Hi Guys!
We were contacted by the proud owner of this stunning BMW E39 M5 finished in Silverstone Blue to discuss options to get the car back up to scratch.
Having recently purchased the car, and planning on keeping it for a little while the owner has spent a fair amount on work including a full underbody waxoyl treatment, mechanical work etc and was itching to get the paintwork looking fresh once again.
It was agreed we would carry out an enhancement detail to enhance the paintwork finish, including a two stage machine polish. It was evident from paint depth readings and visual inspection that a few areas had been painted/repaired, mainly smart repair style repairs to some areas so this is the main reason an enhancement was chosen rather than full correction as we knew this may not be possible.
We also treated the interior, the leather although in very good condition for age of the car was in need of a clean/feed.
A few shots of the car on arrival:
Exterior was treated to our full 21 stage wash and decontamination process, which revealed a fair amount of contamination!
We also had the new Auto Finesse wheel brushes for testing, these made light work of the deep spokes on these wheels, coming soon! Check them out!
Once the exterior was clean, car was pulled inside and dried off and we got started on the rest of the detail.
Whilst drying off the door shuts, it was evident that the rear boot shut needed some attention, a little too much grease maybe!? This was dealt with with some Bilt Hamber Surfex Degreaser.
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Cleaned:
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Interior was then detailed, leather treated with Auto Finesse Leather Twins:
We also turned our attention to the dents in a few of the doors, which we sorted out quickly and easily with PDR.
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Getting there:
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Due to a various areas being painted we opted for Meguiars D-300 Microfibre Compound and pads via DA to keep down the heat, with some areas requiring Scholl S17+ with a 3M Yellow Polishing Pad via Chicago CP-8210 at around 1800rpm to knock back some deep RDS. Again, we weren't looking achieve perfection, just to give a decent level of correction to restore gloss/clarity to the very dull finish, and also blend some of the poor repairs.
This finish which was later refined with Menzerna 85RE at around 1500 RPMS.
The bonnet was by far the worst area of the car, suffering from some very bad scratches, these were corrected via Scholl S17+ with 3M Yellow Pads at around 1800-2000RPM.
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Working around the car, finish was very dull, the correction process restored the gloss/clarity:
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Bootlid was pretty badly etched:
Onto the wings:
Not forgetting the bottoms of the doors:
A-pillar:
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Lights were very badly faded, and had a little overspray on them.
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The lower splitter area around the exhausts was badly stained, this was addressed using a light paintwork cleanser by hand:
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Rear quarter panel had some nice DA sanding marks,
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As did the rear door,
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Passenger door was pretty badly scratched, the lower section also had overspray and some nasty defects which we managed to massively improve but not fully correct due to the poor paint quality in the area.
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Once the paintwork was refined, LSP of choice was Auto Finesse Desire, two thin even layers were applied to ensure maximum coverage/durability. Usual extras e.g. Glass, Tyres etc were all completed.
So, the finished results!
The owner was totally blown away with the results!
Thanks for looking guys! Comments, questions etc welcome as usual!
Nathan & Gaz
