# Polished Bliss: Velvet Blue BMW M5



## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

When i strolled into the office yesterday morning and asked Angela what car it was i was doing she informed me it was a BMW M5 - not really what i wanted to hear on a monday morning (after a pig of a detail on the Evo last week) as the M5 is a big car with hard paint! But after seeing the car when it turned up i knew i was going to enjoy this detail, especially because of the colour 

Here's the car upon arrival, a bit grubby as the Customer made the journey from his home in Edinburgh:



















You cant really see it in the pics but this beast of a car is a stunning purple/blue colour (almost cadbury's purple ) and i couldnt wait to get it looking its best again :thumb:

First up though was the wash process, and the owner hung around for a couple of hours out of curiosity and to watch how to wash/dry the car properly etc 

The car was foamed with Meguiars Safe degreaser through the AB Foam Lance after i'd treated the arches to the degreaser aswell, the door shuts etc werent cleaned as usual during this stage as the owner obviously keeps these areas very clean himself :thumb: 
The car was then rinsed at high pressure and then foamed with Hyperwash before being washed with Meguiars Shampoo Plus and the 2 bucket method. The wheels although grubby had just recently been refurbished so they cleaned up fairly easily with Menzerna 7.5 Tyre and Wheel Gel, was a bit fiddly though, great wheels to look at but not to clean! The lower halfs of the car and wheels were soaked in Tar & Glue remover before being wiped with a MF cloth. Final stage was to clay the entire car and glass with Meguiars Aggressive Detailing Clay and Last Touch as lube, this took a while as it was covered in tree sap and some other weird contaminants, particularly on the roof. I then foamed again with Hyper Wash, rinsed and then dried with the leaf blower.

The arches were then dressed with Meguiars All Season Dressing.

The car was then rolled in to the bay to be taped up and to take Paint Readings. Several areas of the car had been resprayed - mainly the front end, and to a very good standard too, although there were the all too familiar signs of bodyshop work:

*Deep micromarring from the compounding pad*:



















Other than that the car wasnt _too_ bad (compared to usual!) defect wise, just the usual RIDS and swirls really:



















The car itself had fairly healthy levels of paint except for the rear bumper and tailgate which were a bit on the thin side..

After trying 106FA and not being that impressed with the level of correction i went for IP3.02 with a blob of 106FA (to try and get as much gloss as possible from the paint) and a polishing pad @1800rpms. The Menz was back to its usual self and working like a dream and i effortlessy went round the car in one hit per panel, with the exception of a few areas that needed 2 hits to remove all that was going to come out. The bonnet needed a fair bit of work though to remove all the micro-marring, its crazy just how much effort is needed to remove these marks sometimes!

Couple of before and afters:

*Near side A-Pillar before*:










*After*:










*Bootlid before*:










*After*:










(couple of pretty deep RIDS left)

*Near side rear door before (this was particularly scratched for some reason)*:










*After*:










*50/50*:










*Completed*:










The Bumpers were done with the PC and a 4" Cutting pad, as were the B-Pillars:

*Before*:










*After*:










The owner returned to the unit just as the polishing stage was finished so he sat and watched as i applied the LSP and did the various other details.

LSP was Blackfire Wet Diamond Paint Sealant, applied with the red side of a German Applicator. As this was left to cure i sealed the wheels (PB Wheel Sealant) and dressed the tyres (Blackfire Long Lasting Tyre Gel). The exhaust pipes were polished (Blackfire Fine Cut Metal Polish) and the bump strips were also dressed (Meguiars All Season Dressing - buffed off half an hour later to prevent streaking). The washer jets were done with Zymöl Carbon.

The Wet Diamond was then buffed off before i did the interior, including feeding the leather with Zymöl Treat and a MF Applicator. Glass was done with HD Cleanse 

The car was then given a final dust down with the Zymöl Duster before the final pics were taken.

