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Thread: Intensive+ Detail: BMW E39 530i

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
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    Intensive+ Detail: BMW E39 530i

    This car, a BMW E39 530, belongs to a good customer and good friend of mine. I've already detailed a few of his cars (he has a collection), and he dropped this one off this week.

    Looks OK, but not particularly exciting:


    This was after just a small section of the bonnet, it was filthy:


    Apologies for the photos, I was using the new camera in Auto mode, and I'm pretty dissapointed with the results. I have to learn how to use the camera to get better pictures out of it.

    Then I put it under lights, here is the bonnet. Lots of deep scratches, and awful water etch marks over the whole thing, making it look really dull.


    This is the same section of the bonnet after 2 passes of CAP Heavy on HD an Orange Pad. Small scratches and water etching all gone, but heaps of deeper scratches left.


    So I decided that I would wetsand the bonnet, boot and a few other trouble areas just to get rid of some of the deeper scratches. I wouldn't normally do this as part of an intensive detail, it's a lot of extra work, but this is for a good friend so I'm happy to go the extra mile.

    I taped off half the bonnet so that you can compare the progress against the untouched half of the bonnet:


    This is after 1 pass of 2000 grit paper:


    I then did a pass with 3000 grit, and then finally with 4000 grit. Here is the bonnet after I had finished with the 4000 grit, but before wiping off all of the clear-coat residue:


    After I had finished sanding, I started polishing the bonnet with CAP heavy and an Orange HD Pad. This is after I had done one pass on a small section, Spot the difference!


    This picture is after I had finished the first pass of polish. Don't forget, this is one pass of CAP Heavy after wetsanding, and yet it almost looks LSP ready!


    And a quick shot showing both sides of the bonnet:


    Anyway, that's all the pics I have for now. I will practice with the camera a bit more before I take some more shots. I will have the car finished on the weekend, and I will post up some more pics then.

    I've come to the conclusion that there are two types of detailers: Those that use FI products, and those that just faff about a lot.

    Cheers

    John


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  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
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    Re: Intensive+ Detail: BMW E39 530i

    Looks good John!

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  3. #3
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    Sydney, NSW
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    Top work Robbo.

    Looks like all the extra effort was well worth it. I still can't get my head around putting sandpaper on your paintwork

    GTI MY16.5 PURE WHITE | LAKIN PLATE HOLDER | TINTS |

  4. #4
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    Dec 2011
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    Melbourne, Victoria
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    Thanks Neru and Robbo!

    Don't worry, I was ****ting bricks the first time I did it, but now that I am a lot more experienced at it, it just doesn't phase me anymore. For what it's worth, I just did a random paint-thickness check to compare the half that I had sanded vs the half that was untouched. The untouched section averaged 240 microns and the freshly sanded section averaged 238 microns, so based on that you can see I have only removed 2 microns of clear coat, and I would expect that the clear coat would be in the order of 60 microns thick, so only very little material has been removed. The biggest danger from wetsanding isn't from sanding large areas like this, it's when people start sanding over edges and creases and then finding they have gone through to the metal in very short order. But as long as you keep clear of the edges (especially with the 2000 grit), then it's fine.

    If there is enough interest, I'm happy to conduct a VW Watercooled Detailing Clinic early in the new year, I will post a new thread soon to gauge interest


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  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
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    Sorry for the lack of updates guys, I've had a number of jobs on over the past week and so the E39 has only been getting an hour or 2 a day of my attention. It should be finished tomorrow, just wanted to give you an update on how it is looking.

    This first photo shows some scratches on the right rear quarter panel, it looks like someone rested a box on the side of the car. They are very deep, and are easily felt with the fingernail, so I knew I wasn't going to get them all out:


    I wetsanded first with 2000, then with 3000, then with 4000grit paper. I went right upto and over the edges, as that's where the scratches are at their deepest, and I was sanded for as long as I was comfortable. Anyway, after one single, solitary pass with CAP Heavy on an Orange HD Pad, this is what it looks like:


    Here are a couple of pics very close up trying to catch what's left of those scratches after the first pass of polish:



    And here are a couple of closeups, scratches are no longer visible unless under very close scrutiny, I'm very happy with the result.



    Check out the difference in reflection between the first and last shots, and don't forget, that's only one pass of CAP Heavy after sanding, that's it!

    Anyway, I have heaps more photos, just got to sort through them. I ended up sanding about half the car just trying to correct large deep scratches.

    Also, I start on a Transformation detail on my own E39 M5 on Thursday, in preperation for the Eurofest Show and Shine over in Adelaide next Sunday. Stay tuned!

    Cheers

    John


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