[Noggie]

Thought I'd start a detailing thread for my M550d Touring.

I bought this car in May, and left the country for 4 weeks 9 days after getting the car.

Now that I am finally back, I decided it needed a proper detailing job.

I usually do these over two days so this will be day 1. wash and preparations.

My car is a 2012, 29.000km, and was bought at a BMW dealer. The car sat in the showroom for 6 months before I bought it, and was therefore "showroom prepped" when I got it.
needless to say, I was not impressed.

Today I started with a deep clean wash, this is typically a 2-3 hour job.

My car before wash, washed 2 days ago and not very dirty..... you would think.





This is the state of the paint before I cleaned the car, lots of swirls, and washing scratches, previous owner may have used a machine wash.







Ill take you through my deep clean process, this is what I do before performing any paint correction to my cars, not my typical cleaning routine. This is a typical "spring cleaning", and something I normally do once a year.

Start off by removing any grime from the paint by using a good de-greaser.
Since I want everything off the car, I use Bilt Hamber Surfex HD, mixed to 20%, this is strong stuff, and 20% is my standard wheel cleaner. But I want everything off the car before paint correction is done.





After this has sat on the car a few minutes, I use Bilt Hamber Autofoam, to "snow foam" the car, note that I did not rinse off the de-greaser first, just put the foam on top.





when most of the foam has run off the car, I use warm water and my pressure washer to rinse the car.

The I use a typical two bucket hand wash with a microfiber mitten.

Which brings us to this result, not too bad.





But, there is still plenty of contaminants in the paint.
After the car has dried, I apply Bilt Hamber Korrosol, which is a deep cleansing fluid, it is like water, but turns pink when in contact with contaminants.





Guess the car was not clean after all, I did this twice, the second time there was very little pink, so after a rinse it was time for.......
The clay bar.



I split my bar in two parts, then put one part in hot water and use the other part, this way I keep changing clay, and always have a soft one to work with.
When using it I just mix a water and car shampoo in a spay bottle for lubricant.

Now that the paint is clean, I can assess the "damage", there was a lot of cleaning scratches, and the clay bar also adds some more, but it has to get worse before it can get better.

This is now what I have to work with.







Like I said I do this in two days.
Day one is wash and prep, now the car is parked in my garage to fully dry over night.
Tomorrow I will start with the paint correction and go through a two stage machine polish, before I apply the final top coat.


Day two:

Started with my Flex oscillating machine, and a medium grit pad, I am currently using G-Techniq P2 Hologram remover, but I will make the switch to Swissvax cleaner fluid medium once I have finished the hologram remover. basically this is a medium pad, and a medium compound.
This is Stage 1. After about 4 hours I had done done the paint correction, this will remove most of the scratches in the paint and bring out that mirror finish.



This is my first white car, and I must admit it was a challenge, t was very hard to see if the scratches was being removed or not.
Here are some 50/50 shots, I had to edit these quite a bit to bring out the effect I wanted, but you should see a clear line where I have polished, and not.

This is the C-pillar


and this is just above the BMW roundel on the trunk.



I did do a bit more in those areas so I was satisfied with the result in the end, however it is always exiting the first time you take it out in the sun.

Then I go for stage two, now I use the same machine, but a fine pad, and Swissvax cleaner fluid professional, this is a fine grit pad, and a fine compound, to bring out that extra gloss.
This takes me 45 minutes, as the hard work was done in stage 1.



After this I apply the final wax. for the summertime I use Swissvax Concorso for extra gloss, and as you can see it reflects well in my roof.



Then I took the car outside, no sun unfortunately but it did look much better than before.

This is my finished C-pillar, no scratches, just a perfect reflection of the clouds, quite a contrast to the picture I posted further up



remember that gloss piano trim on the B-pillar.... looks like a piano now.



Some close ups.





And some of the whole car.

[Dan1416]

Great work. Can't wait to see the final result

[remmib]

Great write-up so far.

I use the Bilt Hamber Surfex HD too, great stuff. I also use Prickbort.
Haven't tried the Bilt Hamber Korrosol, so I wonder if it's stinks like Iron-X does?

[Noggie]

Originally Posted by remmib

Great write-up so far.

