# BMW E28 528i from 1984 - 25 years of dirt, 1 week of Love



## Tiauguinho (May 1, 2007)

Been quite a while since I have posted here, I just focus on tinkering on my own things and details, while enjoying to read what my other obsessive friends do around here  ... However, this car, despite all the work required, gave me quite some pleasure to turn it around and what better occasion to celebrate that than to post it here and share it with you all.

A friend of mine brought me this gorgeous stock 1984 528i Automatic, a car original from Monaco with no rust at all. Mechanically the car is extremely sound and drives good (suspension is a bit like a boat though). The Alpine White colour was, well... in a beige state, full of Random Deep Scratches and Swirls. It felt rough and had no reflection whatsoever, every little corner of the car was filthy. But all in all, what this car needed was a lot of dedication and time to get it into a presentable state, since underneath 25 years of detailing neglect, there was a pearl waiting 

The white paint makes it a bit of a problem to really capture how the car looked, but trust me on this... for 25 years the car never saw a proper clean and it has been neglected in a garage for the past years.

Here is how the car looked on that bright sunny day which marked the start of this adventure:




























The window rubbers had some scary gluey sand/dirt on them...























































Tree Resin... oh boy...



















Thats a trunk that belonged to a 520i, letters are to be gently removed.





































And for the interior, it had a thick layer of dirt over everything.





































It was time to get cracking.

First the wheel covers came out and the iron black wheels were cleaned, together with a good scrub on the tires of 4:1 APC.










Next, a very soft brush, a mix of 10:1 of APC and off I went to clean all the little things first.



















The rain rails were stuffed with mud inside...










Which took quite some time to get it all out, here it is dripping down the door.










Finally its clean.





































Mud inside the panels 



















The 520i logo was also taken out.










Rubber strips were taken care of.














































It was time to pass into the interior. After cleaning the dashboard, here is out my little Microfibre came out... please take into consideration that they are both the same colour!





































All the interior was washed with APC which was a lengthy process which saw the rotation of a lot of MF towels, since they kept on getting soiled.

The car was washed (didnt took pictures sorry) and then clayed. The claying process was painful, since the surface of the paint was filled with contamination, even the water from the clay lube was coming out brown/green.



















It was then washed again and rolled into the garage so I could start testing which pad and polish combo would work better on the car. I opted to go for Fast Cut Pro + Polishing Pad, which was providing enough cut for a first go. It was then passed with Menz 3.02 and a Polishing Pad to correct the holograms and minor swirls, to bring the paint ready for the finishing. Last step was to burnish and finish it off with Menz 85RD on a Finish Pad.























































The difference between polished and non polished was quite evident even inside the garage with the lights off, but roll it outside and the progress was clear. Here are some 50/50 to show this (no finishing done on the pics below, only cutting).





































The side of the car and the trunk had already been finished and now the Alpine White was starting to show its face!



















It was rolled into the garage again and everything was finished. It was then Glazed with Zymol HD Cleanse and Waxed with Zymol Concours.

My Girlfriend helped me with buffing the wax and posed her hands for this pic 


















































































And my favorite pics, since the halogen are able to show how reflective the paint was in the end of so many hours of polishing





































So much work, grief with sticky paint, dirt that took ages to clean, but oh it was so worth it in the end to see that it was possible to bring it to its Pearl state!


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## Emz_197 (Mar 28, 2007)

Superb attention to detail. 
What a state the car was in before!! Looks a million times better now. Great work :thumb:


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## Russ and his BM (Jan 1, 2008)

Fantastic base you had to start with, and you did it justice! Beautiful, well done mate!


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## ads2k (Jul 12, 2006)

Fantastic difference and a fine job well done :thumb:


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## Miglior (Feb 12, 2006)

Fantastic read mate, I really enjoyed it! Get a picture up of the full car ie no bits cut out!


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## Cullers (Sep 29, 2009)

Brilliant job and great write up. Well done mate


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## Tiauguinho (May 1, 2007)

Thanks for the nice comments 

It was a horrible overcast day when I was done, so here is the best attempt I had into making a full car picture.


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## -tom- (Jan 27, 2009)

looks stunning work


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## The Cueball (Feb 8, 2007)

Job well done, car looks 100% better now!!

:thumb:


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## Edward101 (Jun 5, 2009)

Amazing work


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## andye (Apr 15, 2007)

Great job you have done, looks great :thumb:


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## Jorge (Oct 12, 2009)

What a work:doublesho

I love to see this old cars been treated like they deserve.

Wonderfull jod that you made,

Congratulations! :thumb:


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## Yoghurtman (Dec 9, 2008)

What a great write up and lovely work.

Nice to see a mid sized car with a 6,250 rpm limit rather than the usual diesel 4,500 nowdays :lol:


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## StuaR32t (Jun 6, 2009)

thats cools F*&K!!!!!!!!!!

brilliant revival!


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## doyle369 (Nov 7, 2009)

wow

great work


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## minimadgriff (Jul 8, 2007)

WOW! Excellent work


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## Deano (Jul 7, 2006)

really enjoyed reading that. thanks for posting.


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## MadOnVaux! (Jun 2, 2008)

Absolutely brilliant transformation, such a beautiful car too...see if BMW will buy it for their museum


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## toni (Oct 30, 2005)

Brilliant work mate!

Nice to see older cars getting some love


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## MattOz (May 15, 2007)

That's a fantastic turnaround. My Dad had a brand new e28 528i back in the day and it was an awesome car, especially when everyone else was driving Cortinas and SD1 Rovers!


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## JCW85 (Oct 29, 2009)

Wow, what a change from when it came to you. Did the tree sap come out ok or was it a bit stubborn?

