# [WAX-IT] BMW Z3M Swissvax Perfection



## Wax-IT.be (Feb 3, 2011)

We're back again with a real full on german beauty and future classic. It promises to be a great car to work on, it's a color that can really shine and pop. On top of that, the owner told us to do everything we could. 

You can read all about it in Dutch on our * website.*, there's a special pictures gallery too. Or you can easily read it here.

Good news for all you non-Dutch speaking followers, we are working on an English translation of our website!

Those just looking for hi res pictures can check out the *Flickr-page*.

If you have questions, comments, reactions,… we'd love to hear them!

Have fun reading... 

Regars,

Simon and Bert,

WAX-IT

_____________________________

*BMW Z3M Perfection*

Last summer we had this BMW beauty in our workshop. It's a future classic with less than 20.000km on the odo but after all the years it could do with some refreshing, a beauty treatment, a real car-spa. Some attention to renew the bright blue paint. The owner bought the car as a young timer and he'd like to keep it as good as possible. So we had carte blanche to do everything we could. It's time for a full on Swissvax treatment without any boundaries nor limits in time or materials. Time to use our passion (and obsession?) to make it shine again!

*Preparation
*
When starting a full treatment all the work can look overwhelming and it's important to keep some structure in the works. Not cleaning the interior when the car is in the air, repainted leather needs time to dry and settle, compounding dust will get in door openings….

Of course everything starts with cleaning the car and it's paint. A classic washing stage removes the dust, wheels will be done when they're removed. Even a very well kept car will need claying after more than 10 years, Swissvax Paint Rubber removed a lot. These contaminants reduce reflection and hide the blue paint.

After washing and claying it's moved inside and blown dry. This way all openings are blown with air under high pressure (+200kmh). This prevents tape not sticking because of hidden drops of water, it also prevents water mixing with the polish and creating sling and splatter.

Let's fully analyze the car.

  

*Analysis*

The paint had the typical swirls and rds on every panel. The trunk had some chalk stains which couldn't be removed by just chemically cleaning the paint. One car had some overspray which led to a visibly rough paint, although you couldn't feel it when running your fingers over the paint. Paint thickness readings didn't show any repaint.

  

*Interior*

The interior had the regular damage. Dirty and dry leather with some damage on the driver's side cheek. Carpets needed some wetndry cleaning.

Carpets were treated with the Numatic George to remove all the dirt from deep in the fibers. After drying they're protected using 303 Fabric Guard.

The rest was cleaned and vacuumed before cleaning all leather and plastics. This removes the deeper stains, returning the real color. Colourlock was used to recolor the leather after cleaning and filling with a flexible primer. Multiple layers of color filled this, finishing of with a colorless protective layer.

  

  

  

More stuff was done on the interior. Dressing rubbers, cleaning and protected plastics, cleaning fabric,… A lot of products were used but one was our true favorite, Swissvax Fabric! It cleans fast, easy and thorough, even when not using an extracting machine.

  

  

*Wheels*

The car was moved onto our lift so polishing and cleaning is a lot easier. Removing all wheels at once helps speeding up our work. Cleaning with Gloss-it Signature Wheel Gel and Wolf's Chemicals Decon Gel to remove all dirt and metallic particles. Afterwards paint cleaning them using Jeffs Prime Strong and protected using Swissvax Autobahn.

  

*The Paint*

After all the preparation we could finally start polishing. First we removed some parts like windscreen washers and rear license plate lighting, taping up all plastics and rubbers. We take our first notes and check every panel again, just to make sure. These notes are used for our quality control afterwards. The paint readings are checked, any weird variations are written down, if needed contacting our client.

In this case we varied between 3 to 5 step correction, depending on the panel. Testing for an ideal combo we chose to use:


Gloss-it Wool + Menzerna FG500 (Fast Gloss)
Gloss-it Orange + Menzerna FG500 (Fast Gloss)
Festool Orange + Festool MPA 5000/1 Speed Cut
Festool White + Festool MPA 9000/1 One Step Polish
Festool Black + Festool MPA 11000 Finishing Polish

Deeper scratches were removed using the first two combinations, working around the car. This creates a lot of dust which was removed before continuing. The following to steps are then done one panel at a time.
After polishing the entire car we check again, before finishing the paint using a dual action machine.

