JLs Detailing: BMW 323i

[JLs Detailing]

Well I got this car because of my wife's BMW. Her boss had bought this 1999 323i convertible for his wife. Well she saw my wife's BMW and told her husband that she wanted hers to look like mine. She said it had never looked brand new even when they bought it a few years ago. She had always been disappointed with how it looked. Well I got it and could see why she had never really liked it and set out to make it look new again. I actually tried to talk them into selling it to me before I detailed it. I figured I better try then because I planned on making it look so good that they wouldn't want to afterwards. Well needless to say I was unsuccessful in buying it and now they ain't selling. Well here's what I did:

Tires/Wheels/Wells: The wheel faces got Bilberry Wheel Cleaner @ 3:1 and the barrels got Megs Wheel Brightner. A variety of brushes were used including a Black Magic wheel brush bent to 90 degrees for getting behind the spokes, HD brushes for the tires and wheel wells, lug nut brush, and EZ Detail brush as well as my foam finger pocket. The Bilberry Wheel Cleaner is simply great and will be my go to wheel cleaner. It has great cleaning power and is safe as well. You can dilute it more or less than the 3:1 dilution I use depending on the condition of the wheels.

For the tires and wells they got the ol' standby Majestic Solutions Super Green Stuff at 3:1 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 @ 3:1 with a MSs tire applicator. I then dressed them with the same method with a TW tire applicator and my Tropi-Care tire dressing. As I've said it looks almost identical to Swissvax Pneu so I bought a gallon of the stuff and so glad I did. I don't use any other tire dressing anymore. Everything else that I had is just inferior in looks from what I get with the Tropi-Care. I'll tell you the stuff is very durable as well. Wells were dressed with my combo of MS Mr. Natural/Megs ASD. I then coated the wheels with MS Enviro Shield.

Engine: I gave the engine a quick rinse with the CR Spotless, and sprayed it down with MS SGS. There was a lot of dirt and dust in just about every crevice there was so I agitated it and re-rinsed. I dried most of the water with a leaf blower and then sprayed the engine bay down with Megs HD @ 3:1 in a Solo 418 handheld sprayer. I cranked the engine and let it run for about 20 minutes and it looked brand new.

Exhaust: This was the toughest exhaust I have ever worked on to get it to shine. The exhaust got Megs WB and #0000 Steel wool, which the tips just simply laughed at. I have never had a situation where this didn't work like a charm. The build up was so bad on the tips that WB wasn't cutting it. I then pulled out the big guns and used my CGs Wheel Acid diluted 10:1 and some #0000 steel wool. This did the trick but destroyed the steel wool. I then washed them with MS SGS since its PH is so high just to make sure that any acid that might have been left behind was neutralized. Then they were polished with Autosol and buffed off with an Obessesive Detail MF.

Convertible Top: I sprayed the top down with 303 Convertible top cleaner and agitated it with a stiff brush. I left the agitated 303 on there and then foamed the top with the rest of the car and washed it with my wash for the car. It was treated first with 303 Fabric Guard and then with 303 protectant. This was the first time I had used the Fabric Guard so not sure if putting the 303 protectant on top of it will defeat the purpose of the Fabric Guard.

Wash: The first wash I did on this car was an ONR wash in my garage because when I got it it was raining. I was about out of ONR but got the hook up from supercharged in a trade! I decided to just wash the paint with ONR to allow me to start polishing and when polishing was complete I could just do a traditional wash. I used a two bucket method with grit guards for the ONR along with a Grecian Grout Sponge I got from my buddy krshultz.

For the traditional wash I knew there wasn't any LSP, but to be sure all the polish residue and dust were gone I went with an LSP stripping formula in the foam cannon of 1 oz of CGs Citrus Wash Clear, 1 oz of Tropi Care Citrus wash version 2, and 1 oz of MSs Power Prep. Power Prep is like Super Green Stuff's Daddy. It is a stronger cleaner and Phil at MSs said I could accomplish a sure strip of LSP by adding an ounce to my foam cannon. As good as this combo cleans I knew nothing was going to be left behind. Put that in my foam cannon with the Karcher.

I used the 2 bucket method with Tropi Care Premium Car Wash in my Griots bucket with grit gaurd and rinse water in the other bucket with grit gaurd. I washed with a Zymol Sponge. The car was then dried with the leaf blower, and a Vroom drying MF.

Clay: Well my mainstay for clay has become and always will be the Bilt Hamber and this detail was going to be no different. This is the best clay I have ever used and the only one I use now. I did the claying during the ONR wash and of course as always the lube was water.

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 ES.

