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BMW 320cd M-Sport

5K views 12 replies 11 participants last post by  Y25dps 
#1 · (Edited)
Slowly over the past few months my wallet and bank balance has dwindled all thanks to me joining this forum, so it seems only right for me to pay you all back for that very kind service by starting a thread to document my progress.

Being 18 this obviously means I have a huge amount to learn compared with most of the people on this very forum but I find it very relaxing and love having a go trying out new things, even if the results are not that great.

Now when I first started reading this forum I had my first car which was a white 1.0L Polo 6N2. I only really washed this and kept it clean and tidy. I did however hand polish it once and even tried waxing it as well.

So two weeks ago I got my second car which is a considerable upgrade over the 1.0L Polo that came before it. A BMW 320cd M-Sport.



Its a a lovely 1 owner from new Estoril Blau car that has covered 94,000 miles from new. It features full black leather interior with wood trim. Lots of optional extras and a really well specd car. And the best part is it was only bought from the neighbour across the road.

Insurance will be a big question I know but lets just say that with a black box the insurance was the same price as the renewal quote for the 1.0L Polo.

Now to bring you up to speed with what I have done with it since I've owned the car.

Firstly all the wheels were taken off for a thorough clean and check over. Ideally they could do with a refurbish but they will do for now as the car is a daily driver. I did however replace the old center caps with new ones as the original BMW logos were starting flake off. I also fitted a new OEM bonnet badge as the old one was going in a similar direction as the wheel center caps. Before I fitted the badges I applied two layers of UV protecting sealant over them so hopefully they should last a while now they are also protected from the start.

Up next was thorough clean under the bonnet to make sure that my OCD was satisfied and also so that I could see if anything was hiding under a very thin layer of dust and grime. Very good under there for this age of car to be honest.

Number plates were the next task, having taken my personalised registration (might give you a hint where my username came from) off my Polo it was now time to fit the number plates onto the BMW but I could not bring myself to drill holes into the bodywork. Instead I used something that I had seen done on here before, I stuck the plates on and then stuck on the screw cover caps which then cover the old holes in the number plate. Really pleased with this and saved me the cost of new plates as well.

The wing repeaters were the only part of the car that let it down in my eyes because they had gone cloudy which was a shame for such a perfect car. Being LED units they are no chea to replace for genuine BMW items and I didn't want to start diluting the quality of the car with substandard parts. Instead I went onto amazon and ordered a pack of wet and dry paper and set to work. Suffice to say that one they were sanded down and polished up by hand they were looked a million times better than before. Rather than let them go back to their previous state I applied some UV sealant to protect the finish that I had achieved.

Last but not least it was time for a wash. I started off using Power Maxed TFR in a pressure sprayer and followed this up with a 2BM wash as learnt from here. The car wash then given a good rinse down and dried with an Auto Finesse Aqua Deluxe Drying Towel. Plastic were then dressed with Autoglym Bumper Care. Now looking and feeling the paint of the car I could see that it was in rather good condition after 14 years with very few swirls compared with my Mum and Dads car. The previous owner used to polish the car yearly and top that off with Autoglym EGP. I didn't have time to polish the car by hand that day and with exams coming up I would not be able to for a few weeks yet. So I opted to put two coats of wax onto the car in the state it was in, just to tide me over until life is a little less mad and busy. I opted for my new pot of FK1000p as I was really eager to try this out and see what it was like. Lets just say even with no prep I am extremely impressed. Can't wait to do it properly.

Sorry for a lack of pictures over the course of these few weeks, either forgot or was pushed for time when doing these things in between revision and school.

I did however get out for a few nice photos last week so enjoy those for now.
Rob









 
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#9 ·
Thanks for all the nice comments guys.

Thankfully the swirl flaps were done by the previous owner so no issues with those. Read some horror stories on the internet about them though.

Nothing to update really as a busy week at school finishing Product Design Coursework, hopefully give it a wash this weekend though as the dirty rain has properly spoilt the look of it.
 
#10 · (Edited)
Christ where has the time gone, its coming up to two years since my first post in this thread. That definitely wasn't the plan. Well I'll start with a small update on myself, I finished school in summer 2018 with some half decent A-Level grades and managed to get myself onto a well paid apprenticeship (Good to pay for my detailing addiction) in engineering.

Anyway back to the car, at the beginning of the summer I started attending a number of shows and thought why not enter the car instead of leaving it in the public car park. Although in my eyes this involved a week long detailing session (Good way to use my time off after exams) before the main show of the year with one of my mates. This involved a hand polish using Autoglym SRP and two coats of FK1000p, which made the car look so glossy it was unbelievable. The neighbour who used to own the car came over whilst I was detailing and commented about how the car had changed colour since he last owned it, which was really pleasing to see that he'd noticed my hard work had made a difference.
Not long after the show I was on the look out for another set of wheels for the car and perhaps refurb with the rest of the time I had off before starting my apprenticeship. I wasn't in any rush for a set so kept an eye out and eventually picked up a set of Style 32 wheels for a very decent price and in need of a refurb. In short after sanding down one of the wheels, I knew that deep down a back garden refurb was never going to live up to my standards or the cars current condition.

I instead decided to spend part of my first months wages on a refurb in a standard silver colour. The wheels came with 3 decent tyres and one punctured rear, so I replaced the punctured rear tyre with a tyre that matched the other side and now I had a set of Summer Wheels. They were coated with 2 layers of FK1000p to ensure that they were easy to maintain and stayed as clean as possible.
Wheels were swapped onto the winter set in December 2018, perfect. Just in time for them salting the roads, this was my first time driving the car in the ice and snow. Scary to start with but I soon became happy although getting out of the estate proved difficult on a few occasions. The wheels were swapped back onto the summer set in late March 2019, which meant the start of the show season.

