I don't normally post this sort of thing but since this car was such a huge challenge I figured I'd go ahead and share it with everyone.

I was asked to clean up a 2008 BMW 335i for the daughter of a coworker before she sold it and I have to say this car had some of the hardest, most ill mannered paint I've ever encountered. And it was in much worse condition than I had suspected. The car has over 80,000 miles on it and is never garaged. She had just had some work done at the dealer and they washed it before she picked it up. Still...........

The wheels had brake dust caked in the bolt holes and inside the barrels of the wheels. I used Wheel Brightener to clean up that mess quickly.



A quick spray with Wheel Brightener, a few seconds of agitation with a brush, and the baked on crud just rinsed away.


The car might have just been washed, but it was in desperate need of claying. This is the crud that I picked up from just half of the small trunk lid.


Up next, a full visual inspection of the paint................

 

Swirls and scratches everywhere!!! This is the driver's side front fender:


The trunk lid:


The hood, including some deep scratches the look like they came from someone setting something on the hood and then dragging it off. The car owner swears she did not do this with her purse.


Next, the final results.............

 

Having worked on recent 3 Series BMWs in the past I thought this was going to be a piece of cake, other than those nasty scratches on the hood, of course. Boy, was I in for a shock when the paint just did not want to behave and the swirls wouldn't budge with a DA buffer and microfiber pads! I pulled out my rotary buffer and a foam polishing pad, but even that made barely a dent. So I stepped up to a wool pad and some M105 Ultra Cut Compound and that was a mixed bag - it removed most of the swirls but the paint really didn't like the wool pad as it left a ton of very fine swirls of its own. So I swapped out to a foam cutting pad and stayed with the M105 - brilliant!! At 1800 rpm it pulled out all the defects and left a beautiful finish.

As for those deep scratches, I knew there was only one solution: I wetsanded with 1500 grit on a DA, refined to 3000 grit, and then compounded out the sanding marks. Here's the result:


The same spot, close up:


The trunk lid:


The whole car:


After going over the whole car with M105 and a foam cutting pad on the rotary I went back over it with M205 Ultra Finishing Polish on the DA buffer to really enhance the depth and gloss, then finished it off with Gold Class Carnauba Plus. Needless to say, the owner was thrilled when she came back to pick the car up. I was beat as I hustled big time on this and completed the whole job in about 6 hours. If I'd had the entire weekend to really do it up, I know it could still look a bit better, but that law of diminishing returns thing comes into play and, well, she is planning on selling it in the next week or so.

Anyway, that's how I have fun on the weekends!

 

Wow, awesome job Mike....

 

Your 6 hours of hard work probably put about $2K in her pocket. I hope she looks after your efforts.
Great work.

 

ok when can you do mine?

 

~ nice work... what a huge difference!!!

ps - the first step for a bmw is... dust-free brake pads.

 

Thanks for your post Mike, I've learned alot from you in the last 4 years. Always informative.

 

+1 Ditto that...

 

always enjoy reading your threads, Mike, that looks like a different car after 6 hours in your possession

 

Thanks for the props, guys! By the way, it should be noted that the 6 hours put in here was seriously hustling. I don't think I've ever worked so fast on a car, and that's because I was losing a lot of time just trying to find a mix that would work on this car. If this had been my car and I had the whole weekend to work on it, I probably would have spent at least double that time on it. Heck, when I bought my 2005 Crossfire back in the summer of 2007, brand spanking new I might add, the paint had been so swirled up by dealers in those two years that I spent 20 hours over several days buffing it to get it where I wanted it. That's a lot of time for a two seat car with no roof!!

 

Mike,
You are the resident expert! No question!

 

You certainly are the best! Excellent job and I enjoy reading all the information that you have posted.

 

Looks beautiful Mike
The next owner will be proud to be seen in that car.

 

Like others, want to say thank you for all you provide here – I learn a lot from reading your posts. I use some of the quick detailing advice you gave on other posts but still haven’t gotten the guts to do clay bar myself – but I learned what to look for now in paying for great detailing outfit.

 

With that shine and great looking rims, it would not surprise me if she decided to keep the car and not sell! As always, you are the master detailer and I recommend your posts everytime a newbie has questions about the paint.