Trim: I used my combination of CGs Trim Gel and Black Wow on a TW MF applicator to get a great look on the trim. Here are some before and afters of the horrible trim I was dealing with:








Interior: Well the interior was a wreck. The interior was completely dusted down with the Megs slide lock brush and was vacuumed with the Shop Vac. Then everything was cleaned with Majestic Solutions Leather and Plastic Cleaner diluted at 1:1 with about an ounce of MSs Lemon deodorizer put in with it. Cleaned everything that wasn't carpet with the Leather and Plastic Cleaner and it did a phenomenal job. After cleaning the plastics were dressed/protected with Scholl Concepts Purple 9000. That stuff is awesome and leaves the perfect fisnish behind and never ever streaks. The leather was conditioned with 1z Leather Care.

Spots and general grime in the carpet and mats were cleaned with MSs Extraction Plus in a spray bottle at 10:1. This stuff as krshultz says is simply "witchcraft in a bottle". He used a damp MF with it and the dirt, grime and spots just disappeared. cleaned the door jambs with a mixture of MS SGS and CGs Total Green Clean in a pressurized sprayer while washing. He used a Swissvax brush and I rinsed with the pressure washer.

Paint: Well the correction was going to be a chore as there were a lot of deep scratches that he didn't want me spending anytime trying to get out. He basically wanted a 2 step process to get rid of the swirling and marring. I did do some wet sanding to a bad spot on the trunk. I'm not sure what it was but looked like raised paint! I made it better and leveled it but decided to quit as I wasn't sure what I was dealing with.

First if polished the car with Scholl Concepts S17 and an orange lo pro pad on a 3M backing plate with the Makita. This left a great finish behind but I really wanted to amp up the gloss to give her the shine she wanted. Next up was Scholl Concepts S40 on a Scholl Concepts black finishing pad on the Metabo with a Scholl Concepts backing plate. This BP is softer than the 3M and better for finishing for me. I like the 3M for correction and the SCs for finishing. The bumpers were polished with a one step and I used Scholl Concepts S30 for that on a white 3M pad and the Metabo. After that I did the wash and after the wash I hit the paint with DG 501 to clean the paint up and add some protection. I applied with my Cyclo on 4" white pads. Here are some pics of the paint correction:

Hood before:



50/50:


Finished Hood:




Trunk before and after:


This is the area of raised paint I was talking about:


Wet Sanded:



Protection: I used Jetseal since I was going to be topping with a nuba. It was applied with a CGs Stage 3 Applicator and buffed off with a 530xl MF. I know I say it a lot but you just can't beat the look of Jetseal topped with a great wax!

LSP: Well the paint looked great but I wanted to put it over the top so why not use my favorite wax, Rubbish Boys OE. I applied with a 4" LC CCS pad and polishing pal using my hair dryer method to pre-heat the pad. I let the OE cure for about a half hour and buffed it off to a magnificent shine with a CGs Edgeless MF. Needless to say it didn't disappoint me and gave me a stunning finish. After about another hour I wiped it down with Scholl Concepts SW20 Speed Wax. This is a great QD and leaves a beautiful finish to an already awesome look of OE.

Well the good Dr.'s wife was out of town this weekend so hopefully I'll find out tomorrow what she thought of it. Here are the before and afters:
































Random and Reflection shots:

[freerider]

Awesome work JL! I especially love the before and after on the interior door panel.

I still love the e36's I lost my BMW virginity to one, and will always have a soft spot for them. Whats up with the stripes down the side of the car though? looks a little out of place.

[Starvekos]

Great results and another well written post JL.

A couple of us have recently received samples of Scholl polishes. I can't wait to give them a go during the Easter holidays.

[JLs Detailing]

(30-03-2009 10:23 AM)freerider Wrote:  Awesome work JL! I especially love the before and after on the interior door panel.

I still love the e36's I lost my BMW virginity to one, and will always have a soft spot for them. Whats up with the stripes down the side of the car though? looks a little out of place.

Thanks Don. I really liked this one as well and wanted to buy it but after I finished they wanted no part of selling it. I agree with you on the striping. It adds nothing to the car and in fact sort of detracts from the lines of the car. I didn't have the time to try and remove them properly and they didn't request it so they stayed.

(30-03-2009 10:42 AM)Starvekos Wrote:  Great results and another well written post JL.

A couple of us have recently received samples of Scholl polishes. I can't wait to give them a go during the Easter holidays.

Thanks. I think you will love the Scholl Concepts as they are phenomenal polishes.

[Carn]

Awesome job JL, well done indeed. Some terrific 50/50's and before and afters, I am sure the client was suitably impressed with the outcome

Myself and Grant gave the Scholl S17 and S30 a quick whirl on a Range Rover Sport we did a week back. The RR's paint was really funny (sticky paint) and even the Menz FA was acting up so it wasn't an ideal test subject. I also think it will take some adaptation from working with the Menz so any pointers would be appreciated