# E39 BMW M5- Gleammachine.



## Gleammachine (Sep 8, 2007)

An 02' plated E39 BMW M5 booked in over 2 days for a correctional detail. 
On the 1st day I set of early for the 30 mile drive, going along nicely with 15 miles to go and everything comes to a standstill, over the radio the traffic report states that the road I am on is shut 2 miles further up due to an accident, all traffic is being diverted of at Sevenoaks.
Not the end of the world you would think, but sitting there with your engine of for periods of 30 minutes and then moving 100yds is soul destroying, to cut a long story short and plenty of single track country lanes, I arrive at my destination some 4.5 hours later (midday).:wall:

The car upon arrival with plenty to do.














































Wheels cleaned 1st using a variety of brushes and Espuma Revolution,










Arches and calipers cleaned with Megs APC,
Then swiftly moving onto the engine bay,










Bilt Hamber Surfex HD applied and worked in using soft detailing brushes, rinsed with an open flow and then dressed using 303 aerospace waterbased dressing,



















Warm citrus pre-wash and APC applied through the foam lance and left to dwell shortly,










Trim and shuts cleaned using soft detailing brushes,



















Pressure rinsed and then washed using Shampoo+, wool mitts and the TBM, Dried with Uber plush towels, de-tarred and then onto the claying stage,




























General level of paintwork defects,



















Vunerable areas taped up,










After trying various combinations of Fast-cut + and Menzerna Powergloss, the best results were being gained by Menzerna IP3.02 on a Sonus light cutting pad,

Pre-refinement,




























Managed to get the rear quarter, 1 door and half the roof completed before daylight had run out, decided to call it a day, leaving a mammoth task for tomorrow,










*Day:2*

Better luck this morning and arriving within an hour, bright and early.

Car uncovered, a quick dust down with the tickling stick and straight to it,























































With the cutting stage complete and time ticking away, the car was re-foamed and rinsed to remove the dusting from the polish,

Refinement was completed using Meguiars 205 on a RB finishing pad,










An IPA wipedown given to remove any polishing oils, then Swissvax Best of Show applied to the entire vehicle and left to cure,

Exhausts and silencers polished with Autosol and further protected using Britemax Final Shine,










Alloys and calipers protected with Opti-seal, 
Tyres and arches dressed with Swissvax Pneu,










Wax buffed of, then glass cleaned throughout using Swissvax Crystal,
Plastic trim dressed with CG New Look gel,
Shuts protected with Opti-seal, door rubbers nourished with Swissvax Seal Feed,
Some old polish removed from various panel gaps using Q-tips,
A final wipedown with Dodo Juice Red Mist and finished just in time for some final snaps before it was completely dark.

*Results.*











































































































Thanks for looking, comments welcomed as always.:thumb:


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## Tiauguinho (May 1, 2007)

Wonder if he is a board member from M5board...

Anyway, great job! Le Mans Blue is the best E39 M5 colour!


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## Alfa GTV (Apr 18, 2007)

Great turnaround :thumb: Always loved the E39 M5's :argie:


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## Edward101 (Jun 5, 2009)

Great work, and lovely car!


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## Leemack (Mar 6, 2009)

Superb turnaround mate :thumb:


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## Ultra (Feb 25, 2006)

cracking finish there rob :thumb:


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## ALANSHR (Jun 29, 2007)

Superb job on one of my favourite motors and one with a few nice mods by the look of it, probabaly a bit of a tool for the ring.


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## DE 1981 (Aug 17, 2007)

woow Rob youve done well getting that done in 2 days, lovely looking coorection work as always with you and an enjoyable write-up.

That customer could really do with a bigger garden though :-O


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## Tabbs (Aug 3, 2009)

FANTASTIC WORK :thumb::doublesho
great finish :thumb:
Blimey O'Riley I want a M5 hmmmmmmmm:argie:


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## Gleammachine (Sep 8, 2007)

ALANSHR said:


> Superb job on one of my favourite motors and one with a few nice mods by the look of it, probabaly a bit of a tool for the ring.


