# BMW E90 335i coupe- Gleammachine.



## Gleammachine (Sep 8, 2007)

After a kind recommendation from the guys at Polished Bliss, the owner of this BMW got in contact. 
Having recently had the n/s rear quarter resprayed by a BMW approved bodyshop he was left rather dissapointed with the finish left.
After taking time to view the car, it was agreed that the defects to the offending panel could be rectified, it would also be worthwile carrying on round the car to improve upon the overall finish, so booked in with myself for 3 days.

*Upon arrival.*



















Alloys pre-rinsed and then washed using various brushes and AS Smartwheels.




























New improved Iron-X gel formula applied and left for a few minutes before working in, then rinsed.



















Arch linings cleaned with Megs SD.










As part of my seasonal special offer the engine bay received a free detail.





































Vehicle pre-soaked with a warm citrus wash, left shortly and then rinsed.










Washed using the usual safe practices, final rinse with 0 ppm filtered water, and finally dried.




























The vehicle was then brought inside, hopefully now a little warmer from the abundance of heaters.

Paintwork and glass de-contaminated.










The finish to the offending panel left by bodyshop.










Correction carried out using a Festool sheepskin pad and M105, following pictures prior to refinement.














































*Front wing.*



















*Drivers door.*





































*O/S rear quarter.*





































Lower sill/skirt corrected with IP3.02 on a LC hydro polishing pad.




























*Bumper sections.*



















Vehicle pulled outside and rinsed again to remove any polishing dust.










Paintwork refined using P0 85RD on a LC Hydro finishing pad.










An IPA wipedown carried out to remove an polishing oils, this was then followed up with a paintwork pre-cleanse using Swissvax CF normal.

Indicator gaskets given a clean using IPA, you may just be able to make out the subtle difference.










Exhaust tailpipes polished using Briliant Aluminium, then sealed with Blackfire metal sealant.



















Alloys pre-cleaned with Blackfire GEP and then sealed using Wet Diamond metal.










Swissvax Shield applied to the entire vehicle and left to cure, whilst this was happening the interior was given a vacuum, leather cleaned and treated using SV cleaner and leather milk, plastic trim wiped down with citrus APC.










***Glass pre-cleaned and then sealed using Nanolex UGS.
***Plastic trim dressed with 303 Aerospace.
***Rubber seals nourished with Swissvax Seal Feed.
***Tyres dressed with 2 coats of Zaino Z16.
***Door sills polished and protected using Werkstat Strong.
***Paintwork given a final wipedown just before collection using Britemax detailing spray.

*Finished results. *




































































































Thanks for looking, comments welcomed and appreciated.


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## Detail My Ride (Apr 19, 2006)

Fantastic work, stunning finish. I want one of these more and more every time I see a freshly detailed one appear on here :thumb:


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## CJR (Nov 4, 2010)

Beautiful 335i! Great job, and the reflections on that are fantastic!!


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## Dan Clark (Jun 25, 2007)

Stunning.

Nothing looks better than a black BM coupe. 

I did one of these for a mate this year. I found the paintwork on the wings and doors extremely thin...but rock solid.


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## Black Squirrel (Feb 24, 2010)

WOW!!:thumb:


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## Perfection Detailing (Nov 3, 2007)

Very nice mate.


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## ads2k (Jul 12, 2006)

Fantastic end results Rob, the pictures are getting better as well I think and I always look forward to your details in their pictures and content.

And I'm sure very nice to be recommended a fellow detailing company :thumb:


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## Deeper Detail (Oct 31, 2010)

Nice motor and rectification, lovely finish mate.... Great job :thumb:


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## Jim W (Feb 3, 2007)

Lovely work!

I am hearing more and more about these LC Hydro pads - will have to look into them myself!


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## Racer (Oct 27, 2005)

Superb Work. :thumb:


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## Footballer (Dec 7, 2010)

That is one hell of a finish you've produced there.

Congratulations!:thumb:

Customer satisfaction guarenteed!


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## Bungleaio (Jul 18, 2010)

Awesome finish and the car really looks the business. 

I didn't like these when they came out but I'm now thinking a derv version may very well be my next car.


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## rob929 (Aug 15, 2010)

Stunning job Rob paint looks superb! :thumb:

When using the Festool sheepskin pad...do you use the same method as if you were using a foam cutting pad? RPM, no. of passes etc.

Does sheepskin give more cut than foam?

I'm trying to remove some light scratches from my old man's Bentley Flying Spur (do they usually have hard paint?) with a DA and green 3M (and FC+) foam cutting pad but I'm not making any impression on them.

Just wondered if I could tackle them with sheepskin and a rotary? :buffer:

Sorry for all the questions!

Rob


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## woodym3 (Aug 30, 2009)

thats a great free engine bay detail there.. what did you use?


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## Mr Face (Jan 22, 2009)

Great work, beautiful finish :thumb:

Nice plate 2eys:thumb:


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## dooka (Aug 1, 2006)

:thumb:..


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## LJB (Dec 28, 2008)

Gorgeous !


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## nickfrog (Nov 29, 2010)

Simply stunning. Not likely to ever see a car in that condition at a BMW dealership...


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## Marc1 (Apr 8, 2010)

Great Job!


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## Guest (Dec 16, 2010)

Great work mate. I really love the 335i, really nice subtle stying and very powerful.


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## Black Magic Detail (Aug 17, 2010)

outstanding!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## 123quackers (Jan 29, 2009)

stunning work as always...:thumb:

The E46 still has it for looks IMO...


