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
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