I use the Bilt Hamber Surfex HD too, great stuff. I also use Prickbort.
Haven't tried the Bilt Hamber Korrosol, so I wonder if it's stinks like Iron-X does?

Prickbort is my normal de-greaser, but before a detailing like this I use stronger stuff

Korrosol smells much like P21s wheel cleaner, or somewhat like bubble gum.
It is pretty much the same type of product like iron-x. First time I used it today, very happy with it.

I could not stay away from the car tonight, just spent about 2 hours polishing, well one side of the car
Started with my medium pad and polish, but after doing the rear wing, both doors and the front wing I was not happy and started over, taking my time with the rest, so I guess we are talking 4 hours before I am finished with the paint correction, it's when you start a job like this you realize just how big a 5-series really is

Anyway, more pictures will be added to the first post tomorrow.

[ARC550]

It's beautiful .

[Noggie]

First post updated with the final process and end result.

[remmib]

Well done.

It's by first white car too, and it was indeed hard to see the imperfections in the paint when I polished it.

[Detailers Domain]

great job!

[Dan1416]

Great job!

[satzinger]

Very nice work! Now, go and detail the inside! :-)

[Noggie]

Originally Posted by satzinger

Very nice work! Now, go and detail the inside! :-)

I did, but did not bother making a post on it as the inside looked good and would not show a significant difference in pictures.
However there are some interior pictures here http://f10.5post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1053324

Actually just re-did the outside as winter preparations, removing the Swissvax Concorso (deep gloss wax) with Shield (PTFE wax with less gloss but better protection).

[Mbbrewer]

i wish i had a white car. I wouldn't give 2 sh!ts about swirls.

[bozkj]

Hey Noggie - just curious if you've needed to wax your 550d again since the initial detailing. I'm interested in your approach and products you use. I've read a little bit about needing to remove old wax if re-polishing but haven't seen much regarding products or steps.

Thanks in advance.

[Noggie]

Originally Posted by bozkj

Hey Noggie - just curious if you've needed to wax your 550d again since the initial detailing. I'm interested in your approach and products you use. I've read a little bit about needing to remove old wax if re-polishing but haven't seen much regarding products or steps.

Thanks in advance.

Hi.

I did apply a new wax in November as I mentioned a few posts up, but that was just to get a more durable protection during the winter, not because it needed it.

I cleaned the car, and did a proper degreasing. Pretty much the same as the cleaning I did in my first post.
After that I took my machine and went with a fine pad and fine compound, took about an hour.
This was not to remove any scratches or anything, just to give it a quick run over before the new wax. This step also removes any leftovers of old wax.

Since I did a two step detailing in June, there was no need to do any scratch removing detailing.
Once this is done you can actually get away with a quick polish for quite some time. Something like what I did in this thread is something you need to do every two years or so.

I originally used swissvax concorso, a high gloss wax with about 6 months expected lifespan.
For winter I use swissvax shield, a more durable wax with Teflon and an expected lifespan of 10-12 months.

In April I will do another session as summer prepp and use the concorso wax again.
This may require a job somewhere in between the first job, and the one I did in November as winter tends to add more scratches than summertime, due to it being more wet, salty roads, more sand and stuff on the roads so the paint gets a beating during winter, hence why I opt for a Teflon wax during winter.

[sweetazzj186]

Wow car looks great!

[P1]

Nice work mate! I've had the same Flex as you for YEARS and that machine is bullet proof.

[bicoven]

Hi Noggie, your car looks incredibly nice. Did you apply wax on the wheels as well - what is your approach to cleaning and protecting the wheels?

[Noggie]

Originally Posted by bicoven

Hi Noggie, your car looks incredibly nice. Did you apply wax on the wheels as well - what is your approach to cleaning and protecting the wheels?

I normally use p21s non-acidic wheel cleaner for easy cleaning. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes.
If I have really dirty wheels I use bilt hamber surfed HD, mixed 20-30% in water, let that sit for a while too.
If I'm cleaning for storage or before waxing I also use bilt hamber korrosol, after cleaning as a last step, or you can use iron-X which is pretty much the same to get out carbon contaminants first.

For gloss and protection I use swissvax autobahn wheel wax.

Do not use acidic wheel cleaner this will ruin your wheels.
If you use p21s or similar, get a wheel brush and use that.
the high quality wheel brushes are almost like a paint brush.