Got me an E46 tourer to do.

I done this in the summer of last year, and it hasnt been touched since.  Paintwork seems to be in good condition.  Megs #26 seems to have held up well  :shock:

The engine bay is a bit grubby and the interior is Dirty.  This wont be a whole detail, but will still look good ;)

I took a few before pics, car is now sitting in degreaser just waiting to be washed off after I type this.

Then im off to the Gym then off to the pub  :lol:

Heres the befores... tune in tomorrow for the afters  8)

Ill post the afters when I get home from work. 

Well at least you know swirls may not have been induced coz you were the last person to wash it!!!

Meh.  Once I handed it back, I found out that she has had it done with touchless valeters and 1 valeter.

I hate valeters!

Don't envy you cleaning those multispoke wheels allan

but, pretty sure the results will be spot on, after some hours of graft. Good luck and I'm certainly looking forward to seeing the final results.

Sorry for the delay with the pics, but this is a wee arty shot showing the finiahed article.

The car was foamed using some meguiars super degreaser and a touch of shampoo to give a small bit of foam and to cut through the grime before I washed the car.

The car was then foamed using Meguiars Hyper wash and a small amount (well, all that I had left) of SSF.  I left this for 5 mins then blasted off.

The paint was then clayed and treated with Meguiars Fine Cut Cleaner.  It was then trewated with Meguiars Quick Glaze and then Some Klasse AIO.  As this car is a work horse, I just went for a combo that I knew would treat the paint well, and leave a good shine.  No point in cracking out the god stuff, cos the car is used to go back and forward to Stables and work every day of the week.  The combo I chose worked well, and the paint had a nice shine to it.

I then coated the car in Klasse Extra Gloss sealent.  I then came back to it on sunday and gave another coat of sealent along with 2 coats of Colinite wax a few hours apart.

Here are the paint pics.

Well.  Remember the seats?

The seats were coated in super degreaser and left for a few hours. The nice herbal smell left the car smelling nice.  I then cracked out the extractor and got to work on the seats.

The extractor was a life saver and soon the back seat was ripped out and was sitting on the decking to dry.  That was the extremes of the interior.

Here is some before and after shots :D

This is the back seat half done

This is the back seat fully done

And here is the back seat dried in on the Sunday.  Just incase you think I wet the seats to hide the stains :D

The front seats were treated to the same process.
From this

To this

The mats were ripped out also.  They were treated with Super Degreaser and then pressure washed.

I then extracted them and left them to dry... thank got it was warm on Saturday !!

DIRT!!!

The interior carpets were then brushed down and treated with the extractor. 

I then wet the interior plastics with a damp cloth and left it to dry .  I then treated the plastics with some poorboys trim restorer.

Wasnt happy with the back of the seats so after the pics were taken and the battery was flat, i hit the backs again with meguiars exterior trim detailer.

I wasnt gonna put as much effort in as I did as this car was a daily work horse, but I felt sorry for it... being a BMW and all.

I have engine bay and wheel shots, but they are on the camera.  I cant get into it as the batteries are flat :(  I will remember to put the memory card in the camera from the start and not 1/3 of the way through

Jeez, hope you had the marigolds on before touching those seats!

much dubious stainage !

Amazing transformation! When I get a car worth detailing I'll be sure to give you a shout!

lot of hard graft there, but the results are oh-so-worthwhile

you deserve a  after that lot

just a couple of quick questions:

1.  are there any things to watch out for with the degreaser?  it doesn't eat rubber or harm the paintwork or anything like that does it?

2.  what do you use for your black bumper trims?  i find silicone spray doesn't last five minutes and turtle wax black trim polish very messy to apply

3.  what would you recommend to get white polish off black plastic bumper trims?  i thought about clay but that's probably a stupid idea

Hey Stephen.

The degreaser is an automotive degreaser made by Meguiars.  It is used to basically degrease anything.  As long as you apply it to the paint and not in direct sunlight, or let it dry on the paint, you shall be fine.

For the black plastic trim, i use Poorboys trim restorer found at http://www.polishedbliss.co.uk - www.polishedbliss.co.uk (site Sponsor)

For polish on the trim, you could try some fairy liquid on a tootbrush.  When washing the car, wash the trim first with the toothbrush and fairy, then wash your car as normal.  Then use a trim detailer i.e. meguiars trim detailer, or poorboys trim restorer to bring the plastic back up. 

I suppose you could use the clay bar on the trim, but if it doesnt give the results you want, try the toothbrush method

clay bar doesn't work, I've already tried it. Might give the fairy liquid a try tho.. being Very careful not to spill any onto the car paintwork tho..thanks for the tip allan

Allan320 wrote: Hey Stephen. The degreaser is an automotive degreaser made by Meguiars.  It is used to basically degrease anything.  As long as you apply it to the paint and not in direct sunlight, or let it dry on the paint, you shall be fine. For the black plastic trim, i use Poorboys trim restorer found at http://www.polishedbliss.co.uk - www.polishedbliss.co.uk (site Sponsor) For polish on the trim, you could try some fairy liquid on a tootbrush.  When washing the car, wash the trim first with the toothbrush and fairy, then wash your car as normal.  Then use a trim detailer i.e. meguiars trim detailer, or poorboys trim restorer to bring the plastic back up.  I suppose you could use the clay bar on the trim, but if it doesnt give the results you want, try the toothbrush method

Thanks Allan, I'll give it a try.

how do you get such a large amount of foam?   my karcher K2.89 pressure washer has only one "mix" setting that empties the soap tank in no time at all yet isn't very foamy

i've got a box of meguiars super clay but i've never had the nerve to actually use it - too worried about scratching the paintwork; do you clay the whole car or just bits of it?

i've also got a halfrauds random orbital polisher (the big mains powered jobbie), again never used and bit worried about swirl marks, any tips for these?

would it be a good idea to mask up the rest of the parts you don't want polished (especially the black plastic trims) ?

what about tyre black, any recommendations?

alloy wheel paint for touchup, are they all the same shade?

sorry for all the questions

stephenperry wrote: i've got a box of meguiars super clay but i've never had the nerve to actually use it - too worried about scratching the paintwork; do you clay the whole car or just bits of it?

Don't worry about scratching your car with clay.  I have clayed mine twice and it really makes the paint surface as smooth as glass which then makes the polish that you apply after really shine.

stephenperry wrote: i've also got a halfrauds random orbital polisher (the big mains powered jobbie), again never used and bit worried about swirl marks, any tips for these?

I've got one too but they don't spin anywhere near fast enough to remove swirl marks.  You need a Porter cable polisher for that.  The halfrauds one is a bit gimmicky but it does take the arm work out.  Last time I used it I wasn't particulalry happy with the results, made a few ghost marks which I then had to polish out by hand.  But you can't buy spare bonnets for them for all the different polishes that you may use.  They sell the polisher but no spares for it.  Bit frustrating.

stephenperry wrote: would it be a good idea to mask up the rest of the parts you don't want polished (especially the black plastic trims) ?

Yes, http://www.polishedbliss.co.uk - www.polishedbliss.co.uk  recommend this and all of the above.

HTH

Andrew

2.  what do you use for your black bumper trims?  i find silicone spray doesn't last five minutes and turtle wax black trim polish very messy to apply

3.  what would you recommend to get white polish off black plastic bumper trims?  i thought about clay but that's probably a stupid idea

Stephen, I found the Autoglym bumper trim stuff (green gel) to be good for the above.

Steve.