# Refined Detail | BMW 850 CSI



## Refined Detail (Nov 27, 2006)

:wave:

Just starting to work my way through the backlog of photos I have stored on my PC. Not all of them will make it to write up format though I'm afraid. I do post daily updates and photos on my Facebook and Twitter though :thumb:

This 850 CSI was bought to me to prepare ahead of the BMW National Festival at Gaydon with the brief of 'do what you can' - essentially concours prep without delving into the restoration side of things. The car was left with me at my unit in Billingshurst for 10 days.

The main area of concern was the engine bay that was coated in a combination of factory silicone coating and engine lacquer, and over the years the heat had had it's effect on it al and was now yellowing and peeling. This turned out to be the bane of my life for a full day in the end 

First up, get the car up in the air and remove the wheels to access the arches fully, and clean the wheels inside and out:










Wheels cleaned with Smart Wheels, tyres and arches with Bilt Hamber Surfex.

Wheels prepped with Auto Finesse Rejuvenate and sealed with mint rims:



















Arches dressed with Autosmart Finish:










Then on to the engine bay:























































Before:










After:










Numerous products, brushes and tools were used to achieve the desired result, and a lot of hard graft and elbow grease started to get the engine bay looking far more presentable.

With the engine bay looking cleaner, the first coating of Autosmart Finish was applied and left to dry naturally which would be revisited later in the detail.

Next up, prepare the exterior - a thorough wash regime to start. Foamed with Bilt Hamber Autofoam:










and wash via the 2 bucket method:










Rinse, de-tar, Iron-X and finally clay with Bilt Hamber medium:










Rinse, roll the car inside and towel dry, before blowing any excess water out of crevices with warm, blown air:










Then begin mapping paint readings which highlited the boot was particularly low:










a couple of small areas of paintwork:










and a rough average around the remainder of the car:










hologrammes were visible upon delivery though, so it was clear the car had seen some machine polishing work in the past.

After trialling various polish and pad combinations I settled on ye olde faithful Scholl S17+ on a 3M yellow pad. All photos are prior to any refining work:



































































































































































Some deeper RDS remaining, but achieving decent levels of correction and improvement in overall gloss / clarity levels without sacrificing the clearcoat at all, leaving plenty of scope for future work should it ever be required.

Paintwork was later refined with 3M ultrafina on matching pad and cleansed with Auto Finesse Rejuvenate ready for LSP.

Moving on to the interior, typically the camera was starting to run low on battery so the pictures become somewhat limited. That said, the interior was in fantastic condition to begin with, so there was very little for me to capture.
A 50/50 on the leather:










followed by wet extraction of all carpets and overmats, deep cleaning of all plastics, polishing chrome trim, polishing windows etc etc.

The interior was completed between coats of Auto Finesse Tough Coat and Spirit curing on the paintwork.

By the time the car was ready to photograph in all it's glory, the rain had arrived, so I had to grab a very short break in the rain for some finished shots. I also took the remainder of these indoors.

Glass was cleaned with ValetPro Glass cleaner, front screen sealed with G-Techniq G5. Exhausts polished with Auto Finesse Mercury. Tyres dressed with CarPro Perl.

First up the interior:



















the engine bay:









































































the exterior shots:























































Thanks for looking,

Rich @ Refined Detail


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## Beau Technique (Jun 21, 2010)

Looks well Rich. The engine looks sharp considering the nasty cak round all the brightwork.


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

Cracking work Rich


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## 888-Dave (Jul 30, 2010)

Great honest work there Rich :thumb: I bet the unit seems like a very good idea this week eh bud


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## unique detail (Jan 26, 2012)

Top job looks very crisp.


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## NornIron (May 12, 2007)

Lovely work on a lovely barge :thumb:


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## sparkey32 (Aug 11, 2012)

Fantastic job, really love those 850's and that one looks amazing. Thanks for posting i'm just rolling my tongue back up:argie:


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## AaronGTi (Nov 2, 2010)

Awesome :thumb:


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## The Cueball (Feb 8, 2007)

lovely work... those are rare cars!!

still on my list to get one... considered by many to be the M8 that never was...

:thumb:


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## Rough Diamond (Sep 5, 2012)

good work as always there richard......


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## Ultimate Shine (Jun 3, 2008)

very nice work something to get your teeth into, I like your pictures:thumb:

Your logo in your corner of your pics you need to change it to a vector file format, it will make it a lot smoother on the edges, if its a layer on the picture just increase the PPI(I think) :thumb:


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## deni2 (May 4, 2011)

Stunning work on a stunning car, :thumb:.


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## jlw41 (Jun 5, 2011)

Great work! I need one of these in my life


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## Refined Detail (Nov 27, 2006)

Thank you everybody for taking the time to read my write up and commenting, much appreciated!



888-Dave said:


> Great honest work there Rich :thumb: I bet the unit seems like a very good idea this week eh bud


Thanks Dave, frustratingly a lot of my work is mobile this week typically! 



The Cueball said:


> lovely work... those are rare cars!!
> 
> still on my list to get one... considered by many to be the M8 that never was...
> 
> :thumb:


Thanks chap (sorry, I can't remember your name  ) rare cars indeed, from what I recall there's only about 250 in Europe or something. I've been very privileged to work on 3 now though! And yes, pretty sure they were built as a development model for the M8 which never made it into production (huge shame as that would have been an awesome car!)