The car doesn't cover a great deal of miles (less than 6,000 a year to be precise) so only local shows were on the cards at the minute. I attended one local show and the amount of positive comments I received was really lovely to hear, especially after the amount of time and effort I put into it. I also gained a very useful contact for the future in a dent repair man who I might get around in the future to remove a couple of very small parking dents.
The car sadly failed its MOT last year, because the brake line was slightly cracked where it mounts onto the strut. This was only through the outer casing and something that was missed from a check over prior to the MOT. A quick trip to the ECP and a swap over of the brake pipe at home and a clean retest was complete. Another nice comment from the tester saying that the car was still in mazing condition (same bloke tested it last year).

Just after the MOT I also removed the front plate holder because it always seemed like an after thought in my opinion compared with the rest of the car and made the front end look cumbersome. I didn't want to refit the large number plate cause this would have overhung the lower grill, so a thinner plate similar to the ones they used to put on Clios was ordered and duly fitted.

The detailing kit at this time was also being continually added to with more products seemingly arriving every week (you guys really are convincing with reviews aha)
One of the detailing items, was Dr Leather cleaner. To say that it improved the cars seats was an understatement, although only the front and the arm rest because apart from a few of my friends the rear seats had never been sat in during the previous owners time with the car. Amazing.
The great summer evenings also meant some great moorland drives and impromptu photoshoots, although the blackbox was still present at this time so only careful smooth driving was applicable.
I'd also purchased some parts that were either missing or broken within the car such as the strap that is used to lift the boot floor, a small plastic cover that covers one of the bolts in the boot, some new wheel nut covers as I was never happy with the original set I bought and also some new diffuser screws as the others were going rusty.

I decided to go over the car with a fine inspection listing everything that I would like to do with the car over the coming years (funds and circumstances allowing) I ideally wanted to refurb the headlights because after a number of years the UV coating had started to fail. I sanded back the lights initially with 1500 wet and dry all the way to 3000 grit in small stages. The lights were then sanded back using a drill and some Meguairs PlactX, they came up ok but in hindsight they weren't as good as I'd hoped.

The car again attended a few local shows and I just enjoyed driving it (still with the blackbox for another year, money saving) The only part that I had fail on me was one of the rear wheel speed sensors but this was ordered and replaced on the drive and everything was sorted in no time. Dad and I also replaced one of the rear wheel bearings which turned out to be a lot harder than it looks due to the hub nut literally being seized solid, thankful a helpful friend had a impact gun far more powerful than ours which removed it with ease (I think ours loosed it first though aha).


The winter wheels had a new set of front tyres as the originals were past they're best and a decent deal popped up on two new fronts for a very good price, although much to my annoyance I ran out of time this winter to actually swap the wheels over so the summer wheels did a full winter. Thankfully the little driving I do, combined with the very mild winter and the regular cleaning of them made it a little easier to bear but I'm adamant it won't happen again.

A few weeks before the lockdown and social distancing came into force I also managed to pick up a set of bootlid lights (mine have gone dull and the plastic has cracked all the way through) and a spare set of headlights at decent price should anything occur to mine whilst in use (always have a spare as they say) I have also gotten rid of the blackbox insurance due to the price without one finally being cheaper than with, although in the current situation its not like I'm driving it anywhere anyway.

Bringing myself up to present day then, with the ongoing lockdown and me been off work with coursework. It has given me some time to carry out some jobs that I've been meaning to do or was planning to do soon. Firstly the wheels were all removed, cleaned and sealed with Fk1000p and Detailed Online Ultima wax. The arches also received a deep clean and the painted parts were protected with Fk1000p whilst the plastics were treated with EZ Car Care Trim Gel. The interior was up next with a hoover, wipe down with Autoglym interior shampoo and dressed with Detailed Online Natural Dressing, the seats and steering wheel were quickly cleaned with Dr Leather cleaner whilst the mats were given a quick wet vac and left to dry in the sun. I also removed all the tools from the rear toolbox and decided to spend an hour polishing them up and coating them with a layer of wax, the toolbox was also wiped clean with Autoglym Interior Shampoo. The rear lights were removed yesterday and not only were the recesses cleaned but also the rear of the light units and protected with Detailed Online Ultima wax. Finally, the wipers were removed and the surface slightly keyed using a Scothpad and 4 layers of Satin Black paint were applied.




My newest purchase arrived this morning, in the form of a DA Polisher which I'll be trying out on a few test panels in the coming days along with some Solution Finish to black off some of the trim for longer than my current solution. I've also sent an image off to see if I can get a replica sticker for the toolbox made up. Jobs to complete in the coming days/weeks/months include replacing the wing repeaters with a new set as they're one of the few thing letting the car down, polish up and fit my new rear bootlid lights and also the current headlights that are fitted to the car and fingers crossed if I get up to speed enough with the DA I might try and polish a few panels as well.

PS: Apologies for the lack of pictures but I hope that my detailed write up helps understand what I have done to the car over the past two years. I've made it one of my aims to try and keep this thread updated over the coming months and hopefully beyond when fingers crossed another car should be joining the fleet as well.
 
#12 ·
Lovely car, great choice on the style 32 wheels, always wanted some for mine. This was mine, mystic blau metallic which looked dark in the shade and mega light in the sun. Loved the car but numerous cooling issues and then a DMF failing put a bad light on it.



Think the coupe's look much better though so yours is a gem! thought about getting rear windows tinted lightly?
 
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