# 5 series BMW tidy up and enhancement



## Dan J (Jun 18, 2008)

Hi all
here we a have a well neglected N reg bmw in solid blue.
anyway heres how it looked on arrival:

































































as you can see its pretty manky and has plenty for me to deal with. the bonnet looks like its had some form of cleaner applied but didnt have it removed hence the bleaching, theres also plenty of swirling across the whole car and some deepish scratches thrown in for good measure.
first port of call was to give the car a good rinse off with the pressure washer to remove the loose crap then pre-soaked it using a 1:1 dilution of Autosmart active xl making sure it didnt dry out, left that to dwell while i cleaned the wheels with neat Active xl and various vikan brushes,
rinsed the whole car off,wheels and arches,
then washed the car with Zaino Z7 shampoo and rinsed off, while car was wet i clayed using I4detailing uber lime clay and Dodojuice bornslippy lube then final rinse and dry.
this is how it looked after:

































































im trying out some Mirka polishes currently so thought id give them a go on the boot lid with a Britemax orange pad and C20 compound and got it to this

























after that test i cracked out the wool pad and did the whole car with this and Mirka C20









due to the wool pad clogging quite quickly on the bonnet area i had to go over it by hand first to remove the bulk of oxydised/bleached paint then proceed with the wool pad









































then a quick rinse off due to dusting from the compound and dryed again, to refine the finish a bit more i used Mirka F05 which gave a nice gloss but left me with holagrams 

























so used Menzerna po 85 re 5 to finish down with then 2 layers of collinite 915

































was pleased with the result but couldnt stop thinking that Purple Haze would give it that little something extra so the next day i went out and gave the whole car a wipe over with some qd then layered up some purple haze throughout the day ( 2 layers in total) and dressed the tires with Cquartz Perl this is the result


























































































































by no means perfect but there were some scratches too deep to correct and some stone chips of various sizes dotted about which needed more than a polish to sort it.

any questions/comments welcome

thanks for looking

Dan


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## DMH-01 (Mar 29, 2011)

Wow the state of it at the beginning, fantastic job mate looks mint now.


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## GrahamKendall (Sep 8, 2009)

That is frickin excellent mate, what a job! I LOVED my E34 525 tank, Can't believe the difference you have made on that. Very impressed with how the wheels have come up as well.


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## athol (Oct 3, 2009)

Excellent work, bet your pleased with that !!!


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## m3vert (Sep 28, 2009)

Nice one mate well done!!


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## maestegman (Mar 3, 2011)

Superb job fella. You must be delighted.


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## ryand (Jul 18, 2008)

Great job!


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## SPECKY (Sep 3, 2008)

Superb results !!! How much time did you put in ?????


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## tomwrx (Sep 19, 2010)

its like 2 different cars, top jod done there mate ,

well done


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## zippo (Mar 26, 2008)

excellent turnaround. One to be proud of for sure


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## stefstef (Mar 20, 2011)

Excellent work mate
It reminds me my father's 520 E34 previous car
What about the interior...?


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## tonyy (Jul 26, 2008)

What a turnaround..fantastic..


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## North east Car Care (Jan 14, 2008)

Stunning turnround matey


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## uzi-blue (Mar 16, 2011)

Amazing job, great results. :thumb:


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## c16rkc (Apr 15, 2010)

Thats an incredible turnaround - you should be very pleased!


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## SimonBash (Jun 7, 2010)

Fantastic save there pal, wow:thumb:


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## Pedro.Malheiro (Mar 18, 2011)

amazing work!!!


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## MR.Q (Apr 19, 2010)

:doublesho:doublesho:argie::argie::doublesho :doublesho THATS AWESOME mate!


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## T25DOC (Jan 11, 2010)

Amazing turn around mate - well done....


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## Energy Lab (May 10, 2011)

What a result!
Well done.


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## MadOnVaux! (Jun 2, 2008)

Brilliant work...i was sure that was going to need a wet-sand on the bonnet at least when i saw the pics, but you done good


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## UCD (Oct 27, 2010)

WOW, crazy turnaround!


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## ITHAQVA (Feb 20, 2011)

H**y S**T that F****R was mashed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well done mate, another of germany's finest brought back to life :thumb::thumb:


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## Dan J (Jun 18, 2008)

Thanks for the kind replies Guys:thumb: much appreciated.

was one of the worst cases ive seen for a while but enjoyed the challenge and the outcome was worth the effort :buffer:


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## Franco50 (Feb 5, 2008)

Terrific job mate. I thought that bonnet would have been past saving. To say the car had been neglected was an understatement. :thumb:


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## craigyd01 (Mar 12, 2010)

Fantastic results - very impressive. Well done!


