# Refined Detail Z5's a Z4M (& correction work)



## Refined Detail (Nov 27, 2006)

This is going to be my biggest post to date, so please bare with me - feedback on the write up would be appreciated please, along with the actual work itself!

I was contacted by the owner of this BMW Z4M convertible after he had picked it up from the dealership and was still less than impressed with the condition of the paintwork, despite expressing his concerns to them previously.

Apparently when he had first viewed the car it was awful - very flat and dull. BMW then called in a "detailer" (I personally think it got given to their bodyshop dept for a couple of hours!) to machine polish the car. When my client arrived to pick the car up he said there was a big enough improvement for him to continue with the purchase of the car, but still wasn't 100% happy with it.

Upon arrival I could see the car was still hugely lacking life - very grey and cloudy and even under dim garage lighting I could make out numerous hologrammes. A date was set, and the aim of restoring as much gloss and clarity to the paint as well as removing hologrammes and other defects was set.

Upon arrival day 1:





































First job was to get it thoroughly cleaned up and decontaminated. A lot of pictures during the wet stage were missed out as water and cameras don't mix too well!

Wheels, tyres and arches were first. Tyres and arches sprayed with Autosmart G101 and agitated with various brushes. Wheels were given a prelimnary clean with Espuma Revolution, but this didn't have quite enough bite, so a second clean with Meguiars Wheel Brightener was required. Faces and inners cleaned with various brushes, behind spokes with a Meguiars microfibre mitt.

Once rinsed, it as clear the wheels had received a poor refurb job:



















Why dealerships have this done, I really don't know, completely ruins the appearance of the car!

The roof was then cleaned with Autoglym soft top cleaner and the whole car (inc. roof) foamed with Bilt Hamber Autofoam and left to dwel. Door shuts were cleaned with Meguiars APC and a detail brush and rinsed out at low pressure before the foam being rinsed off at high pressure and the roof with an open hose.

The roof was then patted dry and Autoglym soft top reproofer applied and left to dry.

Next up was the engine bay, in overall very good condition, but covered in a fair bit of silicone spray. All was sprayed with Autosmart G101, agitated and rinsed off at low pressure, then Autosmart Rubber & Plastic applied whilst wet and the engine run to help dry it all out.

Finally on to the wash stage; 2 bucket method, Autosmart Autowash and Refined Detail lamsbwool mitt and rinsed off.

On to the decontamination stage by this point. First up Iron Cut:










applied to wheels and lower 1/3 of bodywork, left to do it's thing (which there didn't seem to be much being removed) and rinsed off and dried with waffle weave drying towels:










Tardis applied and wiped off after a minute or so with panel wipes:










Straight to claying next, Bilt Hamber soft and weak Autosmart reglaze as lube:










it didn't remove a great deal, but the paintwork felt far smoother afterwards:










I expect the paintwork had most the contaminants removed during the mop session it received previously!

A final rinse down and dried with more waffle weave towels. Grilles and water traps with hot air dryer:










and the roof given a quick blast too to aid drying:










leaving the car looking a lot better, but still hazy:










now completely clean I was able to check the paintwork over more thoroughly, and discovered an alarming amount of burn through on panel edges (there were plenty more believe me!):



















I struggled to get many hologramme shots under halogen, but the winter sun came out briefly, allowing me to get this shot, which is the typical condition over the whole car:










Relevant trim was taped up and the roof covered, it was time to start polishing:










Paintwork readings had been taken during the initial consultation, from this I discovered the front end had received a blow in (and front bumper resprayed) N/S quarter had been filled and painted, and the rear bumper painted. A large amount of the defects had been removed during the initial heavy compounding stage from the dealership, but at the same time they had inflicted their own swirls and of course hologrammes. There were numerous RDS over the whole vehicle which appeared to be caused by a dirty mop head, and some from a cat claw, these were left as a fair amount of clearcoat would need to be removed to make any large difference and a mild correction detail doesn't cover this.

