E92 ///M3 enhancement

[Knuckles]

I was asked by a friend to give his M3 a going over to try and remove some swirls and scratches from the bodywork. The previous owner looks to have been quite aggressive with the cleaning.

It's generally well maintained, regularly washed and usually sat in the garage, so it looks OK from afar but swirls and scratches come out when you get close

The whole car was pretty much like this, plenty of swirls and RDS's

This wing was resprayed prior to collection so it wasn't too badly swirled. The paint was muuuuch softer than the OEM paint on the rest of the car

Random little bit of marring on the rear bumper from some T cut

We moved it around the corner into the shade to wash it. It was 33 degrees when we did it on Friday so I didn't mess around getting too many pictures... You couldn't see anything anyway with the car being black.

Af ter the wash I used @autoallure show finish quick detailer as a drying aid. It worked well and smelled brilliant.

Then dried properly before moving indoors. Out of the sun the paint looks mega

 

[imprezaworks]

Nice

 

[Jack!]

 

[Knuckles]

I struggled to catch the scratches outside

But inside the unit they showed up quite well.

I messed around with a few combinations; auto finesse cutting pads and polish didn't really cut enough or finish nice enough

I moved to hex logic blue cutting pads with various polishes before settling on the orange heavy cut pad with menz heavy cut polish. The big guns were out lol here's a bit of a 50/50

Before and after

What I didn't picture was that I pinched the ptg from work. It looked pretty consistent, around 160/170 microns across the whole car. For those that are interested, the bonnet bulge has the thickest paint on an m3, 200 microns/0.2mm thick.

And under the boot lid with no lacquer to see how much lacquer I had to play with. F**k loads. Lol

 

[Knuckles]

Many before and afters

50/50 between bonnet and wing

 

[Knuckles]

I moved down to a polishing pad and polishing polish to polish the resprayed wing. polish.

The boot was pretty heavily scratched and marred

The lighter marring and scratches were removed

But a couple of the deeper ones stuck around

After the polishing was done I moved onto carpro essence on a microfibre pad to finish and lay a base for the reload

The menz polish finished fine but the essence really brought the gloss out.. and brought the blue out with it

Spot the face. This may ruin m3s for you in the future

 

[Knuckles]

Essence filled in the deeper scratches somewhat too

Dat gloss

After I finished, we gave the car a couple of coats of gyeon cure *not carpro reload, my bad

Bonus paint thickness shot

Then rolled out for some overcast afters

 

[Knuckles]

Then we put it back inside to cover it up

Dat bulge!

And my favourite before after.

Danke.

 

[Knuckles]

f**k you lol

 

[sburrell93]

Good work! Got to laugh at how bad orange peel in BMW paint is though. Always so noticeable under the light. Still, looks incredible and is not helping my want for one at all lol.

What colour is that? Looks black in most of the photos but a lot of the close up shots in the light look blue?

P.S You forgot to unmask under the bootlid in the afters outside :tongueout:

P.P.S Nice calendar...

 

[imprezaworks]

Great work mate

 

[autoallure]

Lovely mate - Very nice indeed

What colour is that? Looks black in most of the photos but a lot of the close up shots in the light look blue?

Carbon Black Probably mate - I have this argument at work (I detail at BMW) and i see blue. I rarely see a black looking carbon black car lol

 

[Units]

lovely car, very clean finish

 

[Knuckles]

Good work! Got to laugh at how bad orange peel in BMW paint is though. Always so noticeable under the light. Still, looks incredible and is not helping my want for one at all lol.

What colour is that? Looks black in most of the photos but a lot of the close up shots in the light look blue?

P.S You forgot to unmask under the bootlid in the afters outside :tongueout:

P.P.S Nice calendar...

Cheers! I've seen a lot of people wet sand them to remove it but that's a bit too big of a job lol

If you can, get one. It's mega. It's got the box chop too so sounds incredible

It's Jerez black. Removing the haze seems to have really brought out the blue

Yeah I did realise that after we put it away. And I forgot to tell the owner haha. Shhhh

Cracking calendar too lol

Great work mate

Cheers

 

[Scrooge]

Nice work!

