# A two-month job on an E82 1 Series.



## hovnojede (Aug 9, 2012)

Hey fellow kids, men and gurls,

I decided to post my recent detailing job on the Bimmer. Not comfortable sharing the pics with teh Internetz, but thought I should do it as this was my first big, and truth be told, painful but all in all enjoyable detail and as a thank you to DW.

Why did it take me so long to do the car? Well, my first ever go with a machine polisher, had to learn how to use it and 'get the feel for it'. Secondly, I did not have much time to spend on the car due to more important things. And thirdly, the hard paint's condition was horrible!

Anyway, let's get to it.

So, I ordered most of my stuff from Clean Your Car at the end of April. Mainly because the UK can haz all the detailing products, which in my area are hard to get. The postage wasn't low, but I've got almost everything I ever wanted. And the delivery was fast.

Here's what I used IIRC:

AF Lather shampoo
CG Glossworkz shampoo
VP blue and yellow clay bars
Microfiber Madness Incredimitt I think?
Iron-X
Bilt Hamber Korrosol
VP Tar & Glue Remover
VP Citrus prewash
Dodo Juice Born Slippy
Dodo Juice drying towel and another towel I can't remember
various MF towels

DAS6pro
CG orange, white, black hex logic pads
Menzerna FG400
Sonax Perfect Finish
Menzerna Polish Cream
hand wax pads
hand polishing pad

Sonax NPT
Sonax BSD

Sonax Plastic Restorer
AF Dressle
Dodo Juice Leather cleaner
Meguiars Interior and Carpet cleaner
various VP brushes
Sonax Glass Cleaner
APC

The car: A recently bought pre-owned 1 Series with no more than 15,000 miles on the clock.

Here we go.

*December*

Some detailed photos of the poor car. That's how we bought it.














































*May. The start.*

May, 1st. Her first proper bath... ever?










Of course the wheels were taken off and the fenders and brake calipers cleamed.



















Each alloy received two layers of that sealant. As well as the calipers. Doesn't last long, though.










Sonax in action.



















Polished the front wheel hubs.










Engine bay cleaning and dressing.




























Done.



















Stubborn dirt.



















And beading.










Korrosol in action.










Marred the paint because of the blue (hard( VP clay. Never use it, people!










The following day the sun came out, so all the scratches were visible.





































In to the garage now. Found a pretty good light at home, it was creating a lot of heat however.










Well... Those scrathes were all over the lower door edge on both sides. Ewww. Auto car wash maybe?














































Here we go! Started with SPF amd black pad just to learn the basics of polishing etc..










Glue residue...










Ver deep scratch going through the paint all the way to the metal... Gotta touch it up as well as stone chips on the bonnet.










FG400 and orange pad was the compounding combo that worked very well.




























Dad came to help me, so I taught him how to polish. He did the bonnet, pretty well I'd say!










This is a brand new pad after a half the bonnet. Let me tell you something: I have never ever saw a car with such a rough paint. It felt like a sandpaper. Really.










Then my lamp broke, so called it a day and went to do something else.










Oh yes, let's do some polishing in the engine bay.










And don't forget the exhaust tips. Dirty from that turbo soot. Gahh.



















And then it was...

*June*

By the way, the exhaust tips aresupposed to be "Black Chrome" from factory, but I managed to polish them to very light "Black Chrome" as you can see here in this pic where I also removed the diffuser for better access. 










Not 100% perfect, but much much better than before.










Now back to the paint. Yes, still doing the right side. Got some nice reflections, though.










Obligatory:










Too deep to remove, this scratch was. And without a PTG I really didn't want to push harder on the paint.










At that time my father got mad that he has not driven the car for a long time, so I was literally forced to wash the car and at least put a coat of Sonax NPT. At least I cleaned the interior. It did really need it.

http://i.imgur.com/Ck8Cv8k.jpg










http://i.imgur.com/7QerrDp.jpg

*July*

The end... finally.

Started the month with yet another engine bay once over. This time, I focused on the metal pipes more. And sprayed some AF Dressle on the plastics.










A few days after, I was annoyed I still have not finished the car yet so I went straight ahead and started polishing like a mad guy. It took me 4 days to compound the right side and front end. I had some problems with choosing the right combo. Settled on SPF & white hex pad for the second stage. No jewelling unfortunately, but I really wanted to finish the car ASAP. And as a proof, I have got no photos. I was too damn busy.