Chris


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## -JP- (Jan 27, 2009)

Great job! How many hours?


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## Tiauguinho (May 1, 2007)

JCW85 said:


> Wow, what a change from when it came to you. Did the tree sap come out ok or was it a bit stubborn?
> 
> Chris


The tree resin was a complete PITA... took me ages with the aggressive clay to remove it properly, but it came out 



-JP- said:


> Great job! How many hours?


Between 30 to 35 total hours.


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## smoki1969 (Oct 10, 2006)

Great work and stunning looking car mate :thumb:


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## Racer (Oct 27, 2005)

WOW , great Job Tiago :thumb:


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## InSPiRE (Jun 5, 2007)

awesome job!


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## Leodhasach (Sep 15, 2008)

That's fantastic work, really enjoyed the read as the car is something a little different these days :thumb:


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## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

That looks brilliant. Got to love the restoration of an old car like that, looks very rewarding, bet you enjoyed it


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## moshinho (Nov 4, 2009)

Nice job that you made Tiago. 

Parabéns pelo detalhe efectuado


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## Mirror Finish Details (Aug 21, 2008)

That looks great now.


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## ahaydock (Jan 4, 2007)

Excellent work :thumb:


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## impster (May 2, 2007)

Nice job mate. 

And, your girlfriend has lovely hands.

Impster


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## rtjc (Apr 19, 2009)

Awesome, this is what detailing is to me.... older cars getting a new lease of life. Not getting tiny swirls out of nearly new cars or only a few years old! Brilliant work


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## NornIron (May 12, 2007)

Fabulous... this is the sort of transformation I love on DW :argie:


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## GSVHammer (Feb 7, 2009)

Amazing job, well done to you and your girlfriend. Car looks like new now.


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## geert dr (Jul 13, 2007)

Thats how a BMW should look like :thumb: 
Great job mate !!


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## Ti22 (Mar 24, 2009)

Nice work there. I miss my old e28!


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## angajatul (Oct 14, 2008)

Amazing work....the results are breath taking...love it when an old car like that gets a detail


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## tzotzo (Nov 15, 2009)

great dude.


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## Tiauguinho (May 1, 2007)

Thanks all for the kind words 

These sort of jobs are the ones that I truly enjoy the most and on this specific car, it was all about the preparation.


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## sau98rpe (Apr 21, 2009)

mate amazing you have restored a shark nose back to how they should all look! one of the best looking bms ever, now go and find a 635 csi highline I look forward to that.


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## supercharged (Feb 1, 2008)

Xtreme makeover!!! Awesome work!!!


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## ChrisJD (Apr 15, 2009)

impster said:


> Nice job mate.
> 
> And, your girlfriend has lovely hands.
> 
> Impster


Female hands certainly add that extra glamour.

Excellent job on the car, it was surely in need of some attention.

Very nice turnaround, well done.

Chris.


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## 0asis2007 (Jan 29, 2009)

Great post, really enjoyed reading this - a clear example of what's so satisfying about detailing.
It's relatively easy to get a car that's only a few years old getting to look great. A job like this shows what can really be achieved with some time, effort and the right products!!

Nice one......:thumb:


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## Lee Yoder (Sep 11, 2008)

Nice turnaround!

Later,
Lee


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## Carn (Apr 13, 2007)

Excellent work man, stunning in every detail. Well done :thumb:


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## simon_23 (Oct 9, 2009)

looks good, paint looked in a similar condition to a 15 year old vw polo i did yesterday... dont think it had ever seen any poish... Needed good old t-cut  White isnt a very good colour for 50/50s, but you have done well


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## samm (May 19, 2006)

Fabulous work. WELL DONE.


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## Brynjar (Dec 25, 2009)

Very nice thread and detail.. Great work


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## bartholomeo (Jul 13, 2008)

Very nice detail, great job.










If u put some electrical tape around the metal of your soft brush, u can't accidently harm the paint anymore.


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## uxi1733 (Dec 11, 2006)

Stunning work


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## 03OKH (May 2, 2009)

That looked hard work, but the rewards were there to be seen :thumb:

Tony


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## Chris CPT (Dec 16, 2009)

Wow! One of the best turn-arounds that I've seen on here - and there's been some good 'uns too.
Looks like it's been freshly rolled out of the factory (except better). :thumb::thumb:


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## GlynRS2 (Jan 21, 2006)

That is a superb turn around - great work :thumb:


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## RandomlySet (Jul 10, 2007)

great turnaround


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## Kris1986 (May 19, 2008)

Wow... Looks so good! Great work, keep it up


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## wojtek_pl (Apr 25, 2010)

niiiiice!!


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## DMH-01 (Mar 29, 2011)




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## [email protected] (Apr 28, 2011)

Lovely job mate


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## Ns1980 (Jun 29, 2011)

...like a step back in time! That's unreal. Great work!


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## Emporio (Jun 8, 2011)

looks the nuts.... love looking at old skool BMW pics, brings back good memories


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## robtech (Jan 17, 2011)

fantastic amazing work my hat is of too you sir


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## Tiauguinho (May 1, 2007)

Eh, thanks guys


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## dubber (Oct 2, 2011)

Bloody hell, excellent turnaround there :thumb:


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## ITHAQVA (Feb 20, 2011)

Wonderfull end results mate on a superb old Racing Tank :thumb: :thumb:


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## maestegman (Mar 3, 2011)

Great stuff. Another brilliant trip down memory lane.


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## si hoc (Feb 27, 2011)

excellent work mate well done


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## -Raven- (Aug 26, 2010)

Got to love that APC!!! Well done, the car looks beautiful!


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