E90 BMW 330D Le Mans Blue - 2 Stage Correction Detail

[jonjay]

E90 BMW Le Mans Blue BMW 330D – 2 Stage Paint Correction Detail – The Bavarian Bad boy.

Karl has been saying to me for me to detail his old Seat Leon for around 3 years that its become a running joke every time I see him. !!!!Finally!!!! with the purchase of the “Bavarian bad boy” he decided to let me and Rodger loose to see what we could do on the Le Mans blue paintwork.

The car is a lovely E90 330D M-sport with karl being the third owner. It is in good condition and covered 55k however as with all cars you never quite know what you’re letting yourself in for until she is decontaminated and under the scrutiny of the lights.

Here is how she looked when Karl turned up (15minutes early!)


BEFORE DETAIL PICS

Products we used during the course of the day.

Products
Wash n Drying

• AutoFinesse Lather Shampoo [body and wheels]
• AutoSmart G101 All Purpose Cleaner [Plastics and Rubbers]
• AutoSmart Tardis [body and wheels]
• Valet Pro Snowfoam [body]
• Chemical Guys Strong Wash [bugs + Tar]
• Chemical Guys Orange Degreaser [arch liners]
• Wolfs Chemicals De-ironiser [wheels]
• Valet Pro Bilberry Wheel Cleaner [wheels]
• PB Super Plush Drying Towel [body]
• Various microfibers [body]

Body Work

• Dodo Juice fine polyclay [body]
• AutoSmart Reglaze [everything]
• Menzerna Intensive Polish (P106FA) [refining]
• Britemax Pure Cut [Compounding]
• AutoFinesse Rejuvenate [hard to reach areas]

Sealants and Waxes

• Collinite 476s Double Auto Wax [LSP]
• AutoFinesse Tripple [Door shuts and interior shiny plastics]

Plastics, Rubbers and Glass

• Megs Tyre Endurance Gel [tyres]
• Megs NXT Metal Polish [exhaust]
• 3M Glass Cleaner [glass inside and out]
• AutoSmart Finish [Plastics and arch liners]
• WD40 [Plastics and Rubbers]

Tools

• Dodo Juice Spin Doctor Rotary
• Megs G220 DA
• Karcher Pressure washer + Snow foam Lance
• Elite Car Care Heavy Polishing Pad
• Chemical Guys Hex light polishing pad
• Dodo Juice Maxi Marino wool pads
• Swissvax Detail Brushes
• EZ Detail Wheel Brush
• 3M 3434 Masking Tape

08:30am Rodger and I got cracking.

 

[jonjay]

CLEAN STAGE

Wheels were cleaned with Bilberry Wheel cleaner and then treated with Wolfs Deironiser. As with a lot of second hand cars it seems people never seem to clean their wheels properly. They are due for a refurb (anthracite grey Karl?)

Degreaser applied to bodywork and rinsed.

De-ironiser left to dwell.

SNOWFOAM

 

[jonjay]

INSPECTION

OH DEAR…rock hard BMW paint and a bad back came to mind.

 

[jonjay]

 

[jonjay]

CLAYING + PDG Readings

Door may have been painted in the past

Normal paint readings

 

[jonjay]

BONNET

Before

After

1/3 of the bonnet done and some really deep scratches to deal with later on during the second stage.

Door Shuts

Autofinesse Tripple works so well on door shuts in my new no.1 for this task.

 

[jonjay]

CLARITY IMPROVEMENTS

These two pictures show just how much clarity was gained during the compounding stage.

…..SOME MORE 50/50’S

REAR BOOT

 

[jonjay]

What the rear boot looked like after I hit it with a wool pad and Britemax Pure Cut twice. Rodger then refined the finish with a combination of 106FA and 85RD. The huge RDS was still slightly present however we agreed that we simply has to move on.

Having two detailers on one car was brilliant for making up lost time. Whilst I was compounding Rodger was chasing me refining the paint work. Refining Stage did an amazing job in adding incredible gloss and shine!

Dressing the tyres and nice reflection shot of what I would look like in the future with no hair. Lol!

 

[jonjay]

RESULTS

 

[jonjay]

Karl, Rodger and me where all overwhelmed by the results. I cannot stress what a transformation the car was to when we first saw it. I believe 95% of all the swirls and RDS where gone. Yes there was some deep ones left behind that we could not correct in the allocated time but Karl said we would see the car again soon (what are friends for ey?)!

Thanks karl and see you on the 23nd in the Bavarian section of the rolling road day! Lol!

Detailers Notes
- Detailing with another detailer saves so much time as you can bounce ideas of each other and really put in the extra detail in where it counts.
- Britemax Pure Cut is a really good product. Brakes down quite quickly however it does what it says on the tin.
- DJ Maxi Marino wool pad rocks!
- Refining stage after hard compounding makes all the difference.

 

[J@mes W]

As always... absolutely amazing, such a huge improvement. I love reading these threads, especially yours as you document them so well. I actually feel like i learn something new every time i read one of your correction threads. Keep 'em coming!

 

[Ibiza 130 tdi]

Looks epic afterwards! Cant believe the state of the paint to start with!!!! It looks terrible! But the shine afterwards is absolutely lovely! Definitely needed the TLC of you guys!

Good work done guys!

 

[strugers1]

thanks huys im so happy with the results its unreal...
you never fail to amaze me

 

[D.K]

Great results as always Maz

 

[t0m]

Massive improvement!

 

[n_d_fox]

Looks awesome in the afters mate... was thinking the same (hard paint, bad back) when looking through the damage pics but it worked out nicely in the end.

How did you find the paint ? The 1 series i did in the summer was rock hard but marked really easily when wiping down etc, very strange paint... i've read recently that BMW use water based paints now which is why they are usually covered in orange peel but so hard...

Loving the work though, hope your keeping busy

 

[jonjay]

Cheers everyone.

Looks awesome in the afters mate... was thinking the same (hard paint, bad back) when looking through the damage pics but it worked out nicely in the end.

How did you find the paint ? The 1 series i did in the summer was rock hard but marked really easily when wiping down etc, very strange paint... i've read recently that BMW use water based paints now which is why they are usually covered in orange peel but so hard...

Loving the work though, hope your keeping busy

The paint was very hard but not as hard as my BMW paint. Some of the panels were sprayed which i think was the cause however it was done by a BMW dealer so they used same materials as factory so still pretty hard by VAG standards.

Hit some of the panels 3-4 times so 1000000% needed refining afterwards which is what really brought the clarity into the finish. Compounding stage literally just got rid of swirls and scratches nothing more.

Some BMs are worse than others for orange peel. My black one is average I would say but not doubt when I detail her properly it should flatten down a bit. I contemplated wet sanding the whole car but its a huge job and one I would need over a week to do.

 

[jonjay]

Some more pictures of this lovely BMW. Pretty please with results and should see her back soon for further improvement.

 

[strugers1]

actually love my car

 

[Claki]

How much is a detail like this worth?