Please don't use the in lacquered bits as a guide to the lacquer thickness though. There will most likely be thinner base coats there too. Pissing in the wind really. I can imagine some bumpy thinking they've got 40-60 microns of lacquer to burn through and after 20 they've hit paint lol

 

[JackD]

Looks great. Shame the standard wheels are so hideous though!

 

[Knuckles]

Lovely mate - Very nice indeed


Carbon Black Probably mate - I have this argument at work (I detail at BMW) and i see blue. I rarely see a black looking carbon black car lol

Cheers,

I used your citrus pre wash and iron remover too. But I left them out of the write up because I couldn't leave them on long enough to picture in the sun and you couldn't see any bleeding. I'll do a proper review when I do the clio

Nice work!

Please don't use the in lacquered bits as a guide to the lacquer thickness though. There will most likely be thinner base coats there too. Pissing in the wind really. I can imagine some bumpy thinking they've got 40-60 microns of lacquer to burn through and after 20 they've hit paint lol

Thanks!

Yeah I was only using it as a reference, I took readings after settling on the polish combo to make sure I didn't take off too much. I think the combination took off around 10 microns after one hit, good thing the paint is rock solid lol

 

[Christopher]

Good work! Hard colour and conditions to work in

 

[Knuckles]

Good work! Hard colour and conditions to work in

Cheers. Even with a helping hand it still took us around ten hours just to do the bodywork lol

You don't realise how small clios are. The bonnet on this thing is huge!

 

[Jason_E]

Epic work, look stunning after! I really need this doing to mine! Went over with the rotary at home but havent got the balls to cut that deep, pretty much the same as the "mid way" shots of that. Has loads of typical BMW factory defects too that annoy me, shame as the red has a proper golden flake to it when its new. What would you say the most effective compounds are on BMW paint?

 

[Knuckles]

Epic work, look stunning after! I really need this doing to mine! Went over with the rotary at home but havent got the balls to cut that deep, pretty much the same as the "mid way" shots of that. Has loads of typical BMW factory defects too that annoy me, shame as the red has a proper golden flake to it when its new. What would you say the most effective compounds are on BMW paint?

Cheers, I did this all via da with a hex logic orange heavy cut pad and menzerna heavy cut compound 400.

I was a bit reluctant to go so balls out from the off but it only seemed to take off 10-15 microns tops so I cracked on.

As always though I worked up to that. Auto finesse #1 and #2 combinations didnt work so I moved onto the hexlogic cutting pad with af #2 polish, still wasn't good enough so I went to the heavy cut stuff as a last resort. I wouldn't go balls out from the off with such a harsh compound

Do you have any pictures of your paint as it stands?

 

[Jason_E]

Cheers, I did this all via da with a hex logic orange heavy cut pad and menzerna heavy cut compound 400.

I was a bit reluctant to go so balls out from the off but it only seemed to take off 10-15 microns tops so I cracked on.

As always though I worked up to that. Auto finesse #1 and #2 combinations didnt work so I moved onto the hexlogic cutting pad with af #2 polish, still wasn't good enough so I went to the heavy cut stuff as a last resort. I wouldn't go balls out from the off with such a harsh compound

Do you have any pictures of your paint as it stands?

No pictures of mine at the mo (Cars dirty ) but I was told by a local detailer he thought it was at least a stage 2 job maybe more in some places.

 

[Knuckles]

No pictures of mine at the mo (Cars dirty 😧) but I was told by a local detailer he thought it was at least a stage 2 job maybe more in some places.

Yeah, although the menz polish finished quite well I wouldn't have wanted to leave it at that.

Carpro essence is a bit of a cheat product, if you've not used it, it's an all in one* that lays a semi permenant base for lsp to bond to.

But you don't work it like a polish, just spread it around and get it warm then buff off once it's finished working. So you can get away with cutting the paint and finishing with that.

