# Refined Detail | 'Carbon Black' BMW E46 M3



## Refined Detail (Nov 27, 2006)

:wave:

Another recent detail carried out at my unit in Billingshurst, West Sussex.

I was originally contacted by the owner of this M3 shortly after he bought it. He wanted to know what could be done with the paintwork as it had gone from looking great to when he first bought it, to a hazy, hologrammed mess after a couple of basic washes and heavy rain...needless to say this was the 'curse of the filler polish' striking once again!

After an initial inspection of the car, it was clear it would require a a fair bit of attention whilst keeping paint removal to a minimum (somebody had already had an attempt before me at some point in the car's life) however there were quite a few deeper marks on the front end along with stone chipping that would require a cosmetic front end respray. A provisional date was set for the detail and the client made arrangements for the spray work to be carried out.

A couple of weeks before the detail was due to happen the client brought the car to me again for a second inspection as he was still not particularly happy with the condition of the now freshly painted front end. The usual bodyshop hologramming was present, along with a fair bit of compound splatter across the whole car. Also annoyingly there was now further evidence of heavy machine polishing being carried out across the car, but thankfully paint thickness levels still hadn't been compromised to 'unworkable' levels. It later became apparent once the car was under the unit lighting that the car was covered in heavy overspray, hence their machine polishing attempts. Claying didn't touch it, but my correction stages rectified it easily enough.

Moving on, skipping past the generic wash stages etc, I shall let the pictures do the talking:




























































































































































































































































































































After some 50 hours the car is complete. The bulk of the initial heavy cutting work was carried out via the rotary using LakeCountry Constant Pressure Pads and foamed wool. Scholl S2 Orange & S3 Gold. The remainder of the polishing was carried out using various pad & polish combinations via the Rupes Bigfoot. Protection was courtesy of Polish Angel Invincible topped with 2 layers of Cosmic Glasscoat.


















































































So there we have it, one revitalised E46 M3, and one happy owner!

As ever, don't forget you can keep up to date with my day to day movements on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter

Thanks for looking,

Rich @ Refined Detail


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## 123HJMS (Mar 13, 2013)

Car looks perfect now Rich, great job! Always had a soft spot for these. Can I also asked what tyre dressing was used? I have the Goodyear F1's and find a lot of dressings don't adhere well to them and like the look of them in the pics.


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## Refined Detail (Nov 27, 2006)

123HJMS said:


> Car looks perfect now Rich, great job! Always had a soft spot for these. Can I also asked what tyre dressing was used? I have the Goodyear F1's and find a lot of dressings don't adhere well to them and like the look of them in the pics.


Thanks chap.

Agreed re. tyre dressings too. I initially tried Gyeon on these but it just seemed to absorb it and didn't look dressed at all. These are dressed with Autosmart Highstyle which is then wiped down to leave a nice satin finish :thumb:


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## 123HJMS (Mar 13, 2013)

Refined Detail said:


> Thanks chap.
> 
> Agreed re. tyre dressings too. I initially tried Gyeon on these but it just seemed to absorb it and didn't look dressed at all. These are dressed with Autosmart Highstyle which is then wiped down to leave a nice satin finish :thumb:


Thanks Rich, that's the problem I've encountered with the tyres, the soft sidewalls absorb most dressings. I've got some AS highstyle here but haven't tried it on these yet. Thanks again.


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## s29nta (Mar 9, 2013)

looks very nice now, good job:thumb:


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## Adi_328 (Aug 22, 2013)

Lovely car and photos, just wanted to ask if you were unable to remove some deeper scratches or you simply didn't want to remove too much clear coat? It's clearly visible on some 50/50 photos, some panels look fully corrected whilst some other ones are not. Not trying to criticize your brilliant work here, I'm just curious? Any paint readings taken?
Regards.
Adrian.


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## Refined Detail (Nov 27, 2006)

Adi_328 said:


> Lovely car and photos, just wanted to ask if you were unable to remove some deeper scratches or you simply didn't want to remove too much clear coat? It's clearly visible on some 50/50 photos, some panels look fully corrected whilst some other ones are not. Not trying to criticize your brilliant work here, I'm just curious? Any paint readings taken?
> Regards.
> Adrian.


A combination of everything really. Some panels were down to 90-100 microns before I started, a couple were actually as low as 75 in places. But at the same times, yes there were some very deep marks. The car is used daily and kept outside, it's inevitable it is going to pick up further marks in due course, along with light wash marring etc over time, therefore it was agreed to make a massive overall difference to the car without chasing every last mark as all you're doing is compromising clearcoat levels for no real reason. Quite a few of the remaining marks are far less visible when A) Back on the floor rather than raised to viewing height on the scissor lift and B) in natural lighting rather than harsh artificial lighting :thumb:


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## Guest (Oct 5, 2014)

Adi_328 said:


> Lovely car and photos, just wanted to ask if you were unable to remove some deeper scratches or you simply didn't want to remove too much clear coat? It's clearly visible on some 50/50 photos, some panels look fully corrected whilst some other ones are not. Not trying to criticize your brilliant work here, I'm just curious? Any paint readings taken?
> Regards.
> Adrian.


