# BMW E46 Titanium Silver



## Deeg (Mar 30, 2009)

This is my pride and joy probably about as dirty as it ever gets, it's never garaged and it still gets driven about 4/5 days a week by the wife.
































































1st step was to deal with the engine bay, I had managed to get a bottle of degreaser we use at work and it worked a treat! I used it neat as we do at work and you could almost see it desolving the grease and oil that was everywhere.

After leaving the degreaser for a few minutes to work I then went round and agitated all areas with a small detailing brush, then rinsed the area with free flowing water.

Kind of jumping ahead of myself here but I dressed the engine bay with aerospace 303, here's the finished article.










Fairly pleased with my first attempt at an engine bay.

Next up the wheel arches, G101 at 10-1 was used here with a vikan brush, no pics as I was wanting the wash process completed quick.

Then the car was foamed with Autosmart Actimouse+ and then washed 2BM with Supernatural shampoo and MF washmitt.

I then went around the entire car and attacked any tar with Tardis.

Then the car was clayed with Autosmart's purple clay and Reglaze used as lube, quite an aggressive clay and some marring was caused by the clay. Could have been a tad too cold for the claying when I did it.










Then refoamed to remove any product residue.

I then took paint readings of all panels and found a very interesting panel!





































All pretty constant readings but then I found this:










Then this










and the highest reading I got was










I've tried to capture some of the defects but due to my poor photography skills they haven't came out too great!



















these are probably the ones you can see the best.

I then did a test area and settled on Menz PO203s with a Menz polishing pad.

the whole car was done with same combo, including the resprayed panel.

Giving the following results





































Overall I was happy with the level of the finish achieved I would say 85+% which I was happy with as this is almost a daily driver and I didnt want to polish it to within an inch of it's life. I am planning on keeping this for a few years so would like to be able to correct it again.

The paint was then treated with Dodo juice lime prime applied by hand with my latest purchase, the Autoglym perfect palm. I must say I thought it was great to use and I think I will buy a couple more.

The LSP of choice was Supernatural. applied via a Megs foam pad and rebuffed off after about 2 hours. a 2nd coat was applied 24 hours later.

While the LSP cured I went round and finished off some of the other ares, the wheels were remove, as they were protected with Poorboys wheel sealent just 2 months ago the cleaned up really well with just G101 at 5-1 and tardis was used for the tar spots on the inners.

Then resealed with Poorboys and tyres dressed with Meguires hot shine.

While the wheels were off I decided to clean up the arches properly. I think it was a good decision. cleaned with G101 and various brushes then dressed with barebones.



















Interior was given a quick hoover and all surfaces treated with Natural look dressing. but I think the mats could do with a good shampoo and wet vac when I have time.

I also resprayed the brake calipers at the same time to touch them up with a bit of silver hammerite.

Overall I'm very happy with the final finish on the car.































































































































Sorry for all the pics.....

Any comments or suggestions welcome.


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## ChuckH (Nov 23, 2006)

Very nice Mate silver is apparently a dificult colour to get good results from ? Have You done any machine work to it ?
Here is a pic of the rear wing on My old E46 M3 cabbie


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## OzMoSiS (Jun 19, 2009)

great work. the flake in the wheels is lovely


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## pete330 (Apr 18, 2006)

Looks great
Silver is a hard colour to get a decent finish other than clean
But its ace at hiding defects


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## Deeg (Mar 30, 2009)

ChuckH said:


> Very nice Mate silver is apparently a dificult colour to get good results from ? Have You done any machine work to it ?
> Here is a pic of the rear wing on My old E46 M3 cabbie


YEah I went round the whole car with my DAS-6 with Menz po203s with a menz polishing pad. achieved approx 85+% correction.


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## Russ and his BM (Jan 1, 2008)

Have you had the swirl flaps taken out? It would be a shame after all that fettling for the engine to lunch itself and land you with a massive bill...kinda makes you fall out of love with a car...


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## JCW85 (Oct 29, 2009)

Nice write up - think you captured the swirl marks well (a problem tho I have with my car as its dark silver and annoying when your trying to show the befores and afters)

The leather steering wheel looks like it needs a little clean 

Chris


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## Deeg (Mar 30, 2009)

JCW85 said:


> The leather steering wheel looks like it needs a little clean
> 
> Chris


The whole interior could be doing with a good clean..... maybe this weekend!


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## Deeg (Mar 30, 2009)

Russ and his BM said:


> Have you had the swirl flaps taken out? It would be a shame after all that fettling for the engine to lunch itself and land you with a massive bill...kinda makes you fall out of love with a car...


Thats on my list to do, it's still under warranty with BMW untill Middle of July, I will be replacing them the day before it goes out of warranty.


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## jammyb2010 (May 18, 2010)

looks gorgeous mate, love the e46 shape a real classic thats hard to beat! fantastic looking finish on a silver car to! looks mint!


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## cotter (Aug 31, 2008)

Looking good :thumb: Even better in the flesh - saw it in the carpark at Somerfield in Stoney a few weeks back, thought it must be yours by the plate


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## Deeg (Mar 30, 2009)

cotter said:


> Looking good :thumb: Even better in the flesh - saw it in the carpark at Somerfield in Stoney a few weeks back, thought it must be yours by the plate


cheers mate, yeah the wife takes it there all the time even though I hate her taking it to the shops!


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## cotter (Aug 31, 2008)

Deeg said:


> cheers mate, yeah the wife takes it there all the time even though I hate her taking it to the shops!


Its ok, you've got her well trained - it was at the far end of the carpark, as far away as she could :thumb: :lol:


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## PIT (Apr 22, 2010)

Looks great.


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## Russ and his BM (Jan 1, 2008)

Deeg said:


> Thats on my list to do, it's still under warranty with BMW untill Middle of July, I will be replacing them the day before it goes out of warranty.


Good stuff - definitely get that done!:thumb:


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