100, I think). The FG500 uses diminishing abrasives like we are seeing on the rest of the Menz range to improve the gloss whilst retaining cut. This seems to work but does still dust quite a bit even though its lubricity has improved over S100 allowing for longer work time. This paired with the green 3M pad allowed for decent correction, it certainly removed all the swirls and marring but wasn't budging some of the RIDS, but that could just be my fault.
FG500 after working.


Two passes of FG500 on green gave this result.


So work began.
Before

After


Before

After


Right fender fully FG500'd


As I completed every two panels a switched to a Yellow 3M pad, as well as trying a Megs Yellow polishing pad, with Menz SF4000(106FA) and went back over them to get some more gloss. Again the hard BM paint made it a slow process but keeping speeds low(as I was told to) I got the gloss level I was looking for.


Once the whole car had that treatment it was day over and I was sore. I had a braai with some friends and flattened a bottle of JW red to make the pain go away....it worked.

The next morning the car was needed, so an unfinished car drove away but returned a couple hours later. In the daylight there was still some small signs of the original holograming on the bootlid (Noooo....wasn't me ) These were corrected with SIP on a LC Green pad and this sorted it out a treat, after another wash and IPA wipedown.

LSP for this project was the newly acquired Chemical Guys Blacklight (Will create another thread with a small review).

CG Blacklight applied and curing.


Afters



Wheels also got a coat Blacklight more as experiment to see how it would endure the harsh treament and how the dust build-up would be.

Whilst the LSP was curing I went around doing tyres and trim with Megs Trim Detailer and 303 Aero respectivley.

A great car and colour to work on, I was really looking forward to doing my first black car but being my first BMW and finding out what hard paint is like.....I don't want another one for a while. BM that is, bring on the black.....Once you go black you don't go back.

Thanks for looking.

[Lambchop]

Well done Stu!!!!
You did an amazing job there !!!

[STaX]

Shot-a-lot!!

Thanks for the advice and guidance.

[Audioholic]

Really nice work bud!

Ah 330d, how I love those cars, got stupid power

[springbok]

Very nice write up, I enjoyed it.

[Sankekur]

Very good read and awesome results!

[Carn]

Lovely transformation, car looks slick and clean. Well done bud

[calypso]

Great work. Dont fall asleep in the plane now.

[STaX]

Lol....no Calypso, that thing flies itself anyway, I'm just for decoration.

[zckid]

That's a great job u've done Stax.

U test urself on black cars. that's very nice.

Cheers

[onyx]

Fantastic - that interior/exterior has been given a new life

As expected on BMWs... some horrid orange peel hey?

[STaX]

Yeah, you think for a car of that price it would be better.

[Lambchop]

(12-12-2011 03:41 PM)onyx Wrote:  Fantastic - that interior/exterior has been given a new life

As expected on BMWs... some horrid orange peel hey?

My BMW has a better finish than the M3 i detailed some time ago
infact i cant say iv got any orange peel on my car

[calypso]

Its because yours fell off the ship and was resprayed in the back office.

[Jughead]

Awesome work !!! Great Interior transformation !!!

[STaX]

(13-12-2011 01:34 PM)Lambchop Wrote:  

(12-12-2011 03:41 PM)onyx Wrote:  Fantastic - that interior/exterior has been given a new life

As expected on BMWs... some horrid orange peel hey?

My BMW has a better finish than the M3 i detailed some time ago
infact i cant say iv got any orange peel on my car

(13-12-2011 08:33 PM)calypso Wrote:  Its because yours fell off the ship and was resprayed in the back office.

Wahaha....you want to see an awesome paint finish go and look at a Lexus. My Dad's IS250, in the background of some shots, hasn't got a spot of orange peel anywhere. No wonder they win awards for their paintwork.

[katotter]

Wow, just wow.

I miss the hell out of this site, life takes you some shitty rides sometimes hey.

Great work on the black bimmer there buddy

[Torres1]

Brilliant!!

[LENNY1-WP]

Awesome stuff dude