Best BMW in show at Alexandra Palace.
Had a bit of a run lately on carbon black M3's, this modified one was booked in to refine the finish after a recent full re-spray and prepare ready for a performance car show this weekend.
Upon inspection the paintwork was pretty reasonable with a fairly decent finish, some light swirls, rds visible and the gloss was slightly muted, unfortunately in areas there were some sanding prep marks under the clear which are going to be dealt with again at a later date.
All in all 24 working hours were spent bringing it up to an acceptable standard.
Day 1.
Upon arrival.
First job to start was the fabric hood,
Vacuumed,
Scrubbed with a soft nail-type brush and G101,
Alloys, tyres & arches then cleaned with various brushes and AS smartwheels & G101 respectively,
Shuts, panel gaps, engine bay and trim cleaned using G101 and a soft detailing brush,
Pressure rinsed of, followed by a warm citrus pre-wash applied to entire vehicle and rinsed, 1st application of warm Megs Hyperwash applied via the foam lance and left to dwell,
Rinsed and another another application of foam applied in a weaker solution, followed by washing with Megs shampoo+ using the TBM in the usual manner,
Rinsed and dried using Uber plush towels, tardis applied to tar areas, clayed using Megs mild and last touch,
Re-washed, rinsed and dried,
At this point my good mate Bryan Drive 'n' shine turned up to lend a hand correcting the lion share of the defects and to give me a bit of a head start on the rest of the car, after a chat and a few cups of coffee we made a start, both started of with 106Fa on a megs pad but we soon realised this needed to be upped, so we decided upon Megs 83 which knocked back about 80%, after about 5 hrs and a good laugh, Bryan made his journey back to Surrey before the traffic built up.
As I had been keen to crack on I forgot to go round taking defect pics but managed this 50/50,
After Bryan's departure I went round with a Megs polishing pad & 100mm ccs pad with Fast cut+ to the remaining defects,
Packed away for the night and still plenty to do,
Day 2.
Bright and early, haven't had heating since Monday so it was probably warmer in the garage than indoors,
Continued polishing the difficult to reach areas with the 100mm pad, whilst I was under the rear valance the exhausts were polished using a mixture of britemax metal duo, Autosol and wire wool,
Lights polished before and after,
Paintwork now refined using a 3M polishing pad and Menz po85rd,
With all the machining complete the alloys were clayed followed by polishing and sealing using Britemax metal, arches and engine bay dressed using AS Finish,
Vehicle was now pulled outside to get a better look,
Zym@l Hd cleanse was then applied, found this works really well on carbon black, all removed, 1st coat of Blackfire gel to the tyres and typically it started to rain,
Starting to take shape now, interior was given the once over with the vac, trim wiped down and leather fed with Zaino Z10,
Put back in the garage and a second application of tyre gel applied, alloys sealed once again with Zaino C-Seal,
1st layer of SV Best of show applied and left to cure whilst the glass was cleaned throughout and the exterior trim dressed,
Wax removed,
Night shot before putting away for the evening,
Day 3.
Another early start and not a paricularly nice day weather wise, I was keen to grab the first break in the weather for some finished shots, so dusted down with the Z fluffy, and the 2nd layer of
Bos applied and removed, rain stopped briefly so pulled outside and pics taken, then quickly put back in.
The fabric hood given a quick vac again followed by some G-techniq upholstery guard,
A final wipedown with some Zaino
Z8 spray sealant/gloss enhancer and all ready for the client to pick up on the trailer and go straight to the show,
Results.
Sorry about the poor light,
Trailer arrives and after many attempts getting the rear wheels clear of the sides (3-4 mm each side) it's finally on and covered, absolutely gutted about the weather.
After a brief guide to the client about wiping down etc.. when getting to the venue, it was covered over with light bodyshop sheeting, fingers crossed it doesn't take too much abuse from the roads.
Thanks for looking.
