Pictures as promised after massive detailing effort!

[dekaliber]

I posted a couple of weeks ago to report that I had traded in my 3.0si for an M coupe. The car was in overall great shape, but desperately in need of a proper detailing.

I had set aside this past weekend to do so, and ended up spending probably 20+ hours over the course of 3 days on the cleanup. The good news: the car is beautiful (and my achy back is grateful that I'm done). The bad news: I was in such a hurry to get started on this that I forgot to take before shots.

Roughly what was done:

1. Wash (foam gun & double bucket) and dry - inevitably I miss some spots doing this so I did a quick once over with some Optimum No Rinse
2. Clean door jambs and other nooks and crannies
3. Clay
4. Mask
5. 2 step paint correction with Menzerna Power Finish and Menzerna PO85RD using PC 7424XP and various pads
6. Wax with 1Z Einszett Glanz
7. Clean glass
8. Treat rubber/vinyl/plastics
9. Clean/polish exhaust tips
10. Remove wheels to wash, clay, seal with Klasse AIO
11. Clean wheel wells
12. Clean/seal brake caliper housing
13. Vacuum interior
14. Clean and condition leather surfaces
15. Clean interior plastics
16. Dust/wipe down engine bay (I didn't go too crazy here)

A few random action shots:

Drying


Sonax wheel cleaner at work


The Klasse really gives the wheels a nice shine, and a slick layer of protection that should make future cleanups easier.


Brakes (I didn't even realize they were painted before I cleaned them)


That's why they call it detailing!



Masked in preparation for paint correction -- in retrospect I went way overboard, but I wanted to be safe than sorry the first time, not having used a polisher before.


The dealer's polishing job left quite a bit to be desired and probably did as much damage as it removed -- lots of haze, swirling, and holograms very evident on the trunk, hood, and roof.


Wax applied


My shelf of products accumulated over the years


I spent the week before this installing some serious lighting in my garage: four 4x48" light fixtures, running 32watt, 5000K T8 bulbs for a combined output of almost 45,000 lumens.


And....the results:

Hood


Trunk



Side



Details!


Exhaust treated with Optimum Metal Polish


A combination of Black Wow and Adam's VRT really restored new life to the faded trim.


Interior


Door -- this picture shows the extended leather pretty well (pretty much the entire door surface is covered with leather, rather than the bumpy plastic used on the top of the dash)


Engine -- showing the newly installed OEM strut brace



I didn't have much time and it was sweltering out, but I managed to snap few quick pics on the way home from work, to make sure things looked okay in the sun. A thin film of dust had settled already , and not 100% of the micromarring on the paint is gone, but the results were pretty satisfactory overall. I went pretty conservative this first time around so next time I'll try a more aggressive pad with a higher speed setting.





In addition to the strut brace, I also had the CDV swapped for the drilled out Zeckhausen unit and replaced the shifter with the ZHP knob. The two has made a significant improvement in rowing the gears, which was definitely the weak point of the car. I may swap out the tranny mounts for the RE ones down the line to complete the shifting nirvana.

I LOVE this car now.

[shitbrownMcoupe]

nice job! how many hours?

[SSG S]

Great job my friend. End result is A+.
I just purchased a PC as well but dont really know how im going to start yet. Im a bit hessitant due to my lack of knowledge on the polishes and waxes i should use with the different types of pads. But you seem like you have it down pretty well Congrats.

SSG S

[Serious]

Car looks good you went a bit extreme with the tape job though.

[hansaysso]

wow, taping off everything...pro status. would you like to detail my car?
great job overall though!

[inTgr8r]

Great work!!!
It looks amazing

wanna do mine next?

[Blind32]

That's it, Detail meet at Dekaliber's!
I'll bring the

Great job man. Looks amazing! I would love to do this to mine but I'm a total noob to detailing.

[KNuss]

Wow... you obviously care about your cars very much.

Looks amazing!

[Diokaef]

Hey where in Chicago do you live? I'm going up there at list 1 time per month would like to see your coupe and I'm usually driving mine.

And the job you done looks great!

[Hoa]

car looks great!

[bosstones]

Ha! I detailed mine, too, this weekend (mine's also SB). I didn't do some of the finer nits like you did with the swabs and engine bay, though. I also slacked off on the front wheel wells...

It is nice to know that I am not the only one that puts AIO on their wheels!

[DanMcoupe]

Very Nice.............

[dekaliber]

Thanks everyone for the kind words! Black Sapphire is such a pain to keep clean, but I really love how it looks when it is. Too bad it only lasts a few days though. We're supposed to get some rain here this afternoon...should be interesting to see how the wax holds up.

Originally Posted by SSG S

I just purchased a PC as well but dont really know how im going to start yet. Im a bit hessitant due to my lack of knowledge on the polishes and waxes i should use with the different types of pads.

I was pretty nervous about taking a power tool for the first time to the car as well, but from what I've read about the subject, using a dual action polisher like the Porter-Cable is supposed to be pretty foolproof. It isn't as aggressive as rotary tools, which are supposed to do a better job of removing imperfections but have more potential to introduce hazing and burn the paint if used incorrectly. Which pad and polish system did you get? I used Menzerna products with the Uber pads from Detailer's Domain.

Originally Posted by Serious

Car looks good you went a bit extreme with the tape job though.

Haha, totally agree. Not knowing what was going to happen I figured dust from the compounding would be getting everywhere and I also didn't want to accidentally slip and mess up the glass. I guess you don't get that unless you're using a pretty aggressive cut polish and pad. Now that I've done this once I realize I could have gotten by with probably just taping up all of the trim. That's at least an hour I could have saved.

Originally Posted by Diokaef

Hey where in Chicago do you live? I'm going up there at list 1 time per month would like to see your coupe and I'm usually driving mine.

I'm in one of the western suburbs right off 290/294. PM me when you're headed up here and I'll see if I'm around to meet up!

[RBull]

Looks great dekaliber.

My job was similar to yours - didn't remove everything but quite an improvement versus when I got it a few weeks ago.

Enjoy your newly freshened baby.

[nmulax]

Great job on the detail, everything looks awesome!

[Nate2046]

Wow, looks great I've recently moved on from black cars and have no desire to go back. Obviously the best color for about the first five minutes after you're done, theres nothing more badass, and then total poo once a milligram of pollen or water hits it. Anyway, nice work

[Hawkeye]

I'll be over this weekend! My car is in dire need of a makeover like this as well! Looks amazing!

[Z4Murder]

hard work pays off, nice

[thekurgan]

Really nice work man, I found that Sonax wheel cleaner was the ultimate once it turned red. Literally sucked the iron out of the wheels.

[Rick F.]

dekaliber,

Wow, super job (and very thorough). I'm certainly impressed.

What I really want to know, however, is how you captured the clouds and got them inside your trunk? That's one of the nicest detailing tricks I've ever seen!



Anyway, keep up the great work.

Rick F.

[Mr. ///M3 RD]

I wash mine often and keep the wheels nice and clean all the way inside the wheels using a cloth rapped around a bottle cleaning brush with long handle. Cleaning often reduces the detailing time ~s~

[jumpthewire]

great post! i'm stealing some of these tips