# An old German girl...



## pringle_addict (Jan 2, 2008)

I was asked to help out on this one by my mate Leodanger. I was told, while we were drinking, one of his friends had an 'old BMW' that needed some TLC and would I mind giving him a hand.:buffer:

Never one to shy away from an excuse to do some detailing, I happily agreed.

A few days later, Leodanger confirmed the date and location and we agreed to meet there.

Now I must admit that I couldn't really remember much about the job, only that it was an old Beemer.

Of course, I was imagining a classic old 2002ti or 635 CSI, and so was preparing for a day of perfecting shines and attention to detail.:thumb:

I was greeted by this...:doublesho










Apparently this 1985 E30 BMW 323i had been standing in this spot for the best part of 2 years. And it showed!!




























So this quickly turned into more of a salvage job.

This aim for the day was to restore shine, remove moss and generally make the car look respectable for a soon-to-be-booked MOT.

The first couple of hours were spent APCing every nook, cranny, panel gap and panel to loosen some of the more ingrained dirt.










Several spray bottles of 4:1 Daisy later and we were ready for the foamwash.










A quick rinse down, left us with this..










This is where the photo's kind of peter out as we were working hard to finish the job in the time available.

The overall process was tried and trusted though:


Pre-wash using APC and brushes
Foam using APC, Snow and citrus degreaser mix
Rinse with PW
Dry off with Sonus towels.

While I was washing, Leodanger was making an excellent job of the interior (after photo only.. sorry!).










The machining was to be challenging, to say the least.

This was mainly due to the extreme dryness of the paint. With a loaded Sonus SFX-1 pad and SFX-1 restore polish the paint was literally sucking the polish out of the pad. We had to use loads more polish than usual just to get some spread on the panel to begin machining.

Slowly we worked round the car. Along one side...










across the bonnet (50:50)..










Until we were finished.... (phew)..










The paint was given a coat of SRP, a coat of EGP and a coat of colli. Plastics were dressed with CG New Look Trim Gel, windows were done with AG Fast Glass and tyres dressed with Halford (spit) Wet Look Tyre Dressing.

We handed the car back (figuratively) after 12 man hours of labour, looking like this..



























(Shame about the rust)



















To say the owners were gob-smacked would be a real understatement. They were absolutely over the moon!!:argie:

The old girl also passed her MOT a week later and so is truly back in business!:driver:

Thanks for reading my inane ramblings. :wave:


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## ahaydock (Jan 4, 2007)

Excellent work there a nice little write up.


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## Justa (Oct 23, 2008)

lol !

one of the best jobs I've seen on here !

excellent work !


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## Multipla Mick (Feb 5, 2006)

Cracking job, no wonder the owners were gob smacked :thumb:


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## Trist (Jun 23, 2006)

Great job, shows what you can do with some good polish and a PC :thumb:


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## blr123 (Oct 26, 2005)

Oh yeah...........I've been there, done that, we've now both got the tshirts, the one I did was the pink/purple ragtop that had been under a tree for years aswell :thumb:

Nice job 

Bryan


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## KleenChris (Apr 4, 2008)

Excellent work ...well done :thumb:


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## naked_brummell (May 7, 2008)

Great job on that mate :thumb: was a mess before!


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## cheezemonkhai (Jan 29, 2007)

Hope they put new tyres on the car if it's been sat there for 2 years.

What a transformation, a very nice looking old BMW and hopefully the small amounts of rust won't cause the car any problems


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## MickCTR (Mar 4, 2006)

Fantastic. Keep up the good work matey! You've puy some serious value back into that too. :thumb:


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## Bigpikle (May 21, 2007)

that is a transformation :thumb:

whats with that bodykit though


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## Vyker (Sep 17, 2008)

That was a pleasure to read!

A cracking little car

Great work!


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## CupraRcleanR (Sep 2, 2007)

Great job. Love these types of write-ups


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

Love these kinds of write up, cracking work guys:thumb:


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## pringle_addict (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks guys.

I really appreciate your comments!

In a perverse way I enjoy the er... 'more mature models' more than newer cars. There is a great sense of satisfaction turning a pink monster into a red beauty.

Thanks again for the encourangement.


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## Waxamomo (Jun 18, 2008)

Great work mate, i can't wait to get my hands on an old red car to work my magic on


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## Sveneng (Apr 20, 2008)

I love seeing cars that have been neglected transformed back into a state of former glory. Really think the turn around you've achieved is amazing, nice work!


