This is a bit of an older write up I stumbled on this morning. I hope you guys like it.
I was asked about polishing this newly acquired E30 316i. As soon as I heard E30, red and faded panel, I was all over it!
The car was dropped off in the 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.
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.
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 top of the rear quarter is almost white, it's not the light reflecting.
The 'bleaching' looking defects were consistent along this side.
I thought my car didn't look too bad that day
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 lots of 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 Espuma 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, as would I
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 and questions are always welcome.
Thanks for reading
I was asked about polishing this newly acquired E30 316i. As soon as I heard E30, red and faded panel, I was all over it!
The car was dropped off in the 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.
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.
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 top of the rear quarter is almost white, it's not the light reflecting.
The 'bleaching' looking defects were consistent along this side.
I thought my car didn't look too bad that day
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 lots of 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 Espuma 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, as would I
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 and questions are always welcome.
Thanks for reading
