# Detail My Ride | Silverstone Blue E39 M5 | Enhancement Detail



## Detail My Ride (Apr 19, 2006)

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Hi Guys!

Am trying to catch up on as many write ups as I can, so watch this space! At the moment Social Media is by far the best way to keep up to date with us, so check out our Facebook page on the link above.

I've also updated the progress on some work in our Studio, so check out this thread!

We were contacted by the proud owner of this stunning BMW E39 M5 finished in Silverstone Blue to discuss options to get the car back up to scratch.

Having recently purchased the car, and planning on keeping it for a little while the owner has spent a fair amount on work including a full underbody waxoyl treatment, mechanical work etc and was itching to get the paintwork looking fresh once again.

It was agreed we would carry out an enhancement detail to enhance the paintwork finish, including a two stage machine polish. It was evident from paint depth readings and visual inspection that a few areas had been painted/repaired, mainly smart repair style repairs to some areas so this is the main reason an enhancement was chosen rather than full correction as we knew this may not be possible.

We also treated the interior, the leather although in very good condition for age of the car was in need of a clean/feed.

A few shots of the car on arrival:
































































Exterior was treated to our full 21 stage wash and decontamination process, which revealed a fair amount of contamination!

We also had the new Auto Finesse wheel brushes for testing, these made light work of the deep spokes on these wheels, coming soon! Check them out!


















































































Once the exterior was clean, car was pulled inside and dried off and we got started on the rest of the detail.

Whilst drying off the door shuts, it was evident that the rear boot shut needed some attention, a little too much grease maybe!? This was dealt with with some Bilt Hamber Surfex Degreaser.

Before:




























Cleaned:










After:










Interior was then detailed, leather treated with Auto Finesse Leather Twins:










We also turned our attention to the dents in a few of the doors, which we sorted out quickly and easily with PDR.



















Before:










Getting there:










After:










Due to a various areas being painted we opted for Meguiars D-300 Microfibre Compound and pads via DA to keep down the heat, with some areas requiring Scholl S17+ with a 3M Yellow Polishing Pad via Chicago CP-8210 at around 1800rpm to knock back some deep RDS. Again, we weren't looking achieve perfection, just to give a decent level of correction to restore gloss/clarity to the very dull finish, and also blend some of the poor repairs.

This finish which was later refined with Menzerna 85RE at around 1500 RPMS.

The bonnet was by far the worst area of the car, suffering from some very bad scratches, these were corrected via Scholl S17+ with 3M Yellow Pads at around 1800-2000RPM.

Before:














































Working around the car, finish was very dull, the correction process restored the gloss/clarity:

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After:










Bootlid was pretty badly etched:



















Onto the wings:



















Not forgetting the bottoms of the doors:










A-pillar:










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Lights were very badly faded, and had a little overspray on them.

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The lower splitter area around the exhausts was badly stained, this was addressed using a light paintwork cleanser by hand:

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Rear quarter panel had some nice DA sanding marks,

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After:










As did the rear door,

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Passenger door was pretty badly scratched, the lower section also had overspray and some nasty defects which we managed to massively improve but not fully correct due to the poor paint quality in the area.

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Once the paintwork was refined, LSP of choice was Auto Finesse Desire, two thin even layers were applied to ensure maximum coverage/durability. Usual extras e.g. Glass, Tyres etc were all completed.










So, the finished results!

















































































































































The owner was blown away with the results, and sent us this feedback via E-mail:



> Just a brief e-mail to say a big thank you for the amazing result of all your hard work on my M5.
> 
> I knew you would be able to make a big improvement in the way it looked but I was genuinly taken aback by it's final appearance. To say I'm delighted, would be an understatement! I very much appreciate not only the many hours you spent on it but also the skill and experience necessary to achieve such a stunning transformation.
> 
> ...


Thanks for looking guys! Comments, questions etc welcome as usual! More on its way.

Gaz and Nathan


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## JBirchy (Oct 9, 2010)

Stunning work fellas and a lovely colour M5!


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## gibbo555 (May 3, 2011)

Lovely Job Gaz and Nathan :thumb:, love this cars.


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## Dift (May 22, 2011)

Ooooo one of my favourite cars in the perfect colour.


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

Stunning finish, real nice colour too.


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## jlw41 (Jun 5, 2011)

Stunning finish! great work as always :thumb:


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## DannyDetail (Apr 7, 2012)

That´s lovely work!

But I´ve got one question:

You said that customer ?paid? and wanted only Enhancement detail but what i can see from the pictures looks more like full correction. 

Aren´t you "underpricing" yourself guys?


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## Clyde (Feb 15, 2012)

Great work. I'd be chuffed with that turn a round too


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## President Swirl (Oct 23, 2011)

Stunning work my friend. Are the wheels reps ? Shouldn't they be shadowchrome with M decals in the square recess ?


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## cossienuts (Oct 14, 2008)

a lovely m5 a timeless shape imo good work


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## *MAGIC* (Feb 22, 2007)

Looks great.


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## Keith_Lane (Dec 9, 2011)

Great turnaround there fella, good work!!


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## DMH-01 (Mar 29, 2011)

Good job there mate :thumb:


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## Car Key (Mar 20, 2007)

Cracking job :thumb:


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## dooka (Aug 1, 2006)

Nice work buddy ..


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## Soul Hudson (Jul 5, 2011)

Great work on what I came to realise is a cracking colour once it was brought back to life.


