BMW e46 M3 SMG - Enhancement Detail

[jonjay]

BMW M3 SMG – Paint Enhancement

Some of you might remember Dean car I detailed last year, the 106 Turbo pushing 450BHP. Detail thread can be found here: http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=218668

As it’s not an everyday car, Dean decided to purchase an M3 to keep him busy during the week. He found a beautiful example but it needed sprucing up and protection for the winter. Here is what I found when I turned up at 8:30am.

Products
Wash n Drying
Meguairs NXT Tech Shampoo
Dodo Juice Supernatural Shampoo
Meguairs All Purpose Cleaner
Chemical Guys Orange Degreaser
Autosmart Tardis
Bilberry Wheel Cleaner
Valet Pro Snow Foam
Super Plush drying towel
Chemical Guys and Meguairs microfibres

Body Work
Sonus Green Clay
Menzerna Final Finish (106FA)
Meguairs Metal Polish
Meguairs Last Touch

Glazes, Sealants and Waxes
Autoglym HD Wax
Chemical Guys Blitz
Ziano Z6 Gloss Enhancer Spray

Plastics, Rubbers and Glass
Chemical Guys New Look Trim Gel
Lusso Glass Polish
WD40

Tools
Meguiars G220 mk2 machine polisher
Karcher Pressure washer
Sonus foam applicators
Menzerna Polish Pad (Orange)
Sonus SwirlBuster Pad
Sonus Green Polishing Pad
Swissvax Detail Brush
Vikan Wheel Brushes
Polished Bliss Wheel and Arch Brush
Dodo Juice Buckets with Grit Guards
3M 3434 Masking Tape
500w Halogen

The weather was on our side and knowing the hard job in front I cracked on.

 

[jonjay]

Cleaned the wheels using a combination of Bilberry Wheel Cleaner, CG Orange Degreaser and Megs APC.

Cleaned all plastics and crevasses prior to the snow foam process.

 

[jonjay]

Valet Pro snow foam and wash

Clay process – car must have been clayed in its previous life as it came out pretty clean?

The BMW M3 needs taping all over. So many pad destroying areas!

 

[jonjay]

The problem with Grey or the advantage of grey cars is that it is very difficult to spot swirls unless you have perfect darkness with a single light source or the power of the sun (or a 3M sun gun if you can afford one). As I could see what I was correcting I decided with Dean that we would go for pure gloss. I chose a Menzerna Polishing Pad and Menzerna Final Finish.

Here are the results without any LSP.

I wiped the car down with Ziano Z6 Gloss Enhancer. For protection + shine, I chose Autoglym HD Wax and Chemical Guys Blitz. Hopefully this should see the car well protected for the coming months.

 

[jonjay]

Results

 

[jonjay]

 

[jonjay]

Massive thank you to Dean for keeping the faith with me and letting me detail his amazing M3 (I now want one). He is a top guy and we had a good chat about all things automotive. I would also like to say a special thank you to Liam (lm_gauci) for arriving late to the party and helping with the buffing of LSPs. He has an annoying habit but welcomed one of spotting the places I missed! Really enjoyed the detail and amazing company from both Dean and Liam.

Hope you all enjoyed the detail.


Detailers Notes
- Would the 3M sun gun help me achieve better results? Even if I did see all the RDS and Swirls would I have achieved better results….Probably but it’s a lot of money! Might be a cost worth paying to become a better detailer.
- BMW paint is hard but with multiple passes the results do come.
- I destroyed a pad because I didn’t tackle the hard tight areas first. This is a silly mistake on my part and maybe the limited time of the day made me rush stupidly.
- I love grey…amazing colour to detail and you get all the benefits of hiding RDS and Swirls in normal lighting conditions.

 

[D.K]

Good job Maz

 

[lm_gauci]

Very nice maz and im glad i was of service

 

[jonjay]

Cheers guys.

DK - your next soon bud

Liam - Thanks again mate. Next time we meet lets make it more of a social one rather than work related.

 

[R44MS K]

Lovely car!! car looks like it just stepped out of the showroom!

one of my fave BMWs and one of the best colours too!

 

[jonjay]

Lovely car!! car looks like it just stepped out of the showroom!

one of my fave BMWs and one of the best colours too!

Showroom!?!?...better than showroom condition

 

[Torred1771]

Nice work m8!

 

[itfben]

how long did the whole process take you mate?

 

[lm_gauci]

Showroom!?!?...better than showroom condition

Haha, that just reminded me of that bloke that walked past and asked you for a card.

how long did the whole process take you mate?

Normally takes a whole day.

 

[John-Cupra_TDI]

Nice work!!

 

[itfben]

Normally takes a whole day.

usually takes me this look to wash the thing let along clay and machine polish then wax!

stupid bloody pressure wash, id have more power from my shower head! slows the how process dwn taking forever to rinse anything

 

[jonjay]

I have been getting quicker and quicker the more cars I do. It all depends on the finish I am going for...ideally paint correction details should be over 2 days.

 

[itfben]

do you do a lot of detailing? or is it for your self and friends?

 

[jonjay]

do you do a lot of detailing? or is it for your self and friends?

I tried and do as much detailing as possible. Passion for me and a great learning curve so keeps me occupied and out of trouble.