# Detailmycar - BMW 550i E60, Cleaning up mess from a rotary attack!



## DetailMyCar (Apr 19, 2010)

Here's another write up from me, this time a 2006 BMW E60 550i (V8), in Carbon Black.

The owner contacted me shortly after buying the car as he knew the paintwork wasn't quite right from the moment he saw it, someone had kindly offered to machine polish it for the previous owner and as you can see from the pics below they left it in rather a sorry state with large holograms and trails left all over the car. There were also a few deep scratches on the bonnet and passenger side that I said I would try and correct but as I only had the car for the day it was always going to be hard to correct all of it but as always I promised to do my best with the time available.

Time taken was 13 hours all in as I didn't finish it until gone 9:30pm.

Here are the before pics:









































































Bad holograms



























Swirls


















More bugs









Scratch on the bonnet


















There was quite a lot of traffic film, and as you can see from the bugs there were a number of them to clear off the front so I opted for Chemical Guys "no touch" snow foam to start with



















Meguiars APC and a slide-lock brush was then used around all the crevices, gaps, vents and grills









Wheels were cleaned with AS Smart wheels, various brushes and tyres & arches with G101


















After the car was rinsed off, I hand washed with 2 Buckets, lambswool mitt and my own shampoo 


















IronX was then sprayed all over the car and wheels but surprisingly it didn't actually find too much in the way of contamination, plus on a colour like this it's very hard to photograph and with the hot sun beating down I wanted to get the car inside as quickly as possible.

It was taken inside the unit to be clayed with Zaino clay, and some shampoo mixed with water as lube









It was then all towel dried









Now you can see the defects again under LED lighting













































Bad holograms and buffer trails on the drivers side front wing



























Paint depths taken









Polishing was difficult as the paintwork was very hard and even with some harsh combinations it was difficult to get a huge amount of correction, I ended up moving to Scholl S2 Orange with an Orange Hex Logic pad, not even BMW's usually require that level of cut but that was the only thing I found that genuinely made good improvements on the paint. I tried every combination from S17+, Menz PO85RD 3.02, 3M Extra fine, CarPro Fixer - All with a range of pads from Hex Logic Green, White, Orange, 3M Yellow but this was the most effective combination.

First 50/50










You can see some RDS still remaining, as I only had one day to work on it there wasn't enough time to remove everything safely, it probably needed wet sanding in areas to be honest to really make a big difference but I was still pleased with the level of correction in the time allowed, unfortunately it can just be frustrating when you know there are still little marks left as you always like to make car look as good as possible in this game.

Before









After









50/50's on the bonnet













































After









Drivers side



























More 50/50's on the passenger side













































Before:









After:









50/50









After









The car was given a full IPA wipedown at each stage, as it would be protected with Ceramishield

Ceramishield to be applied, timing 3 minutes between applying and buffing off









Buffed off









Car all done






























































































































Thanks again for reading, the next morning the owner took some photo's off the car and sent them to me to add:


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## President Swirl (Oct 23, 2011)

Stunning mate, excellent work. At least the cowboys keep you in work.


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## Soul Hudson (Jul 5, 2011)

That is some nice polishing my man. Great work, paint work looks so much better.


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## AaronGTi (Nov 2, 2010)

Excellent work :thumb:


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## MLAM (Jan 21, 2009)

Great turn around Nick, atleast with Carbon Black you can easily take pictures of any defects unlike the Titanium Silver on my car


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## liam99 (Dec 29, 2009)

Good work.


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## DetailMyCar (Apr 19, 2010)

MLAM said:


> Great turn around Nick, atleast with Carbon Black you can easily take pictures of any defects unlike the Titanium Silver on my car


That is very true! My Dad has a 535D in Carbon Black - One trip to the Dealers where he forgot to tell them not to wash it left it in a right mess, one that I still haven't faced up to helping him with yet but now he's seen this I know he's keen for me to do it again 

:buffer:


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## JBirchy (Oct 9, 2010)

Stunning that, i did a 530i in carbon black last year, remember it being rock solid paint!

550i though, proper Q-car, i'd love to stick a 520d badge on the back and completely dust everything on the road! Beast! I bet it sounded nice?


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## scotty76 (Nov 12, 2011)

Awesome work yet again Nick. Newbury's own Mr Fix It!


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## JMorty (Apr 25, 2011)

Great work as always mate!


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## lisaclio (Sep 6, 2008)

cracking work mate, looks like how it should


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## ronwash (Mar 26, 2011)

Car was in a rubbish condition,what a great turnarround!!
fantastic work.


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## DMH-01 (Mar 29, 2011)

Great job mate :thumb:


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## Nally (May 30, 2012)

is that a miplins led light i see lol


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## cdubu (Aug 9, 2006)

Good job. I have an e60 too and it got me quite tempted, where are you based?


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## cdubu (Aug 9, 2006)

Ignore me just seen you're in Newbury. Would you travel to Farnbrough or do you have a workshop?


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## Zetec-al (Feb 28, 2011)

Great work! Love these 5 series


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## DetailMyCar (Apr 19, 2010)

cdubu said:


> Ignore me just seen you're in Newbury. Would you travel to Farnbrough or do you have a workshop?


Hi there,

Yes I work out of a Unit in Newbury so you can always drop the car off. Newbury train station is only a 5 min walk if that helps too?

Email me if you want to discuss anyway [email protected]

Thanks again!


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## DetailMyCar (Apr 19, 2010)

Nally said:


> is that a miplins led light i see lol


Absolutely is! Finding it much better then the Halogens at present, thanks again for spotting that one!


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## mattcoupturbo (Aug 14, 2006)

Amazing turnaround, can't believe how badly some owners treat such motors.


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## DetailMyCar (Apr 19, 2010)

mattcoupturbo said:


> Amazing turnaround, can't believe how badly some owners treat such motors.


Indeed, just to point out it was like this when the current owner got hold of it 

The problem is they had paid for someone to actually valet and polish :buffer: the car and most of the bad damage is from that as you can see with the holograms and buffer trails... How the person doing that job could feel happy looking at the end results I just do not know.

At least it is massively improved now, and looks way more like it should :thumb:


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## Neil_G (Nov 22, 2010)

Totally awesome. Love the 50/50 shots, really shows off your craftmanship.


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## Mr Face (Jan 22, 2009)

Great work Nick, beautiful finish :thumb:


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## Jaywoo (May 1, 2012)

Great turnaround. Paintwork looks perfect now.


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## tonyy (Jul 26, 2008)

Fantastic turnaround:thumb:


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## DetailMyCar (Apr 19, 2010)

Neil_G said:


> Totally awesome. Love the 50/50 shots, really shows off your craftmanship.


Thanks Neil, 50/50's never get old 



Mr Face said:


> Great work Nick, beautiful finish :thumb:


Thanks Mike, I'll have to get you and Cole over to help soon :buffer:



Jaywoo said:


> Great turnaround. Paintwork looks perfect now.


Nice of you to say mate, thanks!



tonyy said:


> Fantastic turnaround:thumb:


Thanks again Tony!


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