Cheers mate, yep it's done the ring a couple of times by all accounts, you should hear the sound from them exhausts when it starts up, simply awesome.



Detail Ecosse said:


> woow Rob youve done well getting that done in 2 days, lovely looking coorection work as always with you and an enjoyable write-up.
> 
> That customer could really do with a bigger garden though :-O


Cheers Gav, yep it nearly killed me, would normally have prefered to have gone into a 3rd day but the diary wouldn't allow it.
You should see the back garden.


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## DE 1981 (Aug 17, 2007)

Gleammachine said:


> You should see the back garden.


Ill take your word for it Charlie Dimmock.:thumb:


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## Deanvtec (Mar 3, 2008)

Brilliant work especially under pressure to get it done in the time frame because of the M25 fiasco, stunning finish aswell. Looks a very nice place to work aswell.:thumb:


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## tdekany (Jul 22, 2006)

*Love your work!!!!:thumb::thumb:*


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## Jim W (Feb 3, 2007)

Pleased it all came together for you in the end Rob. :thumb:

Looks stunning.


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## MAXI-MILAN (Oct 26, 2008)

Great work ....Rob :thumb:


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## WyattEarp (Mar 9, 2008)

Wow Great job like always. Keep up the great work.:thumb:


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## Ash-Lee (Jul 29, 2009)

Beautiful colour! And the wheels look so good against it. 

Very nice, well done.


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## adam87 (Dec 11, 2008)

Easily the best colour for an M5! Looks gorgeous, superb! :thumb:


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## Racer (Oct 27, 2005)

Tiauguinho said:


> Wonder if he is a board member from M5board...
> 
> Anyway, great job! Le Mans Blue is the best E39 M5 colour!


Cagão que teu és 

Great Job there :thumb:


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## dsms (Feb 1, 2008)

Beautiful work! One of my Porsche customers has 2 "Ring stickers on his side windows, they set the car off well!


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## DonB (Jan 23, 2008)

Great work on a beautiful looking car. 

I love the dark centres on the LMs too....really thinking of getting these for my E46.


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## Auto Detox (Dec 22, 2007)

Very nice Rob & a mean looking machine too 

Baz


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## ksm1985 (Dec 27, 2008)

what a beast!!! love it


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## zimzimmer (Apr 13, 2009)

Lovely job. I think I was behind your van that day as I too was caught in that nightmare traffic jam and was looking at a very shiney black detailers van. Was that you?


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## L.J. (Nov 9, 2008)

great work! it really has a deep shine to it 

btw what are those two chrome rings on either side in the front lower grill?

if you look in the pictures, you will see that his detailing van is white.


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## Perfection Detailing (Nov 3, 2007)

Excellent work as always mate:thumb:


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## zimzimmer (Apr 13, 2009)

My bad. If memory serves me right I think the company was called Autowash, so definitely not him.


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## Gleammachine (Sep 8, 2007)

L.J. said:


> great work! it really has a deep shine to it
> 
> btw what are those two chrome rings on either side in the front lower grill?
> 
> if you look in the pictures, you will see that his detailing van is white.


Thanks, those rings are cooling ducts I think.



zimzimmer said:


> My bad. If memory serves me right I think the company was called Autowash, so definitely not him.


Autowash no insults pleeeease.:lol:


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## zimzimmer (Apr 13, 2009)

Not making myself very popular here, I'll shut up now.


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## The Detail (Nov 19, 2008)

looks good not keen on the wheels ,


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## ahaydock (Jan 4, 2007)

Top work as ever mate :thumb:


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## GSVHammer (Feb 7, 2009)

Fanatastic results again Rob. Not a fan of dark wheels but I think they suit the car well.


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## Gleammachine (Sep 8, 2007)

GSVHammer said:


> Fanatastic results again Rob. Not a fan of dark wheels but I think they suit the car well.


