Mobile-Image: M3_FTW

[Carn]

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

Righty then, 1st up the car as she arrived...




The car was pretty dirty with alot of accumulated dirt and muck all over the place


















Some polish residue from previous valet/detail excursions...




Tailpipes were nasty


Wheels were in need of some attention as well


As were the arches



As usual I set about cleaning the wheels and arches 1st. Sonax was applied liberally and left to work...


Sonax starting to work on the brake dust deposits


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!


Arches were cleaned with the mini toilet brush and worked a treat



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)



Tailpipes restored...



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...



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!



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...













Inside under the halogens and LED torch















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

Before


After


Before


After


Some random afters...















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!














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






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)



Wheels looking much better, although they weren't perfect with some stubborn deposits that wouldn't budge!





All finished









Some reflection shots...










And the final one...



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