It's a shame you're not closer, this one was so rewarding haha

 

[Jason_E]

Yeah, although the menz polish finished quite well I wouldn't have wanted to leave it at that.

Carpro essence is a bit of a cheat product, if you've not used it, it's an all in one* that lays a semi permenant base for lsp to bond to.

But you don't work it like a polish, just spread it around and get it warm then buff off once it's finished working. So you can get away with cutting the paint and finishing with that.

It's a shame you're not closer, this one was so rewarding haha

Haha I'd love someone to have a go on it! I used a Medium cutting pad with Scholl S17+ followed up by Menzerna final finish with a finishing pad. It's come up pretty well but the deep scuffs and swirls are still there. There's a really bad bit of lacquer overspray on the boot, looks like someones had a rattle can on it. Detailer seems to think my car has never had paint so must be a typical BMW Paint fail. The front was obviously PPF'd because there was a noticable line in the paint before I clayed it back, now its stone chipped

I use Autofinesse tripple and like the finish that gives, may try the Carpro stuff thanks for the tip! Need more wax too, still not sure what BMW paint likes though...

 

[Knuckles]

Haha I'd love someone to have a go on it! I used a Medium cutting pad with Scholl S17+ followed up by Menzerna final finish with a finishing pad. It's come up pretty well but the deep scuffs and swirls are still there. There's a really bad bit of lacquer overspray on the boot, looks like someones had a rattle can on it. Detailer seems to think my car has never had paint so must be a typical BMW Paint fail. The front was obviously PPF'd because there was a noticable line in the paint before I clayed it back, now its stone chipped 😧

I use Autofinesse tripple and like the finish that gives, may try the Carpro stuff thanks for the tip! Need more wax too, still not sure what BMW paint likes though...

I'm not familiar with the scholl polishes so can't comment sorry. If it's just deep marks that are there then definitely give essence a go. YouTube it, it's cracking stuff. Apply with a decent microfibre pad and you're laughing.

This had a bit of lacquer overspray from the wing being done, I thought I was going to have to sand that but the polish removed it nicely.

After essence and reload/cure I doubt I'll go back to wax. For ease of use, looks and durability you can't beat them.

They bead like this too.

It dries solid too. I picked up the microfibre I applied it with on the above car and there was loads of stringy bits of lacquer looking things, it was the coating drying in the fibres. So even if you don't cut the deep scratches out, it should fill a bit of them

 

[Akay]

Good work, did anyone else spot the titties?

 

[dablk]

Nice,
When i get my garage I must bribe you Scott to come and have a go at the Z4MC... Im just not brave enough lol.

 

[Knuckles]

Good work, did anyone else spot the titties?

Cheers, I didn't even realise I caught the calendar lol.

@sburrell93 did though haha

Nice,
When i get my garage I must bribe you Scott to come and have a go at the Z4MC... Im just not brave enough lol.

Thanks, let me know and I'll come give you a hand. It's not hard, it just took forever lol

Z4s have massive bonnets too don't they?

 

[dablk]

Lol Yep , All bonnet.

 

[scratcher]

Great work

I love the E92. I worked on one a little while ago and had to convince myself not to buy it, haha.

 

[Knuckles]

That's epic. I really want one of these but it'll not be for a long while. Too much and too impractical at the moment

 

[dablk]

Would say a good v8 m3 manual one is safe money.. now is the time to buy. Before prices turn upwards.

 

[Ol’ Tarby]

Would say a good v8 m3 manual one is safe money.. now is the time to buy. Before prices turn upwards.

Another few years yet I rekkon before they've hit their lowest

 

[dablk]

For the auto perhaps but I think the manuals might start becoming the one to have in purist terms.

 

[Jason_E]

Kinda hoping they dont go much lower for obvious reasons. But as long as E46's rise, and Evo keep featuring it as one to buy, I think I'll be alright!

 

[Knuckles]

This thing is actuallyfor sale now. He's after an alpine edition instead lol