FIRST OFF, as always a MASSIVE thanks to my buddy Mark Many thanks Mate! You might need a cup of tea/coffe for this one as its a biggie. sorry about the number of pictures but was just a lot going on with this detail. The car in question is a 2008 BMW E60 530d that is owned by a good friend of mine. The car has been used for a few years now as the kiddy bus and general daily hack. The car was in need of a good detail as he is thinking of selling it for a newer model.. When the car arrived it was generally in good condition, covered in road grime no obvious signs of any protection and the interior had a far bit of sawdust as he has a business manufacturing timber products. The wheels also had a few kerb marks that he was looking to have removed but did not want to go to the expense of a refurb so these repairs will be carried out in house. On inspection the rear bumper had seen a bit of a repair that needed a tidy up and there were signs of previous machine polishing in the form of buffer trails over the entire car and a strike through just above the rear tail light. Again these would be repaired during the course of the detail. Here is the car when it arrived: First up we started on the Wheels. Products used. Orchard Autocare Iron Cleanse Orchard Autocare Wheel Cleanse Orchard Autocare Tar Cleanse. I used both Wheel Cleanse and Iron Cleanse to show the different methods of cleaning wheels. The wheels were heavily contaminated the rears had never been cleaned from new and the front faced had several thousand miles of dust and grime build up to contend with. Product was sprayed and left to soak for approx. 10 minutes, the Wheel cleanse was agitated with a wheel brush and the Iron Cleanse was rinsed off. As you can see in the pictures below the Iron Cleanse will also start the removal process on other bonded contaminants like tar etc. it will remove the smaller spots and begin to loosen the bond on the more stubborn bits. Once the wheels were cleaned Tar Cleanse was applied and left to soak for 10-15 mins. To remove most of the tar on the front face of the wheel. Wheel Cleanse applied to the wheels Iron Cleanse applied to the wheels. Now to get rid of the tar left behind. Iron cleanse removing the stubborn tar. Next up the car was covered in Orchard Autocare Citrus Preclean. This product allows for the bonded road contamination to be easily removed before the wash stage begins, thus reducing the risk of adding additional marks during the wash stage. This was applied at a ratio of 50:1 and left to dwell for 10 mins. Next the car was washed using Orchard Autocare’s amazing cotton Candy snow foam and our new super concentrate shampoo using a 2 bucket method. Once washed, the bodywork was treated to a deep clean using: Orchard Autocare Iron Cleanse to remove any bonded iron contamination. Orchard Autocare Tar Cleanse to remove all remaining bonded tar from the bodywork and glass. Clayed using Bilt Hambre Autoclay. The engine bay and all door shuts were also treated with Orchard Autocare APC and rinsed. Next up we had to address the wheel arches and the inner rim of the alloys. The wheels were removed and treated with Orchard Autocare Iron Cleanse and left to dwell as we worked on the arches. Sometimes it took a few applications to get all the bonded contamination removed. Next up were the wheel arches. Again treated to Orchard Autocare Citrus Preclean and powerhosed. Next they were sprayed with Tar Cleanse to remove all tar build up. Finally sprayed with Autosmart Finish as I wanted this to dry before painting began. It would also prevent any overspray from sticking to plastics if the worst happened and my masking failed lol! Engine bay was also finished off and plastics dressed. Whilst the wheels were off the nuts also received a bit of paint to freshen them up. When everything had dried, the car was brought back into the studio the body was covered in 3M dust cover and the arches were prepped ready to give the suspension a quick tidy up. The object was more to freshen it up rather than a full scale restoration so dust covers, struts and arms were all painted in their correct colours. Then the hub was painted black to finish it off nicely. Finally now it’s time to get round to the wheels. Firstly the tyres were broken off the bead and then masked off using proper tyre masking paper thd about a roll of tape the bacs were also masked off to prevent overspray onto the rear of the wheel. All 4 wheels were suffering from minor kerbing and these were taken out and then the wheel painted using a factory code paint we got mixed up and sprayed using a paint gun rather than rattle cans. Then dried off using UV heaters and the clear coat was applied. This is what I love doing something different and having fun doing it… didn’t take any pics doing it as I was not sure how it would turn out so really have to do it next time! Really happy with the results and can’t wait to do more. Got a load of scrap rims form the local scrap yard to tidy then hand them back to be melted