Not as many after pics as usual as the owner needed to get away, and apologies for some of the pics being out of focus a bit :wall:































































































































I really enjoyed this detail despite being up against the clock a wee bit, and this was definitely one of the nicest colours i've worked on for a while :thumb:

Thanks for looking


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## Ian666 (Jul 8, 2007)

Great correction work on that fab colour paint:thumb:


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## Brazo (Oct 27, 2005)

Very nice mate, as you said now cadbury purple :thumb:

13y/o


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## Scud (Jun 30, 2006)

That is a stunning colour......nice work there clark.


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## Skodaw (Mar 19, 2006)

I Liiike, I like a lot 

See what you mean about the colour clark, looks amazing.


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## Detail My Ride (Apr 19, 2006)

Brazo said:


> 13y/o


I'll get you 

Fantastic Work Clark, Looks Stunning


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## Neil_S (Oct 26, 2005)

Stunning as usual Clark, love that colour too, awesome!


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## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

Brazo said:


> Very nice mate, as you said now cadbury purple :thumb:
> 
> 13y/o


lol! :thumb:



Skodaw said:


> I Liiike, I like a lot
> 
> See what you mean about the colour clark, looks amazing.


Its such a funny colour, all the panels look different colours at times when the halogens are on it, you could easily mistake it for 3 or 4 completely different shades of blue/purple - stunning in the metal though and i really like the slightly darker than usual wheels :thumb:


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## A20 LEE (Feb 20, 2007)

Looks great. Does the customer pick the LSP or is left to you to pick the best product for their car/colour?


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## d6dph (Mar 6, 2007)

What a beautiful colour. I was a little unsure of it at first but the finish photos make it look incredible. Almost a mid blue in places.

Superb work as usual.


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## BIG BAVARIAN (May 7, 2006)

top work as usual mate !!love e39 m5's ,mundane looking car,with a sting in the tail:devil:


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## johny5 (Mar 8, 2006)

Awsome work mate very well done


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## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

A20 LEE said:


> Looks great. Does the customer pick the LSP or is left to you to pick the best product for their car/colour?


Generally we'll ask the Customer what sort of look they want from the car, I.e - sharp and reflective or Deep and glossy etc, we have a different range of products to suit any look they want so its quite easy. If they arent fussed then we'll finish with what we choose - excluding Zymöl as we charge a supplement for using these products 

Zymöl finishes usually sell themselves when they see pics etc, and most Z details result in the customer coming to us stating that they want Zymöl wax on their car.

If they're sitting on the fence with what option to go for, they usually go for the Vintage once we show them the pot sitting in the fridge lol 

Obviously the Blackfire and Werkstatt finishes are slightly easier to maintain and top up by the customer so these are popular too


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## jedi-knight83 (Aug 11, 2006)

wow

gotta love that colour!!!

nice work


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## drive 'n' shine (Apr 22, 2006)

Don't suppose the owner wants to swap it for a slightly older 535 

The second finished pic just looks mental :thumb:, not a normally a big fan on violet, but after seeing this one, i could quite easily change my mind.


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## Nica (Jul 4, 2007)

Well done :thumb: really like the colour and the before and after pictures really show the work you put in to the vehicle.

Very nice :detailer: and thank you for sharing....oh pictures look good to me


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## Tyke (Jul 25, 2006)

Mmmm, yummy!

Lovely car, nice to see that horrible marring gone :buffer:


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## Fat Audi 80 (Nov 8, 2006)

I keep forgetting to ask.
Lovely detail Clark (as usual). The finish is liquid and a mile deep.

Can you give me a rough idea of a before and after reading on the PDG when polishing like this?

I do not have a PDG and would like to have a rough idea of how much I may be taking off when using Menzerna Intensive on a cutting pad.

Thanks,

Steve.


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## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

Fat Audi 80 said:


> I keep forgetting to ask.
> Lovely detail Clark (as usual). The finish is liquid and a mile deep.
> 
> Can you give me a rough idea of a before and after reading on the PDG when polishing like this?
> ...