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## caledonia (Sep 13, 2008)

Fantastic transformation. What a difference.
You had your work cut out on that old war horse.
Bur Its a distant memory now. Great detail.
Well done. :thumb:


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## shabba (Sep 28, 2008)

excellent..like new  great work mate


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## addsvrs (Mar 2, 2008)

Great work


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## pringle_addict (Jan 2, 2008)

Thought some of you bikers may have recognised the (female) owner by now!

Answers on the back of a used £5 note!


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## Avanti (Jan 17, 2006)

Nice work :thumb: if it wasnt for the products used, you could have featured it for 'how clean is your car pt2'


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## macca5050 (May 17, 2008)

Wow, back from the dead!


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## spitfire (Feb 10, 2007)

Wow! What a minger. Not now though. Nice work:thumb:


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## green-blood (Aug 20, 2008)

brilliant work

A roadworthy e30 323 is a pretty rare car

I miss my (written off by an uninsured driver) e30 325sport so badly. 1986, no power steering and LSD... a challange!!!


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## Rowan83 (Aug 21, 2007)

Awesome, looks like a different car!! :thumb:


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## 3dr (Mar 1, 2008)

where did you get a foam lance bottle that big from?


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## Car Key (Mar 20, 2007)

pringle_addict said:


> Thought some of you bikers may have recognised the (female) owner by now!
> 
> Answers on the back of a used £5 note!


 Suzi Perry?


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## paddy328 (Mar 4, 2007)

Great transformation. Looks mint now.


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## pringle_addict (Jan 2, 2008)

3dr said:


> where did you get a foam lance bottle that big from?


Daisy APC bottle :thumb:

I broke the original on it's first outing. D'oh!!


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## [email protected] (Aug 25, 2007)

Thats Emm & Russ's old ****ter! 

Top job on that, come up seriously well considering.


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## scooby73 (Mar 20, 2007)

:doublesho WOW that is some transformation!!! Great work guys the car looks mint.:thumb:

Nice write-up too!


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## Multipla Mick (Feb 5, 2006)

[email protected] said:


> Thats Emm & Russ's old ****ter!
> 
> Top job on that, come up seriously well considering.





pringle_addict said:


> Thought some of you bikers may have recognised the (female) owner by now!
> 
> Answers on the back of a used £5 note!


I was looking at her and thinking... looks like Little Mo off Eastenders to me  I take it that's Emma Franklyn then thanks to Al's post, and Pringle Addict being in Cambridgeshire would fit, as all the good bike mags come from Peterborough it seems... Well done Al, saved me racking my addled brain all night 
Just noticed, got the quotes in the wrong order :wall:


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## dsms (Feb 1, 2008)

Super turnaround:argie:


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## pringle_addict (Jan 2, 2008)

Multipla Mick said:


> I take it that's Emma Franklyn


Spot on.

Emma and Russ are friends of my mate Leodanger, who also worked on RiDE magazine for a while (for those who read RiDE at the time, he was Dr John).

Thanks for all the encouragement guys. :buffer:


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## supra-bpy (Nov 24, 2008)

In the first few pics I thought you was going to bin the car LOL....Didnt think you restore the paint cause it looked really dull and old. Anyway good work, looks better than before (which aint too hard!)


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## bidderman1969 (Oct 20, 2006)

top job there


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## Offyourmarks (Jan 4, 2006)

thats a great turn around - fantastic results. bet you nearly fainted when you first saw that! well done guys


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## [email protected] (Aug 25, 2007)

Multipla Mick said:


> I was looking at her and thinking... looks like Little Mo off Eastenders to me  I take it that's Emma Franklyn then thanks to Al's post, and Pringle Addict being in Cambridgeshire would fit, as all the good bike mags come from Peterborough it seems... Well done Al, saved me racking my addled brain all night
> Just noticed, got the quotes in the wrong order :wall:





pringle_addict said:


> Spot on.


Known Emm for 6 years-ish now I guess! Back from when she worked at Revs magazine  Good times!


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## mattjonescardiff (Dec 12, 2006)

Got to love old beemers. Lovely little restoration there.

Sat for 2 years? I wonder how much work it'll need for MOT.


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## Gleammachine (Sep 8, 2007)

Brings back fond memory's of the E30 323i I owned in black many years ago, excellent stuff.:thumb:


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## mattm (Jun 1, 2007)

Looking nice mate. You can't beat a pink to red transformation, especially on an E30.


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