# 40hr. Hack Restoration on BMW 135 by Street Dreams Detail



## dsms (Feb 1, 2008)

*Complete 4 day paintwork restoration on a Monaco Blue BMW 135i.

Backstory, in bullets:

-Car was bought with 10k miles on it
-New owner saw car on dealer lot looking clean and very glossy (glaze fillers)
-After a few weeks of washing the gloss was lost and real finish revealed
-Paintwork had very little depth, clarity or wetness and new owner wanted all of the latter brought back to the car

Some before pictures in sunlight. Car had lots of RIDS, swirls and was covered in machine holograms as the dealer attempted to fix the prior damage and ended up making it worse. Along with that caked up wax and polish residue was left in nearly every crack and crevice.

If you dislike lots of correction shots and 50/50's this writeup may not be for you. The main focus was the correcting the finish as NO interior work and NO engine detail was carried out on this detail.









































































Wheels cleaned using Sonax wheel cleaner applied to the wheel DRY followed by Iron Cut










Car was beading well due to obvious glaze fillers left over from the dealership, all of which needed to be stripped off 100% before correction. The above sun shots were after the wash stage (no IPA yet)

- Pressure washed the finish followed by a 5 minute foaming using CG citrus wash
- Foam rinsed off and the car was sprayed down with Optimum Power Clean at a 5:1 dilution
- Finally a 2 bucket wash was carried out with a strong mixture of straight Dawn

Clayed using a riccardo bar with ONR as lubrication in a Kwazar bottle, which is an absolute must for at least your wheel cleaner and clay lube.










After clay the finished was wiped with straight IPA multiple times until it was squeaky clean.

Here is the car all prepped and masked after taking the necessary paint readings










Onto correction. After a bit of time playing around with combinations I decided on a process which yielded me the best result, safely. I began playing with foam pads but that was yielding me only 80-85% correction while generating a lot of heat. I decided wool was need to correct the car properly.

Process as follows

M105 on black wool pad (2x)
Menzerna SIP on DD Yellow Cutting Pad
Menzerna 106FA on a LC tangerine hydro
Menzerna PO85rd on a DD Black pad

All 50/50 and correction shots taken after the first 2 correction steps (no finishing polishes) and straight IPA wipedowns to ensure zero filling

Hood under the halogens, deep RIDS




























After wool and foam compounding, great difference in clarity without using a lightsource.



















Light compounding with 4" foam around the washers, tape removed after wool so I could clean up the areas tightly around the washers and also remove some of the tape lines left behind after compounding.










Closeup of defects under Fenix TK40



















Front fender was done entirely with 4" wool and 4" cutting pads as larger pads made for uneven correction on the contours










Trunk section, some more serious RIDS










Cleaning up the wool holograms with a DD cutting pad










50/50 Trunk under halogen










Closer view










Wooling out the rear quarter










Before










After










Here is a great example of 2 things, first being general neglect from the original owner and second is heavy machine holograms left by the dealer
































































The door... I took a bunch of different shots from all angles with both my SLR and Point and Shoot camera to show all the defects and difference in color before and after correction



















Under LED light














































Before










After










3" pad work here, lowered speed on the makita and spent more time making passes to work out the defects

Before










After










Here is a video 50/50 of the passenger door






The funny thing about hacks is, and luckily for me, they are not extremely thorough when buffing out cars.

Notice how the rear bumper has substatially less defect and holograms compared to all the major panels? This is more realistic of how much defect you would find on a car with about 10k miles on it

Before










After










And back to a bit more hack'age but still not terrible




























Tailight before










Finishing down with 85rd after 105










After










50/50 on drivers door into rear quarter, few RIDS I was unable to remove










Before










During










After










Only very light marring in this strip between the kidney grill and headlight, knocked out in 2 steps with only little compounding needed, no wool




























50/50 on front bumper










Once all the compounding with wool and foam was finished I gave the car one more IPA wipedown and moved onto the finishing stages, here is the 135 out in sunlight after finishing down to check my work.














































Remember this...



















This..










To this..




























Car was finished with 2 layers of Menzerna Powerlock, wheels treated with Rejex sealant for protection.

Finished car at 7pm. Finished shots






















































































































The owner came to pickup and was beyond ecstatic with the result, I had kept him updated with correction shots through the process and when he finally came I went over the whole car with him using the LED light.










Remember that door before?










In total after I added up all my hours spent on each day this detail came out to about 39hrs, a bit over my original estimate of 30-32.

The owner wanted his new BMW to look like a proper Monaco Blue BMW should and after talking with him for a very long time before even starting the job I knew how much he was looking forward to the end result. Its great to have enthustastic people who really care about the work that was put in. He asked for a lot of pictures and as you can see from the above writeup... I kindly obliged icture:










Thanks for looking.*


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## Divine (Jul 16, 2009)

Fantastic work as usual! :thumb:


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## JARS (May 21, 2010)

Awesome turnaround... you pros must get some great job satisfaction at times!!

I noticed you used both Iron Cut and Sonax... any particular reason for this?


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## danielhoworth (Jul 14, 2010)

great work and write-up bud keep em' coming


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## stangalang (Nov 27, 2009)

Absolutely awesome, great great work


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## dooka (Aug 1, 2006)

I love the 135i, maybe my next car..

Great job.. :thumbs


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## TheGooner84 (Jun 29, 2010)

i love when you can see the differences without the 50/50 shots


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## Sveneng (Apr 20, 2008)

Fantastic write up, really impressive results.