down lol! Bow once all that was sorted it’s time to get the wheels back on get her on the ground and address the bodywork. Once full y inspected and a plan of action thought up, it was obvious the car had not been painted before and on looking back over paint readings of similar cars we had previously completed it was obvious that the paint was on average about 3 -5 microns lower than what we would normally see, confirming the buffer trails that the car had been machine polished previously. The front suffered from a bit of rash and the car was covered in bird lime etching that would also need removed. On top of general swirling, there were several deep RDs that would not be able to be removed so these would be reduced and made less noticeable. Before we start detailing “THE DUDE” had to work his magic. Some say he can remove a dent just by looking at it all we know is this man is one of the best in the UK and she will be flawless once he is finished! Our method for correction was the Meguiar’s Microfiber system using a coolpad. We used this as it has a great paint levelling ability great on BMW’s without having to resort to sanding the life out of them. Next we returned to the rotaries with a combination of Megs 105 and 205 compounds and a mixture of 3M and chemical guy’s pads. First up was the front Wing. Wing finished. Next up was the door: This is a very fine but very deep scratch but it is very noticeable so this was wet sanded using a combination of pads as it was in a very noticeable place. Now that’s better. The rear quarter: Hologramming present Heavy bird liming present. After correction: Bird lime gone Next up the boot lid: Strike through that was previously mentioned was touched up flatted back and only noticeable when you really have to look for it. As were any other small chips and marks. Rear bumper sanding and over spray from a small localised repair. Looking much better now. Next up was the Bonnet which was by far the worst. Also even though the paint was original it was considerably harder than the rest of the car to correct. First pass and some bird lime also present. More bird lime And more!! Localised sanding to remove lime marks etched into the paint approx 3 microns of paint removal here. And Finished. Front bumper correction and stone chip removal. D/S rear quarter. D/S rear door. The rest of the panels and Roof were corrected in the same manner but once finished the car was left to sit over night. Next morning the car was given a wipe down using IPA and a new test wipe by Orchard Autocare which will reveal a true finish. We always do a wipe down at every panel but a full wipe down is also carried out to ensure nothing is missed filled or has escaped our attention. Any areas we were not happy with were sorted and then rechecked. The car was then rolled out and fully washed to remove any dust dried using the blowers then brought back into the studio. Next was the interior which was fully hovered leather cleaned and conditioned all plastic surfaces were treated with Orchard Autocare Interior Wizard. Glass was cleaned using Orchard Autocare Glass Cleanse. The mats and boot were wet vacced and the car was sprayed with our interior freshener to neutralise ay odours. But I managed to lose the pics sorry. Now its time for the final LSP. For this the car received 3 coats of Zaino Z2 with ZFX between each coat was a layer of Zaino Z6 with a final coat of Z* grand Finale. Now for the after shots! Tyres were coated in Zaino Z16. The wheels were coated with several coats of Rim Wax. Many thanks for taking time to read it. Much appreciated and I hope you liked it. As a foot not I received a call saying he was so happy with the finish of the car he has decided to keep it for a while longer. So for me that the best compliment you can’t get. As always all C&C are very welcome. Many thanks Rollo :thumb::thumb:
amazing work....very thorough .....on another note i love seeing threads form other countries and seeing how the garage/houses/yards look so similar to what we have here
^^^^ not everyone lives in a mud hut? LOL great work, the undercarriage looked like the bottom of a boat.great turn around.
lol i know i know......i dont like to fly so while i have been to almost every state i havent been out of the country....i pictured ireland to look like it did in the movie patroit games...not new england lol
cheers for the comments guys many thanks.... Laugh is there is a house near me that is made from mud lol!!! and yes someone does live in it...
Many thanks. The wheels were sanded down all the kerb marks were flattened out and repaired then the wheels were repaired locally with Waterbased paint and then clear coat over. its only a local repair rather than a full refurb but it fairly tidied up the wheels. Yes Orchard Products are available but are an Irish company as yet not exporting to the USA. but will be soon
What a turnaround!!, that car was abused..............., you had to have at least 75 + hours there on that car and again great work.