Obviously it varies on paints and what polishes you're using but in this case i'd be surprised if i took any more than 2-3 microns off tops. The older Menz polishes tended to "chisel" away at the paint and resulted in bigger paint removal but the cerami-clears seem to "burnish" the paint, so while they remove just as much if not more of the defects as the US Menz, they appear to be kinder to the paintwork :thumb:

I'll stress again though that it depends on whatever car you're working on, if i were to do the same approach ([email protected]) i could probably see 6-8 microns if not more removed from the likes of a Civic Type R with original paint 

hope that helps?


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## Phil H (May 14, 2006)

absolute perfection! i love the M5, excellent detail and write up as always!


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## Thomas-182 (Mar 5, 2006)

Mmmm that looks lovely, fantastic colour and you've certainly made it look it's best. Nice one.


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## WHIZZER (Oct 25, 2005)

nice car , great colour ( Mrs Whizzer had a 3 series in that colour and it looks top when clean)


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## Fat Audi 80 (Nov 8, 2006)

Clark said:


> Obviously it varies on paints and what polishes you're using but in this case i'd be surprised if i took any more than 2-3 microns off tops. The older Menz polishes tended to "chisel" away at the paint and resulted in bigger paint removal but the cerami-clears seem to "burnish" the paint, so while they remove just as much if not more of the defects as the US Menz, they appear to be kinder to the paintwork :thumb:
> 
> I'll stress again though that it depends on whatever car you're working on, if i were to do the same approach ([email protected]) i could probably see 6-8 microns if not more removed from the likes of a Civic Type R with original paint
> 
> hope that helps?


Thanks Clark. :thumb:

I am interested in the overall rough percentage of paint that I may be removing when I am polishing my cars. As I suspected, less than 10% of overall thickness unless you go mad. (Depending on paint type etc...)

I just wanted a ball park figure on what I am doing....

Cheers,

steve.


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## adb (Jul 13, 2006)

Awesome work (as always) Clark :thumb: 

Love that colour also - is it techno violet???


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## scooby73 (Mar 20, 2007)

Nice job, always loved M-Divisions cars!


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## S-X-I (Sep 6, 2006)

Great work us usual, what a great colour!


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## ClarkeG (Jun 17, 2006)

Amazing work as always Clark, lovely colour indeed 

Clarke


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## pete330 (Apr 18, 2006)

Ah Velvet Blue

I love this colour so much i spent 2 years looking for a 330 in it,until i gave up not finding the right one

You will pleased to know that he is buying a raffle so he may well just get that Z treatment


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## Mr Singh (Apr 4, 2006)

Superb work, as usual!

I did one of these few months back, used Sonus SFX-1 as Menz IP just wasn't cutting it.


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## Summit Detailing (Oct 9, 2006)

superb as ever chap:thumb: 

stunning colour..back to it's best


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## mouthyman (May 1, 2006)

lovely car, love the wheels, good job


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## ash_xt (Apr 22, 2007)

looks stunning, colour is fantastic!


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## Bulla2000 (Jun 5, 2007)

Well done.


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## dodger (May 20, 2006)

superb work again clark


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## Trist (Jun 23, 2006)

Looks fantastic cool colour too :thumb:


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## streaky (Dec 2, 2006)

Fabulous, as always.


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## Auto Finesse (Jan 10, 2007)

superb work as ever mate, well done


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## V8burble (Jul 3, 2007)

Excellent work as usual. Got to say that colour lifts the 'rather too normal' look of the M5. Great to see it looking so sorted :thumb:


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## Stewlayzell (Jul 23, 2007)

Wicked Work :thumb: and what a lovely colour


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## paddy328 (Mar 4, 2007)

Nice one clark. You really are a master of your craft.


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## MattOz (May 15, 2007)

Looks fantastic Clark. I had an E39 M5 a few years back and it was certainly one of my favourite cars. In velvet blue, it's even more special.

Nice One
Matt


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## n_d_fox (Apr 18, 2007)

Lovely job... never seen an M5 in that colour before and the finish looks like you could dive in a paddle about for a while !


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## dirk (Jun 2, 2007)

nice correction


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