Never been a fan of dark alloys neither, but they always seem to suit the slightly modded BMW's I've done well.


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## supercharged (Feb 1, 2008)

simply amazing work! Love the paintwork, it is glowing!


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## Baker21 (Aug 7, 2007)

Awesome work Rob, looks awesome now and super slick...........:thumb:


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## Amused (Nov 22, 2009)

Gleammachine said:


> Never been a fan of dark alloys neither, but they always seem to suit the slightly modded BMW's I've done well.


Gorgeous car.
Nice work on the M5 by the way. Any reason why you opted for Opti-Seal over SV Autobahn on the BBS wheels?


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## Adam D (Nov 3, 2009)

Great job mate!

I can't believe that an Evotechnik member would let their car into such a state though...


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## Gleammachine (Sep 8, 2007)

Amused said:


> Gorgeous car.
> Nice work on the M5 by the way. Any reason why you opted for Opti-Seal over SV Autobahn on the BBS wheels?


Thanks mate, I chose Opti-seal because I wanted to get into all the fiddly areas around the split rim bolts.:thumb:


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## RandomlySet (Jul 10, 2007)

top work as always mate


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## Kano (Nov 28, 2009)

Nice work, gorgeous car


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## Mike Hunt (Jan 31, 2008)

Great work there's something about E39 M5 especially in that colour. The chrome rings aren't a cold air induction kit are they???:doublesho


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## jonesg (Apr 17, 2009)

looks great that colour looks fantastic. learning so much from this site


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## slrestoration (Nov 11, 2009)

Another fantastic piece of work :thumb:


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## -tom- (Jan 27, 2009)

spot om work as normal


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## Jorge (Oct 12, 2009)

Great Job :thumb:

That´s look ....:argie:


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## Gleammachine (Sep 8, 2007)

Mike Hunt said:


> Great work there's something about E39 M5 especially in that colour. The chrome rings aren't a cold air induction kit are they???:doublesho


Cheers mate, think they are either for the induction or brake coolants.


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## phil440 (Aug 19, 2007)

amazing job as usual spot on:thumb:


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## Mike Hunt (Jan 31, 2008)

Gleammachine said:


> Cheers mate, think they are either for the induction or brake coolants.


I'd guess/hope its brakes seeing as theres two


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## L.J. (Nov 9, 2008)

seeing as other e39 m5's dont have these ducts, i would think that they are probably for an aftermarket CAI. V8's such as this one usually have air intakes on each side hence the two rings.

looked at this when you first wrote it but the results are great again looking at it!


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## Gleammachine (Sep 8, 2007)

L.J. said:


> seeing as other e39 m5's dont have these ducts, i would think that they are probably for an aftermarket CAI. V8's such as this one usually have air intakes on each side hence the two rings.
> 
> looked at this when you first wrote it but the results are great again looking at it!


Many thanks, I'm back with it in the new year for it's after winter detail, will have a proper look at the ducts to see where they lead.:thumb:

Saying that I called always ask my customer.


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## Gleammachine (Sep 8, 2007)

*20 odd months on.*

Revisited this beast yesterday and today, my customer had done a good job of keeping the finish presentable, but booked for a 2 day minor correction after the garage had given it a courtesy wash and caused some swirling.

Some upgrades since my last visit include uprated manifolds and something else that I can't for the life of me remember, but all I can say is it sounds awesome and now running 442bhp.:argie:


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## Ultra (Feb 25, 2006)

This is a blast from the past rob, i remember this one i detailed a aergen blue e39 around that time, still looking good this one tho. a future collectors piece i reckon.


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## Blue (Sep 15, 2008)

Stunning cars those E39s. I may be slightly biased mind, but I still think I'm right.

Seriously considering chopping both of mine in and swapping for a single M5...

Good job mate!


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## wkd_EL (Oct 12, 2011)

Always a fan of these and you just made it look extra special after the detail. Great stuff


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