Most of the correction work was carried out with Menzerna P203s on a 3M yellow polishing pad, a drop of Intensive Polish was added as and when a bit of extra bite was required. Shots are taken to show you general level of correction achieved. An IPA wipe down was given before the photos too:



















This one was captured at the end of the day which shows up just how bad some of the paintwork was:










(rear quarter had been started by this point)

Day 1 saw me able to complete the huge bonnet, both front wings, the boot lid, OSR quarter and start the NSR quarter. By this point it was getting too dark and damp and I was working in this! :










To round day 1 off, exhausts were polished using wire wool and autosol:










to










and wheels were sealed with Carlack NSC:










Back for day 2 and it was a freezing cold start!

Doors were corrected first:










then on to finishing the NSR quarter and the bumpers. Due to the bumpers being so poorly painted (you could see the primer in several places on the front bumper) I decided to just polish these with the DA and Menzerna 203s. Not a huge amount of correction achieved, but gloss enhanced. The rear bumper was the wrong colour unfortunately too.

All paintwork was then refined and cleansed with 3M Ultrafina on a matching blue pad, again the sun made a brief appearance so I took the opportunity to snap these pre LSP shots:




























Arches were then dressed with Autosmart Rubber and Plastic dressing:










Tyres with Espuma RD50:










which left them wheels looking like this (the discs had gone rusty over night and I hadn't used the brakes enough to grind the rust off):










I'd decided to go with the Zaino route for LSP, so first up, Z-AIO (curing):










whilst this was curing, glass was cleaned with Espuma Crystal Blue:










and windscreen sealed with Aquapel:










Z-AIO buffed off:




























and LSP of choice was:










The Z-AIO I've found to be very durable in itself (currently 10 weeks on my Cooper S with 1 coat!) so only the 1 coat of Z5 was applied, this was left to cure whilst I tackled the interior:

Plastics wiped down with a magic sponge and Meguiars APC:



















Leather cleaned and conditioned with Dr Leather wipes:










Pedals scrubbed with a Meguiars triple duty brush and Meguiars APC:










Air vents and other fiddly details cleaned with Meguiars APC and various little tools:














































Leaving:










And the engine bay finished:










Little details attended to (Cotton buds soaked in Meguiars Last Touch):










Z5 buffed off and final touches completed:

Before:










After:










Scuttle, mirror bases and brake cooling ducts treated with Aerospace 303 protectant, and the Refined Detail seal of approval applied!










Zaino Z8 was then applied followed by a final wipe down with Z6.

2 days and 14 hours labour later we were left with:




































































































If you're still awake, thanks for reading!

Rich


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## gav1513 (Apr 16, 2009)

really good mate, car looks stunning wish i had the money to own and insure one lol


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## Jim W (Feb 3, 2007)

Nice Rich. Excellent report and a very thorough process!! :thumb:


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## Overdoser (Oct 25, 2010)

Excellent turnaround mate. The car looks stunning. Loved all the pics and write up:thumb:


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## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

Big improvement mate :thumb:

I'd be carefull with those magic sponges on the textured interiors though as they can turn them white/matte if you're not carefull, I find they're good for scuffs and ingrained dirt though on the lower parts of doors though.

The "burned" edges look more like old polish residue left from the previous machine polishing attempt by BMW to me aswell.


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## BDJ (Nov 21, 2009)

Good work :thumb:


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## slrestoration (Nov 11, 2009)

Great transformation Rich & a quality thorough write up:thumb:


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## 3976 (Nov 20, 2006)

LOVELY work.

However, the car would be going straight back if there were burn marks from over run on the panel edges!! Disgraceful!!


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## Beau Technique (Jun 21, 2010)

After talking about this and seeing the first days pics mate, for what was a supposedly tidy car it was a disgrace.
Nice turn round.
As for the wright up , I was expecting all flowery borders and signature in all 4 corners though


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## ianFRST (Sep 19, 2006)

nice effort mate

you were brave putting iron cut on the alloys if you thought they had a bad refurb !!


