# BMW E30 - Super Fade!



## scratcher (Jul 20, 2010)

A friend of a friend got in tough with me about polishing his newly acquired E30 316i. As soon as I heard E30, red and faded panel, I was all over it :lol:

The car was dropped off this morning for me to see how much colour and gloss I could bring back to the milky-pinky-patchy-panels.

It arrived looking fairly clean.



But closer inspection revealed that someone had taken a machine to it before.



:doublesho







Wheels were up first. I didn't take any pictures of the cleaning.
Cleaned with Auto Finesse Imperial and various brushes. APC for the tyres.



The whole car was doused with VP Citrus Pre-Wash and all the niggles taken care of with APC and Envy brushes.









2 bucket wash followed using a sheepskin mitt and 3M shampoo.



Working well :thumb:



Dried off and Wolf's Decon Gel applied to the paint and wheels.





Tardis on the tar spots. There weren't too many.



The car was rinsed thoroughly and clayed using BH regular and Zymol shampoop in a spray bottle. Not a great deal was lifted but I'd never skip it.



The car wash re-washed, dried and I had a better look at what I had to deal with.

Buffer trails.


Strike through galore



The panel that had brought the car to me.



The 'bleaching' looking defects were consistent along this side.





I thought my car didn't look too bad today  :lol:





I taped up the car and started checking paint depths. These ranged from 112 on most of the car to 783 on the badly faded panel. It had been sprayed and must have filler under there too.

I started trying a few combos out. With the car having been polished hard at some point before, I wasn't looking to chase every swirl but just bring back some colour, gloss and sharpness.
A few different mixes were used with the different paint types, but the majority was done with 205 on a white Hexlogic pad

Testing.



I love single stage paint 





This panel took a few stages of polishing. I just liked this photo.







I then wiped the car down with Eraser and applied a layer of Menz Powerlock for some UV protection.

I went around the car dressing the many plastic trims and rubbers with AF Revive.



Tyres dressed with RD50. I love this stuff 



I polished the glass with Auto Glym glass polish, inside and out.

Then an hour after removing the Powerlock I added a nice wax layer.
Auto Finesse recommend it for red, so lets give it a go 



And the afters.









The badly faded panel.









A quick reflection shot of Little Blue



And a very happy chappy came and collected it after 9 hours 



Comments and criticism always welcome.

Thanks for reading


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## Scrim-1- (Oct 8, 2008)

Nice work mate, you should be proud of that.


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## witcher (Nov 25, 2010)

Nice job mate


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## tonyy (Jul 26, 2008)

Great work:thumb:


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## deegan1979 (Mar 6, 2012)

Great turnaround mate , and have to say I really like little blue, brings back fun memories


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## iPlod999 (Jun 23, 2012)

Very very good job.


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## RS 500 (Aug 29, 2009)

looking good..............
cant beat bringing it back to life..........


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## james_death (Aug 9, 2010)

Superb Job...:thumb:


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## Kerr (Mar 27, 2012)

Good job. 

Looks a clean old car.


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## DavidMelv (Jan 28, 2013)

When I seen E30 in the title I had to click in I love them!  

Great job, Paint came up well


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## sprocketser (Aug 4, 2012)

Great results on the BM mate .


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## drsullivan (May 7, 2012)

GREAT job!!! :thumb:


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## Wout_RS (Jun 13, 2012)

Very nice work! looking much better!


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## Jev (May 15, 2013)

Great work pal looks mint. Love red cars


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## Mean & clean (Aug 19, 2007)

Great turnaround mate!



Sent from my GT-I8150 using Tapatalk 2


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## R14CKE (Aug 10, 2012)

Looks brilliant pal 👍


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## steve from wath (Dec 12, 2008)

nice work

back to red and looking good


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## Denzle (May 4, 2011)

Top class job there Fella. Well done.


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## JBirchy (Oct 9, 2010)

Spot on mate! I never tire of pink to red threads, especially on a stunning car such as this! Even the 316i is a pure drivers machine!


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## alexgb (Mar 23, 2013)

Just superb !!


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## Trip tdi (Sep 3, 2008)

That's a huge transformation, great work and attention to detail :thumb:


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## kevinmcm19 (Dec 28, 2006)

love e30 BMW looks good see you live near me


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## Derek Mc (Jun 27, 2006)

What a great job  I adore BMW Zinnober red a great shade when in the "afters" condition :thumb:


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## s29nta (Mar 9, 2013)

Good stuff that mate, I like the finish on the tyres too:thumb:


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## scratcher (Jul 20, 2010)

Thanks a lot for all the kind comments guys 

I was very happy with the results, as was the owner. I would've like a bit more time on the most fadded side but it still came up a lot better.
I thought the fresh look for the tyres would suit the classic styling of the car better than a super wet shiny finish 



kevinmcm19 said:


> love e30 BMW looks good see you live near me


Thanks man  Oh really? How close?

I've already been hot online looking at E30's for sale this week :lol:


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## jamie crookston (Aug 30, 2010)

Fantastic turnaround mate


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## MadOnVaux! (Jun 2, 2008)

Fantastic work, looks a different car 

The grill could do with something though to bring it back to life....it looks very 'grey' against the restored paint and the other plastics.


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## kevinmcm19 (Dec 28, 2006)

scratcher said:


> Thanks man  Oh really? How close?
> 
> :


very close i live on chester ave


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## MEH4N (Mar 15, 2012)

great job there mate. that E30 looks alot better


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## Soul Hudson (Jul 5, 2011)

Nice work. Looking just how it should.


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## colarado red (Jun 5, 2008)

Stunning turnaround


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## Natalie (Jan 19, 2011)

Looking much better


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## slobodank (Nov 17, 2010)

nice job!


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## scratcher (Jul 20, 2010)

Thanks very much everyone 



MadOnVaux! said:


> Fantastic work, looks a different car
> 
> The grill could do with something though to bring it back to life....it looks very 'grey' against the restored paint and the other plastics.


:lol: There were still a few drops of water left between some slats when I was dressing the plastics so I done the grill last... after the photos typically  haha.


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## Nally (May 30, 2012)

How dose RD50 compare with megs endurance in terms of finish And durability


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## scratcher (Jul 20, 2010)

Nally said:


> How dose RD50 compare with megs endurance in terms of finish And durability


I found it gives a much more natural look to the tyre. Where Meg's Endurance looks very shiny and glossy, RD50 just looks like a nice, clean and fresh tyre. Extra layers seem to enhance the shiny look.
The finish seems to last a good while longer too. Endurance drops off after a week or two but I've had this on my own tyres for about 4 weeks and they still look fresh. Driving in heavy rain and such too :thumb:

Just for reference.


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## Goosiegander (Mar 28, 2013)

Nice result


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## AKS1 (Jan 13, 2011)

You did wonders on that famous BMW faded red.......What memories that brings back!

LOVELY DETAIL MATE!


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## cypukas (Aug 24, 2012)

Lovely


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## Bruce865 (Jul 7, 2013)

Done a great job but kept finding myself going back to look at your car! I need a car like yours in my life! Haha


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## WP-UK (Apr 24, 2011)

Looks beautiful  lovely colour


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## claaarkio (Jul 25, 2008)

Looks great, however I'm a little confused by this comment:

"Strike through galore"

I always thought strike through is where the lacquer has been polished though to the base coat, but this is a solid colour car?

Cheers

Dave


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## Michael_McL (Aug 25, 2011)

Great job!


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## marc147 (Nov 21, 2011)

Great work there  look 100 times better now :thumb:


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