Space Grey BMW 320d - Detailed by Lawrence
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- Lord of the Sponge
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Space Grey BMW 320d - Detailed by Lawrence
I detailed this car back in the beginning of December for an existing client of mine who was unfortunately subjected to some ongoing road maintenance right by his house, resulting in a car a lot dirtier than he would normally have it, and one with a lot of tar deposits all of the paint and wheels.
As always the engine bay was tackled first as this is often one of the dirtiest parts of the vehicle and if washed after the rest of the car had been done, you would inevitable 'splash' some of this dirt back on to your clean paint, necessitating yet another wash and increasing the possibility of instilling fine scratches.
This is what it looked like prior to starting.
After carefully covering any exposed electrical bits, Carchem APC @1:5 was liberally sprayed over the entire bay via a Gloria Foam Master foam sprayer, left to dwell and then agitated using various Wheel Woolies, Speedmaster and Autofinesse brushes before being pressure rinsed. Autofinesse Dressel was then used to dress the plastics and the painted surfaces were cleaned/polished/protected using Autofinesse Tripple.
I planned on snapping some after pics once I was completely finished with the car, but the bad weather rolled in and I never landed up taking the car out the garage once completed, meaning I never got any after pics - sorry.
In keeping with the principal of working from dirty to clean, the wheels, tyres, brake calipers and fender wells were tackled next.
APC was applied
And left to dwell before being agitated in order to remove the bulk of the surface dirt - in my opinion, it is wasteful to spray an iron removal product directly onto wheels with this loose dirt / brake dust as the iron remover has to first make its way through this dirt before it can start tackling the embedded iron particles - and then pressure rinsed off.
Carchem Revolt was applied and left to dwell before being agitated with Wheel Woolies - I had to repeat this step due to the stubborn embedded brake dust.
The wheels were then pressure rinsed (from the top down) to ensure none of the residual iron remover is splashed over the paint
During the final rinse of the car, the wheels were hit with Gyeon WetCoat and the tyres would later be dressed using Carchem Tyre Gel
Then it was time to tackle the dirty car.
The first step was to use the pressure washer to blast off as much of the loose dirt as possible - any dirt removed prior to making contact with the paint will help reduce the possibility of swirls in the paint. This was then followed by a thorough foaming using Turtlewax Hyperfoam
This was followed by a through soaking in Valet Pro Citrus Prewash which was then pressure rinsed off, and then a 2 bucket wash using Carchem Luxury Shampoo and multiple lambswool wash mitts. Carchem Revolt and Valet Pro Citrus Tar Remover were then used for the chemical decontamination of the paint and this was followed with a mechanical decontamination using Shield Heavy Duty clay with ONR as lube.
The car was pulled into the garage where the paint thickness was measured and the paint thoroughly inspected. Various test spots were conducted and 1 step using Menzerna FG400 on Orange Lake Country Hybrid Pads was selected - the soft B-pillars and tail lights got an initial cut with Menzerna PF2300 on White Lake Country Hybrid pads, followed by Menzerna SF4000 on Black Lake Country Hybrid pads
Here are a few before/after shots of the correction process
The paint was then protected using Dodo Juice Iron Gloss Sealant topped with Dodo Juice Purple Haze.
The exhaust tip was cleaned using Carchem APC @ 1:5 then polished using Mothers Mag and Aluminum Polish on a Mothers Power Cone attached to a variable speed drill.
The rest of the details were then taken care of
Exterior plastics
Equipment - Foam applicators, MF towels, Q-tips
Clean - Shield Heavy Duty Vinyl and Rubber Cleaner
Protect - 303 Aerospace Protectant
Glass
Clean - Autoglym Fast Glass, MF towels, Wynns C-Thru
Badges & Emblems
Equipment - Q-tips, MF towels
Clean/polish/protect - Autofinesse Tripple
Interior Plastics
Equipment- Foam applicators, MF towels, Q-tips, Various brushes
Clean - Carchem APC @ 1:20
Protect - Optimum Optiseal
Interior Carpets
Equipment- Brushes, Flex VL35C Vacuum
Leather Surfaces
Equipment- Foam applicators, Flex VL35C Vacuum, MF towels, Brushes
Clean - Carchem APC @ 1:20, various brushes, MF towels
Protect - Collinite 855
Finally a few pictures of the car (still stuck in the garage due to the poor weather) - not the best 'after' pics, but they will have to do.
BMW orange peel is horrendous
As always, thanks for looking and any questions or comments are welcome.
Total time spent = 29 hours
As always the engine bay was tackled first as this is often one of the dirtiest parts of the vehicle and if washed after the rest of the car had been done, you would inevitable 'splash' some of this dirt back on to your clean paint, necessitating yet another wash and increasing the possibility of instilling fine scratches.