Ultimate Shine said:


> very nice work something to get your teeth into, I like your pictures:thumb:
> 
> Your logo in your corner of your pics you need to change it to a vector file format, it will make it a lot smoother on the edges, if its a layer on the picture just increase the PPI(I think) :thumb:


Thank you Paul :thumb: Re. watermark, yes it's something I need to sort out as the rough edges have started to frustrate me recently :lol: It's just a GIF overlaid on the photo using VSO image resizer for now.


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## cheffi (Apr 12, 2008)

*fap


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## Soul Hudson (Jul 5, 2011)

Cracking work. I remember this from twitter nice to see it completed. You are proberbly pleased as well ha.


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## matt_83 (Apr 28, 2009)

Nice work :thumb:


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## Matt_Nic (Apr 15, 2011)

I've been in love with these things since I first saw one. I was 8 in 1989. 
There's been a lot of other cars over the years that got a bit too old, like Skylines, Supra's etc. 
But a little something in me still wants an 8'er at some point despite the fact they're as old as time. Especially one with 12 cylinders. Pub rights?!


Anyway, less reminiscing about my youth. Lovely work. When I'm doing this as a hobby to mine or others cars, I only get a day, which is usually limited in reality to 8-10 hours. I always end up getting to about hour 6 and start rushing. I end up not having wheels off or even opening the bonnet or the interior. So I envy you a lot having that unit and the time to love a car.


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## MEH4N (Mar 15, 2012)

some great work there and on a very nice motor aswell.


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## SimonBash (Jun 7, 2010)

Great work Rich, love the 8 series retro cool:thumb:


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## Prestige Detail (Aug 27, 2012)

Nice one Rich, engine and bodywork looking sweet!


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## Beancounter (Aug 31, 2006)

Great work on a lovely car.....and a CSI no less  :doublesho
Just something about them, that makes me want one in the garage some day.
Thank for sharing :thumb:


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## JBirchy (Oct 9, 2010)

Looks mega, i'm a big 8 series fan - very very nice! Love the pipes on it, looks like the pipes off an E46 M3!


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## Refined Detail (Nov 27, 2006)

Soul Hudson said:


> Cracking work. I remember this from twitter nice to see it completed. You are proberbly pleased as well ha.


Thanks for the follow on Twitter! Yes it's taken me a while to post it! Finished it back in early August 



Matt_Nic said:


> Lovely work. When I'm doing this as a hobby to mine or others cars, I only get a day, which is usually limited in reality to 8-10 hours. I always end up getting to about hour 6 and start rushing. I end up not having wheels off or even opening the bonnet or the interior. So I envy you a lot having that unit and the time to love a car.


Thank you. The unit is a godsend after 5 years of fully outdoor work, this for example was in for 10 days and I spent 37hrs on it in between other jobs which was a full working week in itself. Lots of late nights!



JBirchy said:


> Looks mega, i'm a big 8 series fan - very very nice! Love the pipes on it, looks like the pipes off an E46 M3!


Thanks buddy. That's exactly what I think of them too!


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## Matt_Nic (Apr 15, 2011)

I had to do it, I went away and looked through the classified's at 850's and the only CSI the came up was 25k!

I bet you could have picked one up for half that a few years ago. Every time I see an 8'er I say to the Mrs "That'll make me money if I buy it" but she just says no. It's too old. 
I feel like saying so is she and that I need a newer model.


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## tonyy (Jul 26, 2008)

Looks amazing:thumb:


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## Refined Detail (Nov 27, 2006)

Thanks everybody!


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## gb270 (Aug 22, 2008)

Great work


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

Very good job Rich, on a very nice car!

Chris.


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## andpgud (Jun 27, 2010)

I sure would want to give you mine to work on.


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## Ben1413 (Jul 1, 2009)

What a gorgeous looking BMW!

Great work!


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## DJ X-Ray (Sep 2, 2012)

nice work.love the 8 series.


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## phil_m_rob (May 8, 2011)

Lovely work on a lovely car...the 850CSi is on my list of cars to own...because who doesn't want a V12 6 speed?


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

Love these cars, looks stunning now, good job mate!

Chris.


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## Refined Detail (Nov 27, 2006)

Thank you all!



phil_m_rob said:


> Lovely work on a lovely car...the 850CSi is on my list of cars to own...because who doesn't want a V12 6 speed?


I'd prefer my 6.0 V12 to be minus engine lacquer and silicone next time though :lol:


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## phil_m_rob (May 8, 2011)

I bet that was an utter PITA...but the results show it was worth it! It's such an engine....THAT is what an engine should look like!


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## DMH-01 (Mar 29, 2011)

Great job :thumb:


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## Bowler (Jan 23, 2011)

Top work, love the car


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## 3R10 (Apr 14, 2010)

Great work! Love the 850CSi.


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## Refined Detail (Nov 27, 2006)

Thanks chaps!


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

Cracking job Rich on a truly great car!

Chris.


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## woodym3 (Aug 30, 2009)

great job on a great motor there mate. how did it get on in the concours? still cant get my head around people who get their car professionally detailed then enter it for a concours as if they have done all the work themselves.


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