_Sometimes finishing is done twice, once using rotary and then by d/a, depending on the paint._

_Pic1: dirty after removing parts
Pic2: rough and dull
Pic3: after rotary work, before finishing down_

  

_ Pic1: Before
Pic2: after, scratch almost gone
Pic3: the roof before_

  

_ Pic1: After
Pic2: rough and dull
Pic3: work in progress_

  

_ Pic1: after
Pic2: deep scratch and rough paint
Pic3: …gone_

  

*Extras*

The lower parts were cleaned using Auto Finesse Citrus Power. Lights are polished in the same way as the paint, but using lower speed to reduce temperature.

Door openings are polished by hand so those will shine too. We used Auto Finesse Tripple

  

  

The engine and exhaust also received our care. The exhaust was done using steel wool, Swissvax Metal Polish, by hand and machine. The exhaust shined like never before!

Washing the engine was done by hand, dressing it after blowdrying. The paint was done using Swissvax Nano Express. Rubbers with Swissvax Seal Feed, plastics using 303 Aerospace Protectant.

The metal strips on the engine were off course done too! Plastic wheel nut caps are dressed, every wheel nut is cleaned.

  

  

*Finishing*

The only that's left is finishing the paint. We prepared the paint using Swissvax Cleaner Fluid making sure the Swissvax Concorso will bond nicely.

The result is a beautiful gloss, depth and reflection! The Estoril blue metallic paint shines in the setting sun, some great metalflake pop on this fantastic car...


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## Swell.gr (May 7, 2008)

Great work as always mate :thumb:


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## tonyy (Jul 26, 2008)

Nice job..great colour..


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## AS_Dene (May 2, 2010)

Great job looks great


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## JBirchy (Oct 9, 2010)

Wow thats amazing! I don't think i've ever seen Estoril blue shine like that before!


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## Pedro.Malheiro (Mar 18, 2011)

great work, and great photos too


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## toni (Oct 30, 2005)

Nice work guys! Flawless finish and a write-up to match :thumb:


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## Auto Finesse (Jan 10, 2007)

Nice work Bert and on one of my fave cars, i know they are a bit of a "marmite" motor but i think they are so strange they are cool.


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## PaulN (Jan 17, 2008)

James B said:


> Nice work Bert and on one of my fave cars, i know they are a bit of a "marmite" motor but i think they are so strange they are cool.


Agreed the older they get the cooler they become! :argie:


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## kings.. (Aug 28, 2007)

bang on fella... love these cars too


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## Wax-IT.be (Feb 3, 2011)

JBirchy said:


> Wow thats amazing! I don't think i've ever seen Estoril blue shine like that before!


We had the car in our studio for over a week. A week in artificial lighting and we couldn't believe what we saw when we rolled it outside for some pictures! :argie::argie:


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## Racer (Oct 27, 2005)

Superb Work Bert , really loved the work . 

Congratulations for such fine work :thumb:


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## matzagrin (Nov 1, 2009)

Nice job, great photos!


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## SimonBash (Jun 7, 2010)

Very impressive work:thumb:


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## DMH-01 (Mar 29, 2011)

Great work there mate.


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## stefstef (Mar 20, 2011)

Great work 
Fantastic color & car!


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## Eurogloss (Jan 22, 2008)

*Excellent job Bert and Simon quality detailing at it's best :thumb:

Mario*


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## Wax-IT.be (Feb 3, 2011)

Thanks guys!

Quick note: we normally do wheel refurbs too, but the owner preferred to buy 4 new OEM BMW wheels instead of having these repaired.


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## slrestoration (Nov 11, 2009)

Superb example of your work Bert, stunning result:argie: Always enjoy the simplicity yet depth of your write ups:thumb:


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## Wax-IT.be (Feb 3, 2011)

slrestoration said:


> Superb example of your work Bert, stunning result:argie: Always enjoy the simplicity yet depth of your write ups:thumb:


Thanks a lot! :thumb:


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## Tabbs (Aug 3, 2009)

great work and fantastic car :argie: :thumb:


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