BMW E30 - Super Fade!

[scratcher]

A client got in tough with me about polishing his newly acquired E30 316i. As soon as I heard E30, red and faded panel, I was all over it :lol:

The car was dropped off this morning for me to see how much colour and gloss I could bring back to the milky-pinky-patchy-panels.

It arrived looking fairly clean.



But closer inspection revealed that someone had taken a machine to it before.



:doublesho







Wheels were up first. I didn't take any pictures of the cleaning.
Cleaned with Auto Finesse Imperial and various brushes. APC for the tyres.



The whole car was doused with VP Citrus Pre-Wash and all the niggles taken care of with APC and Envy brushes.









2 bucket wash followed using a sheepskin mitt and 3M shampoo.



Working well :thumb:



Dried off and Wolf's Decon Gel applied to the paint and wheels.





Tardis on the tar spots. There weren't too many.



The car was rinsed thoroughly and clayed using BH regular and Zymol shampoop in a spray bottle. Not a great deal was lifted but I'd never skip it.




The car wash re-washed, dried and I had a better look at what I had to deal with.

Buffer trails.


Strike through galore



The panel that had brought the car to me.



The 'bleaching' looking defects were consistent along this side.





I thought my car didn't look too bad today :lol:





I taped up the car and started checking paint depths. These ranged from 112 on most of the car to 783 on the badly faded panel. It had been sprayed and must have filler under there too.

I started trying a few combos out. With the car having been polished hard at some point before, I wasn't looking to chase every swirl but just bring back some colour, gloss and sharpness.
A few different mixes were used with the different paint types, but the majority was done with 205 on a white Hexlogic pad

Testing.



I love single stage paint





This panel took a few stages of polishing. I just liked this photo.







I then wiped the car down with Eraser and applied a layer of Menz Powerlock for some UV protection.

I went around the car dressing the many plastic trims and rubbers with AF Revive.



Tyres dressed with RD50. I love this stuff



I polished the glass with Auto Glym glass polish, inside and out.

Then an hour after removing the Powerlock I added a nice wax layer.
Auto Finesse recommend it for red, so lets give it a go



And the afters.









The badly faded panel.









A quick reflection shot of Little Blue



And a very happy chappy came and collected it after 9 hours



Comments always welcome.

Thanks for reading
detailR

[Junglist]

I need to give my white 320 a polish it looks dirty even when clean lol.
Thats some transfoemation

[LukeRobbo]

That is a major transformation very well done especially in 9hours.I know how time consuming detailing is

[JP Racing]

Really good read and nice to see some detailing going on. Good to see another red car getting the works. Which reminds me I need to give mine a little bit of a polish and wax

[Mr Raider]

Great work fella, looks fantastic after some hard graft. Defo got a soft spot for bright red shiny motors Renault Turbo's or otherwise. I know Lowie Pete out this way is a keen detailer.

[rabbitstew]

Very nice. Reminds me of how badly faded my red 5 was when I got it. Good result there!

[Pigsnake]

I will be in touch bud. I will let u loose on 9 turbo its in need of some serious detailing.

[scratcher]

Cheers everyone

Great work fella, looks fantastic after some hard graft. Defo got a soft spot for bright red shiny motors Renault Turbo's or otherwise. I know Lowie Pete out this way is a keen detailer.

Thanks very much red, black and white are my favorites. They're all very rewarding in their own ways.
Yeah, Steve is an extremely knowledgeable chap!

I will be in touch bud. I will let u loose on 9 turbo its in need of some serious detailing.

No problem just drop me a message when you're ready