This is a friend's car. in fact, the owner of this car is the guy who got me into waxing cars... but i took it to a much higher level after that!

Anyways, the car is usually zaino'ed or waxed every so often, and usually washed by the owner using a sheepskin mitt and, for the most part, proper washing media. However the car hasn't been polished since it was purchased back in 2006.

the car was scheduled for just a 2 step SIP/85RD polishing job, but once i got started, that combination wouldn't have been enough to take out all of the imperfections. after talking it over with the owner, he told me no matter the price, he wanted the car to look as good as i could make it.

total time on this detail was around 30 hours over three days.


Exterior[B]

-Wash
-1Z Anti-Insekt
-Valugard ABC paint Decontamination
-CG CWC
-Meg's mitt

-Wheels
-CG CWC
-CG Citrus Sticky Gel
-EZ detail brush
-Swissvax wheel brush
-OXO tire scrubber
-black shMITT
-ARO (tires)

-Wheel Wells
-Simple Green
-EZ detail Brush

Clay
-CG gray clay
-ONR lube


Polishing

-Exterior paint
-Meg's unigrit 2000 paper
-Meg's unigrit 3000 paper
-Meg's sanding block pad
-M95 via Black Wool pad @ 1000-1800RPM
-Menzerna SIP via Orange CCS pad @ 1000-2000RPM
-Menzerna PO85RD via blue 3M UK Ultrafina pad @ 1500-2000RPM
-Makita 9227C
-3M Yellow Foam Backing Plate
-1000w halogen lights
-ISA 50/50 wipedown
-DD Uber MF towels

-Exhaust
-#0000 steel wool
-1Z chrome polish

LSP

-Paint
-Swissvax Cleaner Fluid
-Swissvax Mystery
-FK1 # 425
-CG 530XL MF towels

-Wheels
-Swissvax Autobahn
-FK1 # 425
-Optimum opti-bond tire gel
-CG Barebones (wheel wells)

Glass
-Stoner's Invisible Glass
-Aquapel

Rubber trim
-1Z Gummi Pflege

Interior

-CG Leather Cleaner
-ARO (rubber mats)
-Aerospace 303 (floormats)
-1Z Cockpit Premium


Before:

The paint didn't even look black... it had a hint of gray in it from all the oxidation and imperfections. it had some pretty severe rain etching and RIDS.

the front bumper used to have a lip attached to the bottom, but it fell off from running over a parking stop. hence the scratches and leftover betalink on the bottom portions.














i was really surprised to see how dirty the clay was after only doing 1/2 of the roof, considering how the owner actually takes care of the car!



and from the other 1/2


























up close shot of the scratches
















now this scratch seen here is from a peice of a tire smacking the front of the car while driving on the highway. most of it was too deep to completely remove, but i tried as best i could without removing an excess of paint.











so i first tried M95 with a black wool pad to see if that would have enough bite.





as you can see, it looked better, but not good enough for me. si i decided to wet sand the scratch a little bit to round out the edges of the scratches to make it less noticeable. I decided to use 2000 grit followed by 3000 grit sanding paper for this.







this part came out with just M95 on the wool





after compounding out the scratches i went with a 50/50 on the hood.





After two passes with M95 on the black wool yeilded these results:







the un-polished part looks like a completely different color!

and the rest of the hood after compounding

 

another scratch which needed wet sanding









i only decided to use the M95 and wool on the horizontal surfaces, since they were the more damaged parts.


before/after two passes of SIP







another before/after








After polishing with 85RD and swissvax Cleaner Fluid
















For the exhaust i decided to use #0000 steel wool and 1Z chrome polish








Finished pictures!


Swissvax mystery- "Achieves a shine that goes beyond normal perceptions of shiny." -Detailersdomain.com































It's a mirror!!!!







most of the scratch was able to be removed. at least now it's not so noticeable.










Mirror!!






















Don't mind the dust, i wiped it off afterward.









thanks for looking, and have a happy thanksgiving!

Dom

 

WOW. That looks amazing man. You might wanna re-teach your buddy considering how bad of shape that car was in. But this is one of the best turn arounds ive seen in a while that car looks astonishing. Awesome work

 

good god! awesome work man.

 

another beautiful job. goes to show how hard black is to maintain, but how amazing it looks when perfected. great before and afters - especially the hood.

and was that your black 3 series i saw in the background looking dusty???

glad to see a true enthusiast's 3 series (manual trans)

 

Looks outstanding Dom

That thing had some nasty rain etching.

How many claybars did you use? Just 1? That thing was just after the roof.

 

great job

 

Awesome work

 

It's always satisfying to see the results on a black-colored car. Very nice job by the way!