This is a BMW 335i that looked to be in fairly good shape... until I took a closer look. The trunk had some pretty deep scratches that were clearly visible, even from a distance. I lightly wet sanded that area and buffed it out, they are nearly invisible now except for 1 or 2 that were too deep for me to safely sand. Being that this is a daily driver, it is important to maintain as much clear coat as possible, and a "show car" finish is unreasonable, so sometimes you just have to accept that some defects will remain... especially the deep ones. So after the trunk was taken care of, I turned my attention to the hood. I was blown away by what I had found upon my initial inspection under the halogen lights. A large portion of the hood had been damaged pretty bad by a previous buffer. Check out the pictures, the before pictures may scare you, but the after pictures looks great. Process: Interior: -Vacuum -Vinyl & Plastic Dressed with 303 -Leather Dressed with Meg's Leather Conditioner -Glass with Stoner's IG Exterior: -Wheels: P21S Wheel Cleaner Gel -Wash: CG Citrus Wash and Gloss -Dry: DI Waffle Weave Towels -Clay: DI Fine Clay with ONR as lube -Wet sand (Scratches on trunk): 3M 2000 Grit -Compound: M105 w/ Surbuf Pads (for wetsanding marks) and orange pad (on hood, roof, and trunk) via PC 7424XP -Polish: M205 w/ White Pad (on sides and rear of car) and w/ Black pad to follow up the M105 on all horizontal surfaces. Applied via PC7424XP. -Wiped down with ~12% IPA solution -Wash (again): ONR -Sealant: CG Blacklight followed by CG Hybrid V7 -Tires: Dressed with Meg's Endurance Gel -Glass: Stoner's IG Total time: ~11 hours Exterior Before: ^looks fine from a distance in low light. Just needs a good wash, right?... wrong ^Dirty wheels ^Quick inspection with my Brinkmann xenon light... Looked like mostly typical scratches and swirls, found out I was wrong when I took a look at the car under the halogens the next day ^deep scratches on the trunk ^dirty ^Dirty ^Inspecting the hood under halogens after washing the car ^You can see a good amount of water spots etched into the clear coat ^The area where the previous owner or detailer left his mark ^More pigtails found ^Roof ^Trunk Interior Before: (Filled an entire 5 gallon bucket with trash while cleaning this car out! ) Interior During: ^50/50 shot of conditioned leather: Untreated on left vs. Treated on Right ^50/50 shot of protected vinyl: Untreated on left vs. Treated on Right Exterior During: ^Was happy to see the car had a good coat of wax on it ^Wheel and Tire cleaner going to work ^Wheels all cleaned up, tires are dull and faded though ^After claying the hood ^All taped up and ready for polishing ^Wet sanding the deep scratches on the trunk ^All buffed out ^Trunk after ^Trunk after ^Hood test before ^Hood test after 3 polishing steps ^50/50 shot of hood ^Before ^After ^Hood after polishing ^Hood after polishing ^Trunk after polishing ^Sealant drying on the hood ^Reflections in passenger door after removing sealant Completed: ^Reflections in the door ^Car looks dripping wet - so glossy! ^This is the money shot for me... look at that depth and shine! I love this color and car! ^Trunk looks great ^All that remains of those deep scratches on the trunk ^Interior all cleaned up ^OK, this one was edited a little, because of the tricky lighting with the sun glaring off the windshield, but the car looks great! ^Look at those reflections of the asphalt ^Such a sporty looking car, and completely stock, well done BMW ^My arsenal of supplies THANKS FOR LOOKING! PLEASE COMMENT!
X2 i was thinking something very similar. The PC with some patiences is a very capable machine. Nice job!!