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## Carn (Apr 13, 2007)

Cracking work as always Dave, well done :thumb:


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## Auto Detox (Dec 22, 2007)

Awesome !


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## scoob666 (Mar 15, 2009)

another stunning result, thinking my car might need the wool pad treatment now though


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## tuggers (Mar 18, 2009)

Amazing work, great photos and great write up!!


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## SimonBash (Jun 7, 2010)

brilliant work, what a state the dealer sold it in. lovely car to!:thumb:


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## tamandlee (Mar 14, 2010)

for some strange reason I now have an urge to go swimming!


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## ChrisST (Jul 19, 2009)

Fantastic work, car looks superb now.:thumb:


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## tim (May 2, 2006)

Fantastic work, and great write up Dave. Really enjoyed reading that!

Tim


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## WHIZZER (Oct 25, 2005)

Another top job


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## Racer (Oct 27, 2005)

Another happy customer :thumb:

SUPERB WORK DAVE :thumb:


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## Motoract (Feb 18, 2010)

thats simply amazing work!!


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## dsms (Feb 1, 2008)

Thanks all!


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## Raymond (Jul 31, 2010)

Looks absolutely spot on!


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## SubtleAggressiv (Jul 17, 2010)

That 135 was looking so beat up before, now its got a new lease of life and one very happy owner. Great work


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## GlynRS2 (Jan 21, 2006)

Stunning correction work


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## dsms (Feb 1, 2008)

Raymond said:


> Looks absolutely spot on!


Thank you Raymond!



SubtleAggressiv said:


> That 135 was looking so beat up before, now its got a new lease of life and one very happy owner. Great work


I would agree one of the less than stellar dealer prep jobs I have seen :lol:



GlynRS2 said:


> Stunning correction work


Thanks Glyn!


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## PugIain (Jun 28, 2006)

Really nice work,that was an absolute mess.


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## dsms (Feb 1, 2008)

RoverIain said:


> Really nice work,that was an absolute mess.


Thanks!


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## Mr Face (Jan 22, 2009)

Hi Dave, moving house has kept us busy but glad to read this one. 

Great work my friend :thumb: 

Wicked finish, the dealer should be hung up by his toes  

Mike and team face :wave:


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## Mirror Finish Details (Aug 21, 2008)

Awsome dude, fantastic work and glad to see wool pads being used. All I ever really use nowerdays.

Bet the owner was amazed with your magic transformation!!!


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## TEGBOY (May 30, 2009)

Lifts jaw off the ground, beautiful turnaround


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## Prism Detailing (Jun 8, 2006)

Outstanding work


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## Car Key (Mar 20, 2007)

Always a pleasure reading your write-ups, Dave. Stonking work! :thumb:


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## Bill58 (Jul 5, 2010)

Your write ups and work are first class


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## james_death (Aug 9, 2010)

OOOHHH Shiny, love it


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## dsms (Feb 1, 2008)

Mirror Finish said:


> Awsome dude, fantastic work and glad to see wool pads being used. All I ever really use nowerdays.
> 
> Bet the owner was amazed with your magic transformation!!!


I prefer a cutting foam if I can get away with it but on this car no foam was cutting through the defects nicely and with that I was generating too much heat. Wool is a savior when you need it for sure:thumb:


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## CliveP (Feb 1, 2009)

Absolutely fantastic!
Regards,
Clive.


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## dsms (Feb 1, 2008)

CliveP said:


> Absolutely fantastic!
> Regards,
> Clive.


Thanks Clive!


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## c16rkc (Apr 15, 2010)

Fantastic turnaround!


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## FlawlessDetailing (Mar 13, 2010)

Amazing results.

Car looks like its fresh off the production line :thumb:

Love the 50/50's. 

Great write ups as usual.


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## rds1985 (Mar 7, 2009)

great job as per

How do you find the iron cut/ Sonax on the wheels do they sort of lather up when agitated or not really?


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## dsms (Feb 1, 2008)

rds1985 said:


> great job as per
> 
> How do you find the iron cut/ Sonax on the wheels do they sort of lather up when agitated or not really?


Sonax is hands down the best wheel cleaner I have used. Use it on a cool DRY wheel, do not rinse down the wheels prior and just let the Sonax sit for up to 10-12 minutes.

I use soap in my bucket of wheel brushes so lathering up occurs but I dont think this product on its own is very soapy.

Iron Cut I am still testing, I prefer Sonax as an overall wheel cleaner and IC will be used for iron particles when needed. :thumb:


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## Nanolex (Jun 8, 2008)

Outstanding job on the paint and some amazing after shots!


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## TRD (Jul 15, 2010)

wonderful write-up and work
10/10


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## dsms (Feb 1, 2008)

Thanks All!


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## 98m3/4 (Aug 12, 2009)

Woo hoo! Love that color. Considering the previous 'detailer' used a rotary, did you take paint meter readings before beginning the paint correction? If so, what were the levels like? Thanks!


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## dsms (Feb 1, 2008)

98m3/4 said:


> Woo hoo! Love that color. Considering the previous 'detailer' used a rotary, did you take paint meter readings before beginning the paint correction? If so, what were the levels like? Thanks!


Answered before in the other thread about my gauge but about your questions on the readings, the BMW was consistent at about 140micros - 160 microns :thumb:


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