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## Trip tdi (Sep 3, 2008)

that was a mess, but you turned it round massively, the car looks like brand new now.

May i ask what you used on the wheels, as i know those wheels are a pain to clean, specially the amount of brake dust on those.

Thanks.


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## Dan J (Jun 18, 2008)

Trip tdi said:


> that was a mess, but you turned it round massively, the car looks like brand new now.
> 
> May i ask what you used on the wheels, as i know those wheels are a pain to clean, specially the amount of brake dust on those.
> 
> Thanks.


Thanks, As stated in my write up i used neat Autosmart Active xl and these

http://www.i4detailing.co.uk/acatalog/Vikan_Multi_Brush_1.html

http://www.i4detailing.co.uk/acatalog/Vikan_Wheel_Rim_Brush_1.html

tbh they needed minimal agitation due the effectiveness of Active xl, great product imo :thumb:


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## Sportspack Mark (May 24, 2007)

awesome work!


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## Trip tdi (Sep 3, 2008)

Purple Haze said:


> Thanks, As stated in my write up i used neat Autosmart Active xl and these
> 
> http://www.i4detailing.co.uk/acatalog/Vikan_Multi_Brush_1.html
> 
> ...


Hi, thanks for your reply back, i appreciate that alot.

Honestly that was hard mission to tackle that car, i am surprised you did not use a wheel cleaner, as those alloys are a pain to clean, my mate has the same wheels, and takes him ages to clean.

So i bare that in mind active xl, to clean the wheels thanks, does anyone know if ebay autosmart products are genuine or not.

Credit on your hard work though again, welldone.


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## volvojos (Jun 4, 2009)

stunning job there 
, looks 10 years younger


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## The Cueball (Feb 8, 2007)

Great work there, looks like a different car!

Big, tough old beats these E34's..... nice to see a good looking one again...

:thumb:


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## Dan J (Jun 18, 2008)

Trip tdi said:


> Hi, thanks for your reply back, i appreciate that alot.
> 
> Honestly that was hard mission to tackle that car, i am surprised you did not use a wheel cleaner, as those alloys are a pain to clean, my mate has the same wheels, and takes him ages to clean.
> 
> ...


:thumb:

please keep in mind that Autosmart Active xl is a strong product and can potentially cause damage if caution isnt used whilst using it, ive been using it for 10yrs now so know the product inside out.


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## nickmak (May 29, 2010)

That is some work there! :thumb:

It's nice to see that it's not always exotic cars that get the love.


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## Leemack (Mar 6, 2009)

Great work mate :thumb:


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## nogrille (Oct 27, 2005)

schweeeet!


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## Dan J (Jun 18, 2008)

nogrille said:


> schweeeet!


DUDE!!!! its been tooooooooo long

cheers mate


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## Trip tdi (Sep 3, 2008)

Purple Haze said:


> :thumb:
> 
> please keep in mind that Autosmart Active xl is a strong product and can potentially cause damage if caution isnt used whilst using it, ive been using it for 10yrs now so know the product inside out.


Hi thanks for your genuine advice, thats good.

Would i be better buying it from my rep or ebay, but i have doubts about ebay selling genuine or not.


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## Dan J (Jun 18, 2008)

Trip tdi said:


> Hi thanks for your genuine advice, thats good.
> 
> Would i be better buying it from my rep or ebay, but i have doubts about ebay selling genuine or not.


no problem:thumb:

personally id go through a rep or someone on here in the Autosmart section.


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## 0asis2007 (Jan 29, 2009)

What an amazing job!!!

Always nice to see old cars like this turned around..... Fantastic work!


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## slrestoration (Nov 11, 2009)

Great transformation Dan, finished results are a real testament to all that hard graft:thumb: Some great photography BTW!!!!


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## littledog (Dec 24, 2010)

Fantastic!!!!


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## stu1027 (Jan 15, 2010)

What a superb turnaround. These 'old cars to new' threads are my favourite kind. It really shows what can be achieved with a bit of hard work and care.
Well done that man!


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## tromppost (Jan 12, 2008)

Go girl, great work on that bonnet.


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## GSiFan (Jan 6, 2011)

:doublesho I've not often seen such a transformation! Awesome work! 

Paul


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