THE E34 M5 was a hand built super "saloon" car built by BMW from late '89 until 1995. The E34 M5 was only available in the states from 1991 until 1993, this particular model being built in 1991. Featuring a 3.8L I6 that was a direct revolution of the BMW M1 engine that pumped out 340 horsepower and 270 lbs of torque the M5 could reach 60 in 5.5 seconds and run to a limited top speed of 155. An interesting note on M5’s is that they where built by small teams of employees and the test drivers where often able to “guess” which team built which car based on the small quirks and performance of the hand built cars. This M5 had served as a daily driver for one of my favorite clients when he was in college and he felt it deserved the same concours’ attention as the rest of his collection. Process Outline (quick) Wash with Dodo Juice “Born to be Mild”, 2 buckets Clay with Sonus Gray Clay Wheels cleaned with P21s Wheel Gel Wheel Arches and Tires with Optimum Power Clean Spot wet sand plus 6 Step Paint Polishing Correction Dodo Juice Lime Prime Light Dodo Juice Orange Crush, applied by hand x 2 Meguiars Hyperdressing 3:1 on wheel arches Zaino Z16 on tires Zaino AIO on wheels, topped with Z5pro Meguiars Exterior Trim Detailer on exterior trim surfaces Leatherique twins on interior leather Full shampoo and extract 1Z Cockpit Premium on interior surfaces 1Z Gummi Phledge on trim and seals The exterior had some “pinkening” from oxidation and was heavily swirled and scratched in the 17 years that passed since the M5 was originally built. The M5 provided some unique challenges. The paint was fairly thin (even for single stage) running about 3.2 mils on average with some areas dipping as low as 2.5 mils. Also 17 years of improper washing had left some pretty severe defects in the paint that required light color sanding to remove. Meguiars Uni-Grit was used in 2000, 2500, and 3000 grits. It was necessary to carefully gauge the paint depth through out the paint correction, polishing, and jewelling process. Some 50/50 shots On this picture you can notice the passenger side has been polished and jeweled. The reflections in the garage door (hanging over head) and pictures is much sharper and probably better then when the car first made its voyage across the Atlantic. Before After 50/50 Some after shot in the bright sunlight (after 1 coat of Orange Crush) It was late and a lot of detailing was left to do so I had to call a quick end to the photos. However I did finish up at 10 PM and it afforded me the opportunity to take some pictures with the Porsche 930 that Brian and I had previously detailed as well as this Ferrari Boxer that I had detailed for the Cavallino show last year (and still looking great).
Great job on it! I wonder if all M5's had that low level of paint, or if it was just that one select group? Does the owner like red cars or something?
That is intense, just dripping. Those rims are interesting, I almost thought the tires were whitewall at first.
That's a fantastic correction! and good background info on the M5. Thanks!! Does the owner drive the car? I know you said it was going to be part of his collection but some owners do more than just stare. The reason I ask is I'm curious as to how the Zaino AIO on wheels, topped with Z5pro combo is going to work out. Have you had any experience with this particular combo on wheels prior to this detail?
Not sure about the level of paint on other M5's but this onewas low! Since they where hand built by different teams, maybe the team that built this sucked at painting ? Thanks! I should say that the Nikon does a great job as well. Thaks dsms!!! I will be out there soon as well! You should swing by!! Thanks Jason, you big old pimp! Those rims are the factory "turbine" wheels. They feature little turbines that run toward the brakes to cool them. I could have done a write up on how to clean them because it took like 45 minutes per face of each rim and a lot of cut fingers. Thanks slanguage Thank you very much. Thank you Bimma!! Yes the owner drives all of his cars and is a total car nut. He is a younger guys who grew up with the performance cars of the '80s and early '90s on his bed room wall. I think it is a totally cool and unique collection. ZAIO-Z5pro holds up very well (much better then the so called wheel sealants) and looks very nice IMO.
That is some of the BRIGHTEST red I've ever seen. The jeweled and non-jeweled photo with the overhead garage doors was amazing...