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## Refined Detail (Nov 27, 2006)

Clark @ PB said:


> Big improvement mate :thumb:
> 
> I'd be carefull with those magic sponges on the textured interiors though as they can turn them white/matte if you're not carefull, I find they're good for scuffs and ingrained dirt though on the lower parts of doors though.
> 
> The "burned" edges look more like old polish residue left from the previous machine polishing attempt by BMW to me aswell.


Thanks for the comments Clark, interesting you say that about the magic sponges - I've been using them for a good 18 months or so now and not found that to be the case, but will keep an eye. I've yet to find anything else that gets plastic as clean though - MF's only seem to take the top surface of dirt off whereas these get right into the pores and grain.

I'm fairly sure the marks are burn through - IPA, Tardis and clay didn't shift them, and in some places you could see the black / dark grey plastic beneath - the pics don't show this that well though.



slrestoration said:


> Great transformation Rich & a quality thorough write up:thumb:


Thanks very much, much appreciated 



JD said:


> LOVELY work.
> 
> However, the car would be going straight back if there were burn marks from over run on the panel edges!! Disgraceful!!


Thanks! I have to agree I'd be kicking up a fuss too, but not sure if the bumpers were sprayed when the car was in BMW's hands or before. If it is dealer bodyshop work I'll be surprised as I've worked for this group of dealers before and they're bodyshop work isn't normally too bad!



ianFRST said:


> nice effort mate
> 
> you were brave putting iron cut on the alloys if you thought they had a bad refurb !!


Cheers mate  It was a last ditch attempt to try and get them as clean as possible tbh!


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## CJR (Nov 4, 2010)

Fantastic turnaround, shame the car got that bad in the first place TBH! Looked amazing after all the hard work though.


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## "SkY" (Apr 21, 2009)

looks great...


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## Samjam927 (Sep 24, 2008)

Looks good! Makes that car even nicer!


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## st33ly (Aug 29, 2010)

This is a guess but this looks like the car i was going to buy from cooper croydon last month. And jugging by the tyres and by the looks of the new discs and pads fitted its the same car. Glad i never flew down from edinburgh to get this car now as the dealer said it was mint but by the initial photos it wasn't. And the interiors black leather even though it was red leather when new! Strange! Nice turn around mate but i would not wanting to be paying nearly £18k and then have to pay someone to correct my car.


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## Eurogloss (Jan 22, 2008)

Nice work and writeup Rich :thumb:

That car was a disgrace to start with and you bought it back to life like it should have been in the first place !

Regards Mario


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## Big Bri (Nov 20, 2010)

Loved the report.

Thanks very much.Thers so much a new O.C.D.like myself can learn from your easy explinationS
Thanks
BRIAN...


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## Marc1 (Apr 8, 2010)

Good Job :thumb:


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## AlexTsinos (Oct 10, 2010)

great job :buffer: :argie: that car


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## Baker21 (Aug 7, 2007)

Very nice detail there and a well laid out write up as well..........:thumb:

Very nice motor's to work on these, nice swooping lines and the bonnet just seems to go on forever..............:buffer:

Looks well worth the money now, thanks for sharing.........


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## paulmc08 (Feb 3, 2009)

top quality work fella

and a good write up to match:thumb:


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## Cole (Aug 22, 2010)

rich saw this on your facebook page ther other day just got round to reading it well done mate good to see the feedback from the client was extremely positve


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## RandomlySet (Jul 10, 2007)

stunning work! Looks great


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## JBirchy (Oct 9, 2010)

Great turnaround - it really pains me to see shoddy workmanship from dealers like you experienced. When you pay serious money for a prestige branded car, the least they can do is do a proper job.

Full credit to you for cleaning up their poor work! Looks great!


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## Rowan83 (Aug 21, 2007)

Stunning results. :thumb:


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## Refined Detail (Nov 27, 2006)

Thanks for all the positive comments, much appreciated


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