Last weekend I approached the end of my detailing journey. Put one layer of NPT (enough for the car, it's not a daily driver) and BSD (which was for the God's sake so damn hard to work with!!!). Dressed the exterior plastics, the honeycomb grille, the air inlets, the rear diffusers and hand polished the area around door handles, window trim and cleaned up some polish and glue residue. Also Gummipflege'd all the seals. Oh, IPA'd the whole car before sealant and QD, too.























































Thanks to my good luck, dad did not have time to drive the Einser this week. Therefore I apologize for the lack of good after-photos. Hopefully I'll do a photoshoot in two weeks.




























I'd say it is a 80% correction, definitely no more. Safety first.

What is left to do: 
1) clean the wheel arches
2) drive it! 

I have learned a lot of things and I am glad I had the privilege to get my hands on a machine polisher and get all the stuff I had been dreaming about since 2010 when I first came across this site.

Special thanks to:
my parents!
CYC.co.uk
and all the people here and outside DW on other forums

Thank you very much for your time. C&C welcomed obviously.

:detailer:


----------



## sprocketser (Aug 4, 2012)

Thanx for sharing ! Great looking ride .

Lots of great pix & a nice how to ! Keep it on .


----------



## hovnojede (Aug 9, 2012)

Thank you very much. 

Forgot to mention something:

For compounding I was using speed 5 with which in the combination of FG400 and orange hex logic pad I was able to remove almost everything in one hit (I don't remember how many passes but I was polishing until the polish got clear).

For polishing I was on speed 4,2 I think and every section I did in 15 minutes (as I said above, I didn't want to spend more time). 

Sonax BSD was horrible to work with as I said. It dries way too quickly, even right after spraying the thing on to the paint. Dunno, maybe I did something wrong...


----------



## bazz (May 15, 2007)

thanks very much for sharing that and some great pics and a very tidy right up.
looks like you done a great job of the car


----------



## luke w (Dec 11, 2012)

Enjoyed reading that, u got some great results! Nice one!


----------



## yetizone (Jun 25, 2008)

Excellent work and a very good write up of the detail.:thumb:


----------



## potter88 (Apr 12, 2014)

Lovely looking motor mate. 

Twin Turbo so im guessing a 123d mate??

Im after a 123d 5 door hatchback as need something better than a 1.8 20v turbo i currently drive lol


----------



## Turkleton (Apr 18, 2010)

Amazing work! Was in a pretty sorry state before, such a nice car to leave to be battered like that 



potter88 said:


> Lovely looking motor mate.
> 
> Twin Turbo so im guessing a 123d mate??
> 
> Im after a 123d 5 door hatchback as need something better than a 1.8 20v turbo i currently drive lol


Looks more like a 135i to me, twin pipes are a bit of a give away, and the fact the engines mahoosive


----------



## Focusaddict (May 31, 2010)

Those scratches are caused from the swirlomatics Albanian hand wash places where they use water blade to dry the car.


----------



## ocdetailer (Apr 9, 2014)

I love that last pic. Sounds like you learnt a lot during your detailing odyssey. Stunning results, well worth the time


----------



## JwilliamsM (Dec 20, 2011)

Turkleton said:


> Amazing work! Was in a pretty sorry state before, such a nice car to leave to be battered like that
> 
> Looks more like a 135i to me, twin pipes are a bit of a give away, and the fact the engines mahoosive


The 123d doesn't get those lovely calipers  so yeah I'd say it's a 135i


----------



## potter88 (Apr 12, 2014)

Turkleton said:


> Looks more like a 135i to me, twin pipes are a bit of a give away, and the fact the engines mahoosive


Yea your probably right infact as i forgot the 135i was twin turbo aswell. I thought the 123d was the only twin turbo in range but forgot the 135i


----------



## Rainbow (Oct 30, 2013)

This thread is a pure inspiration for every newbie. Great work, mate! Amazing result.


----------



## TonyH38 (Apr 7, 2013)

A great job done looks superb.


----------



## SBM (Jul 4, 2013)

Excellent work and write up there buddy.

You should be justly proud :thumb: BMW paint is similar to Audi and mercs for hardness - I had a moro blue TT roadster - it was a bu99er!

Top marks
Ben


----------



## James_R (Jun 28, 2007)

hovnojede said:


> Sonax BSD was horrible to work with as I said. It dries way too quickly, even right after spraying the thing on to the paint. Dunno, maybe I did something wrong...


