Hi all, here's my latest installment.. A bit of a 'fail' mid-way through, too.. :dapprove:
BMW e46 330 Ci Cabriolet
Product List:
· 303 Fabric Guard
· AutoGlym Fast Glass
· AutoSmart G101
· AutoSmart Tardis
· Autosol
· Chemical Guys JetSEAL109
· Chemical Guys Maxi Suds II
· Clearkote Red Moose Glaze
· Dodo Juice Supernatural
· Jeffs Werkstat Prime
· LTT Auto Ultra Foam
· LTT Auto Ultra Protect
· Menzerna 203s
· Menzerna PO85RD 3.02
· Menzerna PO106FA
· Meguiars Wheel Brightener
· Meguiars Last Touch
· Sonus Green Clay
· Zaino Z8 Grand Finale
Inspection:
A very well cared for and looked after vehicle; a real credit to the owners. 2002 model with only 40,000 on the clocks.
My spec was to tidy the exterior up a little bit and give the leather a once over.
Due to the intense heat this week I struggled to get many during photos.. It was a case of waste no time; get it washed, get it inside.
A few bits of tar picked up off of the lower quarters:
Once washed and dry:
Looks well already!
Moved inside for the claying stages. Very little contaminants found.. Vehicle lives in the garage and last year it only covered 4k miles.
After claying was complete, the car was pushed back outside to check paint conditions:
After taking a few readings, it was clear a few panels had seen paint. The bonnet touching 600um in some places..
With that in mind, I started here.
Menz 203s on a light cutting pad made little effect to the defects on the bonnet. Very hard paint here... Menz 3.02 with an orange Helogic cutting pad made an impact, but, still room for improvement. Refined with 106FA on a yellow 3m polishing pad.
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
Refined with 106FA:
Tiny ‘pin-heads’ spotted in the paint due to poor respray:
Other ‘factory’ panels cleaned up nicely with a single 203s hit on a green light cutting pad.
Repair work spotted on the lip of the front bumper..
Came up very well after a single hit of 203s.
Scuff spotted lower down on the O/S front lip.
^no after photo unfortunately.. The worst of it was removed by Tardis – lots of surface paint as opposed to deep scratches.
Nipped outside to check my work:
‘pin-holes’ can be spotted here:
Finalising things on day 1, I treated the hood, protected the alloys and cleaned/attached the hardtop roof.
Back first thing and another beautiful day. To do? Complete rear end, rear bumper and roof. Glaze. Wax. Interior. + Miscellaneous.
To do:
Rear bumper:
Once the whole car had been machined it was time to take the blue 3M tape off..
…I wasn’t however expecting this:
Rubbish! A serious ‘foot in mouth’ moment. You can see in the second photo that the edging of the roof had had some repair work done in the past; the trim had been painted black and there was little I could have done to avoid damaging it further.. The repairs are to be covered at my expense and if anything, it’s a lesson learnt (and one good reason to have insurance in place!)
The thing is, I had to tape it as I didn’t want the pad catching it; a bit of a double-edged sword in the end.
Clearkote Red Moose Glaze applied.
Dodo Juice SuperNatural wax layed down:
Grille and britework cleaned up with Jeffs PRIME:
Interior dealt with next: Leather with LTT. Hoovered. Mats cleaned. Dash/plastics/pedals cleaned.
Que lots of after photographs:
Last job of the day; a bit of ‘toothpickery’:
Overall correction was around 85/90%..
As always, thanks for reading.
Jim
BMW e46 330 Ci Cabriolet
Product List:
· 303 Fabric Guard
· AutoGlym Fast Glass
· AutoSmart G101
· AutoSmart Tardis
· Autosol
· Chemical Guys JetSEAL109
· Chemical Guys Maxi Suds II
· Clearkote Red Moose Glaze
· Dodo Juice Supernatural
· Jeffs Werkstat Prime
· LTT Auto Ultra Foam
· LTT Auto Ultra Protect
· Menzerna 203s
· Menzerna PO85RD 3.02
· Menzerna PO106FA
· Meguiars Wheel Brightener
· Meguiars Last Touch
· Sonus Green Clay
· Zaino Z8 Grand Finale
Inspection:
A very well cared for and looked after vehicle; a real credit to the owners. 2002 model with only 40,000 on the clocks.
My spec was to tidy the exterior up a little bit and give the leather a once over.
Due to the intense heat this week I struggled to get many during photos.. It was a case of waste no time; get it washed, get it inside.
A few bits of tar picked up off of the lower quarters:
Once washed and dry:
Looks well already!
Moved inside for the claying stages. Very little contaminants found.. Vehicle lives in the garage and last year it only covered 4k miles.
After claying was complete, the car was pushed back outside to check paint conditions:
After taking a few readings, it was clear a few panels had seen paint. The bonnet touching 600um in some places..
With that in mind, I started here.
Menz 203s on a light cutting pad made little effect to the defects on the bonnet. Very hard paint here... Menz 3.02 with an orange Helogic cutting pad made an impact, but, still room for improvement. Refined with 106FA on a yellow 3m polishing pad.
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
Refined with 106FA:
Tiny ‘pin-heads’ spotted in the paint due to poor respray:
Other ‘factory’ panels cleaned up nicely with a single 203s hit on a green light cutting pad.
Repair work spotted on the lip of the front bumper..
Came up very well after a single hit of 203s.
Scuff spotted lower down on the O/S front lip.
^no after photo unfortunately.. The worst of it was removed by Tardis – lots of surface paint as opposed to deep scratches.
Nipped outside to check my work:
‘pin-holes’ can be spotted here:
Finalising things on day 1, I treated the hood, protected the alloys and cleaned/attached the hardtop roof.
Back first thing and another beautiful day. To do? Complete rear end, rear bumper and roof. Glaze. Wax. Interior. + Miscellaneous.
To do:
Rear bumper:
Once the whole car had been machined it was time to take the blue 3M tape off..
…I wasn’t however expecting this:
Rubbish! A serious ‘foot in mouth’ moment. You can see in the second photo that the edging of the roof had had some repair work done in the past; the trim had been painted black and there was little I could have done to avoid damaging it further.. The repairs are to be covered at my expense and if anything, it’s a lesson learnt (and one good reason to have insurance in place!)
The thing is, I had to tape it as I didn’t want the pad catching it; a bit of a double-edged sword in the end.
Clearkote Red Moose Glaze applied.
Dodo Juice SuperNatural wax layed down:
Grille and britework cleaned up with Jeffs PRIME:
Interior dealt with next: Leather with LTT. Hoovered. Mats cleaned. Dash/plastics/pedals cleaned.
Que lots of after photographs:
Last job of the day; a bit of ‘toothpickery’:
Overall correction was around 85/90%..
As always, thanks for reading.
Jim
Looks great otherwise, I might be looking for one of these for myself in a year or so 