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## samm (May 19, 2006)

Looks stunning Gaz, one of my favourite cars of all time.


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## tonyy (Jul 26, 2008)

Stunning turnaround:thumb:


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## Wout_RS (Jun 13, 2012)

Nice finish!

One question,

you mentioned that there where DA marks,
but i didn't knew you can get some marks from a DA,
how does this come? (i have no experience with a DA, but i would like to buy one, because i thought it was absolutly safe for your paintwork)


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## Detail My Ride (Apr 19, 2006)

Thanks for all the comments guys. 



DannyDetail said:


> That´s lovely work!
> 
> But I´ve got one question:
> 
> ...


The Enhancement detail that we offer generally will give 80%+ correction, which a lot of detailers including ourselves nowadays suit more customers than full correction. The extra time and effort involved in chasing out every last mark, and ensuring each panel is 100% perfect doesn't add enough to the overall finish, whereas the correction demonstrated in the pics does.

If i'm honest I can't remember the last detail we carried out where we didn't do something above what we quoted, or something we hadn't originally positioned we would do. We like to go above and beyond and exceed expectations where possible. 



President Swirl said:


> Stunning work my friend. Are the wheels reps ? Shouldn't they be shadowchrome with M decals in the square recess ?


The wheels have previously been refurbished, and the owner has since replaced the 'M Sport' decals in the recess. But yes the original finish is a shadow chrome effect.



Wout_RS said:


> Nice finish!
> 
> One question,
> 
> ...


The DA marks in the paintwork are not from polishing, but from sanding. The marks left behind were most likely from sanding via a DA air sander after painting, then not properly polishing out the marks leaving them behind.

But yes, you are quite correct DA polishing using the correct technique/products is in most cases perfectly safe on modern automotive finishes.


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## Summit Detailing (Oct 9, 2006)

Proper job guys!...both the car in question and your efforts:thumb:

Merry Christmas


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## Wout_RS (Jun 13, 2012)

Detail My Ride said:


> The DA marks in the paintwork are not from polishing, but from sanding. The marks left behind were most likely from sanding via a DA air sander after painting, then not properly polishing out the marks leaving them behind.
> 
> But yes, you are quite correct DA polishing using the correct technique/products is in most cases perfectly safe on modern automotive finishes.


Thnx, for the answer guys,
so you would advice an DA for me with a black car,
because i'm afraid that i will have swirls with a rotary, 
and can a DA for polishing and finishing causing any swirls? or far less then a rotary


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## DannyDetail (Apr 7, 2012)

*"The Enhancement detail that we offer generally will give 80%+ correction, which a lot of detailers including ourselves nowadays suit more customers than full correction. The extra time and effort involved in chasing out every last mark, and ensuring each panel is 100% perfect doesn't add enough to the overall finish, whereas the correction demonstrated in the pics does.

If i'm honest I can't remember the last detail we carried out where we didn't do something above what we quoted, or something we hadn't originally positioned we would do. We like to go above and beyond and exceed expectations where possible. "*

Yes, I get it. But then I don´t see any space for customers who want or just don´t care about spending more money on your services.

It looks like that there is no point for customers to spend more money if you do almost full correction for less in Enhancement detail. If you know what i mean 

I think that you have to do that job perfectly everytime but I think you should leave a space and some difference between those services for those who want to see what they will get for extra money in full correction.


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## dobbo99 (Aug 12, 2011)

nice work.
this alone has convinced me that if I dont sell my beemer, that I'll have a correction done in the new year! my mrs will be pleased.


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## Gleammachine (Sep 8, 2007)

Best car BMW made, looks great guys.:thumb:


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## Detail My Ride (Apr 19, 2006)

DannyDetail said:


> Yes, I get it. But then I don´t see any space for customers who want or just don´t care about spending more money on your services.
> 
> It looks like that there is no point for customers to spend more money if you do almost full correction for less in Enhancement detail. If you know what i mean
> 
> I think that you have to do that job perfectly everytime but I think you should leave a space and some difference between those services for those who want to see what they will get for extra money in full correction.


The detail certainly wasn't a full correction, there were still some RDS and areas of paintwork which weren't perfect, as well as stone chips etc (although touched in with OEM paint, not fully corrected/removed) however as you can see the extra work on the paintwork overall has made the improvement bigger.

Likewise, if a customer had booked for a full correction detail, we will usually do things that we hadn't quoted/specified for as an extra to ensure the best result possible.

:thumb:


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## Black Magic Detail (Aug 17, 2010)

nice work guys on one of the best cars ever made


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## TopSport+ (Jul 22, 2012)

Stunning work:thumb:


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## Clyde (Feb 15, 2012)

Still prefer these over the current shape


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## taz007 (Dec 31, 2007)

nice correction and detail.


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## MidlandsCarCare (Feb 18, 2006)

Great work as always Gents


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## stangalang (Nov 27, 2009)

Top work there boys


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## ckeir.02mh (Jan 5, 2012)

My favourite m5 ever, they just got it so right and now it looks flawless as well, great job!


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## Auto Finesse (Jan 10, 2007)

Nice work Gaz, on a "propa" BMW, the spec on these and what you can get them for now is amazing.


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## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

Nice work on my favourite breed of BMW (the M5 - up to this model), the 50/50 and before and after shots show a good level of correction achieved. Nice attention to detail in the cleaning stages too


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## Black.MB (Aug 22, 2012)

Nice writeup, great finish:thumb:


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