2017 BMW 330i - Mineral Gray

Joined
Apr 30, 2013
Messages
2,151
Location
Tinton Falls NJ
Today I detailed the car of a friend from work. Every day when I would walk by it in the parking lot (before we were made to work from home) I would notice the buildup of swirls and micro scratches on the hood and dirty wheels. It couldn't be saved with anything but a deep clean and paint correction. With my arsenal of products full from doing my M340i and with a lot of time on my hands, I had him drop the car off today. I didn't go too crazy because I wanted to get done in one day but I was able to give it a good cleaning, decon, and do a one-step correction with CarPro Essence topped with Reload. Non-traditional LSP with Reload, I know, but it came in my CQ UK 3.0 kit, I used Gliss instead so it was kicking around, and I figured it would boost Essence which I wanted to get more experience with. My main goal was to eliminate most of the micro scratches and swirls and while it's far from perfect, I accomplished almost exactly what I set out to do.

MAIN STEPS AND PRODUCTS USED: (I won't list everything like the other thread, just the key items)
Clean engine bay
---P21s Total Auto Wash
---Adams In & Out Spray
Clean wheels
---Sonax Full Effect Wheel Cleaner
---Tuff Shine Tire Cleaner
Clean jambs
---P21s Total Auto Wash
Foam bath
---Meg's D111 mixed with CarPro Multi-X
Contact wash
---Meg's D111
Iron decon.
---CarPro Iron-X
Clay
---Pinnacle Poly Clay
Correction/Polish (1 step)
---CarPro Essence
---UroFiber Pad (two thumbs up)
LSP
---CarPro Reload


PHOTOS: (I'll sequence the before and afters where appropriate)

MICRO SCRATCHES. It was hard to get a shot that really showed the level of scratching with the angle of the sun but it was much worse than shown here. I confirmed the entire car, wheels included, was being washed with one mitt.
[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]


ENGINE BAY BEFORE AND AFTER (glass not done in these pics)
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TRUNK JAMB BEFORE AND AFTER (glass not done in these pics)
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WHEELS BEFORE AND AFTER. I'd say this is my one disappointment. There was some staining I could not get off, at least not without wheel removal and that was not in the cards for today.
[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]


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FOAM BATH!
[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]


DETAILING IS IN THE DETAILS...
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IRON DECON.
[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]


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CLAY. One of the telling things on how many bonded contaminants there were is normally I only expect to see dirt on the leading edge of the clay, here the trailing edge is also picking up dirt.
[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]


SCRATCH ON FRONT BUMPER (again I didn't go crazy)
[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]


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B-PILLAR TRIM BEFORE AND AFTER
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OXIDATION ON METAL DOOR TRIM BEFORE AND AFTER
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FINAL SHOTS!
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Nice job....How much did you charge your friend for all that effort?

PS: Is that an Airedale?
 
Originally Posted by pbm
Nice job....How much did you charge your friend for all that effort?

PS: Is that an Airedale?

I didn't charge him anything. I wanted the practice and I was looking for something to do, esp. since our jerk governor shut down all parks. He did bring a bottle of wine when he came to pick the car up and seemed impressed with the work so that's good enough in this case.

Yes that's Max, a 3 year old Airedale in need of a haircut!
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by IMSA_Racing_Fan
Did he help you at least?

Nope, didn't want him to. Just wanted to get in the zone and do my thing.
 
Question about P 21S auto wash. Does it remove waxes/polishes etc from the painted surfaces??
 
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