This is what it looked like prior to starting.
After carefully covering any exposed electrical bits, Carchem APC @1:5 was liberally sprayed over the entire bay via a Gloria Foam Master foam sprayer, left to dwell and then agitated using various Wheel Woolies, Speedmaster and Autofinesse brushes before being pressure rinsed. Autofinesse Dressel was then used to dress the plastics and the painted surfaces were cleaned/polished/protected using Autofinesse Tripple.
I planned on snapping some after pics once I was completely finished with the car, but the bad weather rolled in and I never landed up taking the car out the garage once completed, meaning I never got any after pics - sorry.
In keeping with the principal of working from dirty to clean, the wheels, tyres, brake calipers and fender wells were tackled next.
APC was applied
And left to dwell before being agitated in order to remove the bulk of the surface dirt - in my opinion, it is wasteful to spray an iron removal product directly onto wheels with this loose dirt / brake dust as the iron remover has to first make its way through this dirt before it can start tackling the embedded iron particles - and then pressure rinsed off.
Carchem Revolt was applied and left to dwell before being agitated with Wheel Woolies - I had to repeat this step due to the stubborn embedded brake dust.
The wheels were then pressure rinsed (from the top down) to ensure none of the residual iron remover is splashed over the paint
During the final rinse of the car, the wheels were hit with Gyeon WetCoat and the tyres would later be dressed using Carchem Tyre Gel
Then it was time to tackle the dirty car.
The first step was to use the pressure washer to blast off as much of the loose dirt as possible - any dirt removed prior to making contact with the paint will help reduce the possibility of swirls in the paint. This was then followed by a thorough foaming using Turtlewax Hyperfoam
This was followed by a through soaking in Valet Pro Citrus Prewash which was then pressure rinsed off, and then a 2 bucket wash using Carchem Luxury Shampoo and multiple lambswool wash mitts. Carchem Revolt and Valet Pro Citrus Tar Remover were then used for the chemical decontamination of the paint and this was followed with a mechanical decontamination using Shield Heavy Duty clay with ONR as lube.
The car was pulled into the garage where the paint thickness was measured and the paint thoroughly inspected. Various test spots were conducted and 1 step using Menzerna FG400 on Orange Lake Country Hybrid Pads was selected - the soft B-pillars and tail lights got an initial cut with Menzerna PF2300 on White Lake Country Hybrid pads, followed by Menzerna SF4000 on Black Lake Country Hybrid pads
Here are a few before/after shots of the correction process
The paint was then protected using Dodo Juice Iron Gloss Sealant topped with Dodo Juice Purple Haze.
The exhaust tip was cleaned using Carchem APC @ 1:5 then polished using Mothers Mag and Aluminum Polish on a Mothers Power Cone attached to a variable speed drill.
The rest of the details were then taken care of
Exterior plastics
Equipment - Foam applicators, MF towels, Q-tips
Clean - Shield Heavy Duty Vinyl and Rubber Cleaner
Protect - 303 Aerospace Protectant
Glass
Clean - Autoglym Fast Glass, MF towels, Wynns C-Thru
Badges & Emblems
Equipment - Q-tips, MF towels
Clean/polish/protect - Autofinesse Tripple
Interior Plastics
Equipment- Foam applicators, MF towels, Q-tips, Various brushes
Clean - Carchem APC @ 1:20
Protect - Optimum Optiseal
Interior Carpets
Equipment- Brushes, Flex VL35C Vacuum
Leather Surfaces
Equipment- Foam applicators, Flex VL35C Vacuum, MF towels, Brushes
Clean - Carchem APC @ 1:20, various brushes, MF towels
Protect - Collinite 855
Finally a few pictures of the car (still stuck in the garage due to the poor weather) - not the best 'after' pics, but they will have to do.
BMW orange peel is horrendous
As always, thanks for looking and any questions or comments are welcome.
Total time spent = 29 hours
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Re: Space Grey BMW 320d - Detailed by Lawrence
Nicely done.... pics still looks good in the garage
that orange peel really spoils the photo though.
1.Auto finess dressel (do you still have stash or did you buy it and stocked up ) didnt they stop bringing stock of this?
2.i generally mix 100mil Turlte wax Foam and 100mil Valet pro pre-wash in the 900mil foam bottle..... (opinions) or is better to dedicate the foam and prewash per bottle?
that orange peel really spoils the photo though.
1.Auto finess dressel (do you still have stash or did you buy it and stocked up ) didnt they stop bringing stock of this?
2.i generally mix 100mil Turlte wax Foam and 100mil Valet pro pre-wash in the 900mil foam bottle..... (opinions) or is better to dedicate the foam and prewash per bottle?
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- Cadet
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Re: Space Grey BMW 320d - Detailed by Lawrence
Thanks again Lawrence for the fantastic turn around.......regrettably the roadworks near my home are still going on and the poor car spends so much time being dirty at the moment.