Brilliant work, the finished results on the lovely glossy bonnet are amazing! :thumb:

BSD - do not apply when the car is warm to the touch, or in direct sunlight.
Car should be cool and you will have no problems - I use this all the time.

I have had this since April, I did see how bad it would be in direct sunlight last week, and yes….it was bad. 
Dried too quickly and was difficult to remove.

Cool and dry in the shade - easy application, easy removal :thumb:


----------



## hovnojede (Aug 9, 2012)

bazz said:


> thanks very much for sharing that and some great pics and a very tidy right up.
> looks like you done a great job of the car


Thank you very much!



luke w said:


> Enjoyed reading that, u got some great results! Nice one!


Thanks, mate!!



yetizone said:


> Excellent work and a very good write up of the detail.:thumb:


Appreciated! Thanks!



potter88 said:


> Lovely looking motor mate.
> 
> Twin Turbo so im guessing a 123d mate??
> 
> Im after a 123d 5 door hatchback as need something better than a 1.8 20v turbo i currently drive lol


Thank you. As others said, it's the N55-powered 135i.  TwinPower Turbo, don't let BMW fool you - it's a single turbo.

Test drove a pre-facelift 123d hatch. Had it only for a half an hour and have to admit that it is quick but it sounds like a tractor.  We have a 20d engine in our other car and that one is much less noisy.



Turkleton said:


> Amazing work! Was in a pretty sorry state before, such a nice car to leave to be battered like that
> 
> Looks more like a 135i to me, twin pipes are a bit of a give away, and the fact the engines mahoosive


Thank you. Yeah, I was pissed when I first saw the car; we practically bought it without seeing it, test drove it in the evening a few weeks before going there again and taking delivery of it, so couldn't check the paint. And I was like :doublesho after test driving it.



Focusaddict said:


> Those scratches are caused from the swirlomatics Albanian hand wash places where they use water blade to dry the car.


I see, mate. :wall:



ocdetailer said:


> I love that last pic. Sounds like you learnt a lot during your detailing odyssey. Stunning results, well worth the time


Thank you! Def. learnt a lot. It's time consuming but I really like it. 



jayz_son said:


> The 123d doesn't get those lovely calipers  so yeah I'd say it's a 135i


Spot on!



potter88 said:


> Yea your probably right infact as i forgot the 135i was twin turbo aswell. I thought the 123d was the only twin turbo in range but forgot the 135i


The N54 35i was a twin turbo, in 2010 I think that engine was replaced by the N55 singe turbo.



Rainbow said:


> This thread is a pure inspiration for every newbie. Great work, mate! Amazing result.


Aww, thanks! Very appreciated.



TonyH38 said:


> A great job done looks superb.


It didn't look too bad before actually, but after claying and polishing it really got better. Thanks. 



SBM said:


> Excellent work and write up there buddy.
> 
> You should be justly proud :thumb: BMW paint is similar to Audi and mercs for hardness - I had a moro blue TT roadster - it was a bu99er!
> 
> ...


Oh, thank you for your comment. 

I have read lots of posts and articles about the whole detailing stuff and I knew that modern German cars have hard paint, but still I was surprised how hard it was!



James_R said:


> Brilliant work, the finished results on the lovely glossy bonnet are amazing! :thumb:
> 
> BSD - do not apply when the car is warm to the touch, or in direct sunlight.
> Car should be cool and you will have no problems - I use this all the time.
> ...


Thank you very much, mate!

It wasn't under direct sunlight. However, the paint was quite warm, yes. Lesson learned. :thumb:

Again, thank you everyone for your comments. You made me even more happy!


----------



## tonyy (Jul 26, 2008)

Nice work:thumb:


----------



## MonsterST (Aug 4, 2013)

Detailing master god dam that's some fine work.


----------



## hovnojede (Aug 9, 2012)

Thankoo.


----------



## hovnojede (Aug 9, 2012)

BUMP!

Just throwing this is in as a little teaser of what's to come in a week time hopefully. The car is alive and well.


----------



## M400BHP (Feb 18, 2015)

Good work there chap


----------



## SBM (Jul 4, 2013)

Sound fantastic results from some serious effort buddy - Kudos :thumb:

Ben


----------



## Kirkyworld (Jan 12, 2014)

Looks ace :thumb:


----------