Thinking the same...given the amount of time taken and the inevitable cost,maybe repainting becomes a viable option?
No amount of polishing is going to put right the damage to the wheelarch and door...just shinier damage.But...you pays your money and makes your choice I suppose...


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## MK1Campaign (Mar 27, 2007)

123HJMS said:


> Thanks Rich, that's the problem I've encountered with the tyres, the soft sidewalls absorb most dressings. I've got some AS highstyle here but haven't tried it on these yet. Thanks again.


I'm using Gtechniq T1 on my F1's.
Works really well and lasts a good few weeks.


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## Adi_328 (Aug 22, 2013)

Refined Detail said:


> A combination of everything really. Some panels were down to 90-100 microns before I started, a couple were actually as low as 75 in places. But at the same times, yes there were some very deep marks. The car is used daily and kept outside, it's inevitable it is going to pick up further marks in due course, along with light wash marring etc over time, therefore it was agreed to make a massive overall difference to the car without chasing every last mark as all you're doing is compromising clearcoat levels for no real reason. Quite a few of the remaining marks are far less visible when A) Back on the floor rather than raised to viewing height on the scissor lift and B) in natural lighting rather than harsh artificial lighting :thumb:


Thanks for clarifying, sometimes a sensible approach is what you need, I'll soon detail my 2010 S4 and the situation here is more or less the same, readings vary from 110 to 90 microns, it's a daily driver, kept outside... May I just ask how much cc was removed in the process? What's the safe limit with this kind of readings?


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## tonyy (Jul 26, 2008)

Fantastic job done:thumb:


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## unique detail (Jan 26, 2012)

Superb Rich and a huge difference, nice to see that you openly show that not all RDS can be removed in a safe manner if at all, very nice:thumb:

Andy


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## Clueless.1 (Jul 30, 2014)

My word what a difference! Great job and brilliant pictures, especially the 50/50 shots


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## G3BML (Nov 15, 2011)

Lovely turn around


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## Refined Detail (Nov 27, 2006)

Adi_328 said:


> Thanks for clarifying, sometimes a sensible approach is what you need, I'll soon detail my 2010 S4 and the situation here is more or less the same, readings vary from 110 to 90 microns, it's a daily driver, kept outside... May I just ask how much cc was removed in the process? What's the safe limit with this kind of readings?


No more than 2-3 microns removed during my polishing; a safe limit in my own personal opinion as there is now scope for future work should it be required.


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## Adi_328 (Aug 22, 2013)

Refined Detail said:


> No more than 2-3 microns removed during my polishing; a safe limit in my own personal opinion as there is now scope for future work should it be required.


I guess I'll be aiming for the same level. Thanks for the info.


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## T.C (Sep 1, 2014)

I just can't understand how a professional company in business who specialise in bodywork can mess up so badly. 

I mean surely they are trained and have plenty of experience using a machine polisher to correct paintwork. Not to mention that if it was done correctly in the first place they wouldn't have had to put right the mistakes. 

Least are professional has got their hands on it and managed to sort it out with minimal fuss and hassle. 

Great work and what a stunning colour when finish correctly!


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## ocdetailer (Apr 9, 2014)

An amazing transformation, especially on that front bumper! It's terrible that such poor quality refinishing still occurs, even with the advent of DA machines


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## Jafco (Nov 17, 2012)

What a car, I'm amazed anyone could let a car get this bad. 

Excellent turn around rich.


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## DMH-01 (Mar 29, 2011)

Great work there Rich :thumb:


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## tich (Aug 16, 2014)

Love it car looks totally different when detail right


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## Refined Detail (Nov 27, 2006)

Thank you everybody, much appreciated 



T.C said:


> I just can't understand how a professional company in business who specialise in bodywork can mess up so badly.
> 
> I mean surely they are trained and have plenty of experience using a machine polisher to correct paintwork. Not to mention that if it was done correctly in the first place they wouldn't have had to put right the mistakes.
> 
> ...


Unfortunately it's all too common in the bodyshop trade to leave such mess - largely because machine polishing is the last stage and everybody in a bodyshop hates having to 'mop' as a result it gets rushed with little care or attention being paid. Many also get bitten by the filling properties of compounds not realising that the shiny finish won't last beyond the next wash or heavy shower! Is a shame though as when there's so much time put into all the stages leading up to that, it's silly to rush the last stage and ruin the overall effect of the finished product!


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