Once they finish messing around hopefully I can get her back into top condition and keep her that way....
Once they finish messing around hopefully I can get her back into top condition and keep her that way....
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- Lord of the Sponge
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Re: Space Grey BMW 320d - Detailed by Lawrence
Thanks budRsi huntered wrote:Nicely done.... pics still looks good in the garage
that orange peel really spoils the photo though.
1.Auto finess dressel (do you still have stash or did you buy it and stocked up ) didnt they stop bringing stock of this?
2.i generally mix 100mil Turlte wax Foam and 100mil Valet pro pre-wash in the 900mil foam bottle..... (opinions) or is better to dedicate the foam and prewash per bottle?
1. That was literally the last of my Dressel so I am on the hunt for a suitable replacement
2. Remember that snowfoam is designed to loosen dirt that is bonded to the paint and the prewash (which is technically called a TFR [Traffic Film Remover] is designed to breakdown the oily traffic film deposited onto the paint after driving in the rain and so chemically they are trying to achieve 2 different things - I would therefore be cautious about mixing them as I don't understand enough of the chemistry to know if there would be any negative effects on the effectivness of each product once mixed together. It's also only going to add around 5 to 7 minutes to the job to pump some TFR onto the lower half of the car as a dedicated step, wait for it to dwell and pressure rinse it of...
Its always the greatest of pleasures detailing your ridesWideopn-ZN wrote:Thanks again Lawrence for the fantastic turn around.......regrettably the roadworks near my home are still going on and the poor car spends so much time being dirty at the moment.
Once they finish messing around hopefully I can get her back into top condition and keep her that way....
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Re: Space Grey BMW 320d - Detailed by Lawrence
Top top work Lawrence, thanks for sharing
Also.....
Also.....
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Re: Space Grey BMW 320d - Detailed by Lawrence
Epic work Lawrence
The car looks practically new
The car looks practically new
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- Lord of the Sponge
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Re: Space Grey BMW 320d - Detailed by Lawrence
Thanks budmikhail117 wrote:Top top work Lawrence, thanks for sharing
Also.....
Thank youUnobeat wrote:Epic work Lawrence
The car looks practically new
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Re: Space Grey BMW 320d - Detailed by Lawrence
Awesome stuff lawrence
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Re: Space Grey BMW 320d - Detailed by Lawrence
Another on point write up and detail! Thanks for sharing bud
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- Lord of the Sponge
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Re: Space Grey BMW 320d - Detailed by Lawrence
Thanks KuiviKuvi-VPS wrote:Awesome stuff lawrence
Thanks ThembaMbuzi wrote:Another on point write up and detail! Thanks for sharing bud
- DINODENASH
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Re: Space Grey BMW 320d - Detailed by Lawrence
dammm
Love the pics L
came out amazing !
Love the pics L
came out amazing !
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Re: Space Grey BMW 320d - Detailed by Lawrence
Nice work as always Lawrence!
Question on the orange peel, simply how does one get rid of it? Can it be done or is it a process that would say involved wet sanding and then refining again?
Question on the orange peel, simply how does one get rid of it? Can it be done or is it a process that would say involved wet sanding and then refining again?
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- Lord of the Sponge
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Re: Space Grey BMW 320d - Detailed by Lawrence
Thanks DinoDINODENASH wrote:dammm
Love the pics L
came out amazing !
Thanks buddazza wrote:Nice work as always Lawrence!
Question on the orange peel, simply how does one get rid of it? Can it be done or is it a process that would say involved wet sanding and then refining again?
Essentially there is no easy way to get rid of it.... you are either going to wet-sand or use something like a Carpro Denim pad to knock down the peaks of the orange peel until the surface is level again.
On normal OEM paint, its not really recommended due to the amount of paint that will be removed in the process, but on some repaints its certainly do-able, assuming the painter left enough clear to work with.
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Re: Space Grey BMW 320d - Detailed by Lawrence
I happened to visit Lawrence when he was working on this car ...
the pics does not do justice ...
awesome work man!
the pics does not do justice ...
awesome work man!
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Re: Space Grey BMW 320d - Detailed by Lawrence
Thank you very much budDelokes wrote:I happened to visit Lawrence when he was working on this car ...
the pics does not do justice ...
awesome work man!
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Re: Space Grey BMW 320d - Detailed by Lawrence
Nice work L!
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Re: Space Grey BMW 320d - Detailed by Lawrence
epic work as always bud. you are a true perfectionist
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- Lord of the Sponge
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Re: Space Grey BMW 320d - Detailed by Lawrence
Thanks budZubair wrote:Nice work L!
Thank you very muchGhostfacekilla wrote:epic work as always bud. you are a true perfectionist