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## JBirchy (Oct 9, 2010)

Absolutely awesome! I really think BMW paint looks something else when finished properly, great job as usual


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## paranoid73 (Aug 5, 2009)

Great work & pictures :thumb:


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## "SkY" (Apr 21, 2009)

Great work:thumb:


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## slrestoration (Nov 11, 2009)

Great work as always Rob, excellent transformation & top quality write up:thumb: Nice choice of LSP, Shield is a very underated wax IMO


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## R1DEorD1E (Oct 30, 2009)

Very nice, stunning finish!


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## B&B Autostyle (Apr 4, 2010)

Came up a million dollars. Not the easiest car to work on either.


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## VW Golf-Fan (Aug 3, 2010)

Great work there, incredible shine!

When you say you 'pull the cars out the garage', do you personally drive them out or does the owner do this?

I'm just wondering about this from an insurance point of view.

:thumb:


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## matt_83 (Apr 28, 2009)

Cracking work as ever Rob!


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## woodymbr (Mar 8, 2009)

That looks fantastic. I'm doing my uncles 330d Coupe soon in grey with cream leather. What did you use on the engine bay? Did you mask anything off in there or just leave it?


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## danielhoworth (Jul 14, 2010)

That looks great! Quite a difference in the finish even when not under direct light too


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## Gleammachine (Sep 8, 2007)

rob929 said:


> Stunning job Rob paint looks superb! :thumb:
> 
> When using the Festool sheepskin pad...do you use the same method as if you were using a foam cutting pad? RPM, no. of passes etc.
> 
> ...


The method with the sheepskin is not that different to using foam, the heat build up is far less and you rely more upon the wool & polish to cut.
Obviously because the heat is kept to a minimum you can crank up the RPM a little more and just keep working the polish until it appears to have dissapeared or you have achieved the desired result.
Bentley paint is very tough, I would recommend trying the sheepskin and you will find the pad to glide over the surface nicely, it really does give you a lot of connection and feedback to and from the panel.
Keep the pad well spurred, at least after 2 sets, personally I try to clean up any clogging after each set.
You can use them with FCP but I find this a little extreme and would only recommend with a serious defect, personally I prefer Meguiars #105 with wool.



woodym3 said:


> thats a great free engine bay detail there.. what did you use?





woodymbr said:


> That looks fantastic. I'm doing my uncles 330d Coupe soon in grey with cream leather. What did you use on the engine bay? Did you mask anything off in there or just leave it?


Meguiars Super Degreaser to clean on a warm engine, any vunerable electrics cover in foil or cling film, dry as much as possible and then liberally sprayed with a waterbased dressing like Autosmart Finish, Autoglym rubber & vinyl or 303 Aerospace, leave overnight and lightly buff of any residue.



123quackers said:


> stunning work as always...:thumb:
> 
> The E46 still has it for looks IMO...


Cheers bud, yep prefer thew E46 myself.



slrestoration said:


> Great work as always Rob, excellent transformation & top quality write up:thumb: Nice choice of LSP, Shield is a very underated wax IMO


Loving Shield at the moment, maybe more so than Best of Show.



Corsa D-Driver said:


> Great work there, incredible shine!
> 
> When you say you 'pull the cars out the garage', do you personally drive them out or does the owner do this?
> 
> ...


No I drive them in & out myself and never take them on the public highway, obviously there has to be an element of trust between the customer and myself of which I would like to think is achieved/guaranteed, but yes my Van insurance does cover my to drive other vehicles.


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## John @ PB (Aug 25, 2010)

Nice work Rob: it was a little far for the customer to travel to come to us!


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## RandomlySet (Jul 10, 2007)

stunning work boss!


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## centenary (Sep 5, 2010)

Gleammachine said:


> After a kind recommendation from the guys at Polished Bliss, the owner of this BMW got in contact.
> Having recently had the n/s rear quarter resprayed by a BMW approved bodyshop he was left rather dissapointed with the finish left.
> After taking time to view the car, it was agreed that the defects to the offending panel could be rectified, it would also be worthwile carrying on round the car to improve upon the overall finish, so booked in with myself for 3 days.
> 
> ...


That rear quarter was shocking!

Magnificent turn around there.

I've got those 19" alloys on my convertible and those narrow spokes are a pig to get between and clean!

Had a look under the bonnet yesterday for the first time since I bought it  Looks clean enough but I need to stay on top of it and make it look something as good as in these pics.

BTW, the 3 series coupe and convertible are designated as E92. The E90 is the saloon.

Love my bimmers, me.

Beep, beep :driver:


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## Gleammachine (Sep 8, 2007)

centenary said:


> That rear quarter was shocking!
> 
> Magnificent turn around there.
> 
> ...


Thanks, my mistake on the E90 although it was only meant as the style, I thought the convertible was E93?


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## Bungleaio (Jul 18, 2010)

Gleammachine said:


> Thanks, my mistake on the E90 although it was only meant as the style, I thought the convertible was E93?


E90 - Saloon
E91 - Estate
E92 - Coupe
E93 - Convertible
:thumb:


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## ALANSHR (Jun 29, 2007)

Great finish, hopefully one very happy customer?


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## Gleammachine (Sep 8, 2007)

ALANSHR said:


> Great finish, hopefully one very happy customer?


Thanks Alan, why of course a very happy customer, enough so that he said he'd happily recommend my services to his collegues and return himself, that's good enough for me.


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