BMWs Black 05 745li-04 645ci & a black Lexus LS430

Just a 3 1/4 hour drive over to Huntsville, AL to polish out these three cars for a few new clients. I was there for 3 nights and 4 days. The clients where great to work for. I was provided with whatever I needed (food/drinks) so that I did not have to run out myself.

First up was a 2005 Black BMW 745li. The client just bought it 3 weeks ago and it has just over 50k miles. He purchased it from a used car dealer up in Chicago. My job on this one was to get the paint as close to perfect as possible. The black interior only needed a minor cleanup, so I did not bother with pics of the interior.

I started by foaming the car down with my foam lance, mixing 2oz of CG citrus wash clear and 1 oz of zaino Z7 car wash, I then filled the rest of my 32 oz bottle with water. I did a 2 bucket wash w/ a medium sheepskin mitt from excel detail.

The wheels where just purchased and installed last week. So just a foam and wash with a MF mitt was needed. I cleaned the tires and wells with AM red hot APC 1:6 and a few brushes.

The glass and paint where clayed with zaino Z-18 clay and Z6 50/50 water as a lube. The paint had very little bonded contaminants. I then removed the Z6 residue with a pakshak ww drying towel.

Post wash and clay shots:

Polishing process:
I checked the thickness of the paint, most of the car was in the 6 mil area, except for the hood that was in the 4-5mil area. A max of 0.1mil of CC was removed from a few small areas.

M105/edge yellow wool/Hitachi 1500x2, x3 in some areas.
3M Ultrafina/3M 8" blue foam pad/Metabo 1700

During polishing:

After polishing I refoamed the car with Z7 (3oz and the 32oz bottle filled with water)

In this pic you can see how Z7 will start to "float" the polishing oils off of the surface:

I again washed the car with the 2 bucket method with Z7 as my washing soap and the same sheepskin mit as above. I let the nozzleless hose run a slow stream of water over the car to remove the excess water. I also made sure that I rinsed out around the trunk/hood very well to ensure that all the foam was rinsed out. I dried the car with a pakshak WW drying towel.

I then applied 2x of Z5pro to the paint and glass and followed that with an application of Z8.
Tires got Z-16 and wheels got ZAIO.

Interior got:
Vac
IZ Cockpit Premium wipedown on all hard surfaces.
Zaino Z9/10 on leather.
IG on glass.
Mats where extracted with my Mytee HP60.

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Next up was the 2004 black Lexus LS430 with 70k miles. This one was in bad condition paint wise. It has some very deep RIDS and deep water etching. The interior just needed a light cleanup so due to time constraints, no interior pics where taken.

Inteiror got:
Vac
IZ Cockpit Premium wipedown on all hard surfaces.
Zaino Z9/10 on leather.
IG on glass.

Following the same exterior wash and clay process as the 745li. I found this paint to have a good amount of bonded contaminants.

Before polishing:

I made 4-5 passes with M105/yellow edge wool/hitachi 1700. The M105 combo was just not getting out the deep RIDS and water etching spots. I had thoughts of wetsanding all of the etched horz surfaces, but in the end this would of taken me longer.

Again 0.1mil was the max CC removed on this car as well.

Here is a poor attempt at a before and after when using the M105 x4-5, folllowed by the 3M ultra fina combo. You can still see the deeper RIDS.

When attempting to use the same combo on the water etching, I was getting nowhere fast.

So I stepped it up to Black Edge wool/Strada 1000/Hitachi 1800x2. The Strada 1000 is a totally different polish vs the M105. The S1000 seems to have alot of oils in it and a longer working time. Is its a better compound? I like using M105 overall, but I needed more cut and the S1000 worked better for me in this extreme case.

The S1000 is very gritty and sounds like "liquid sand paper" when you spread it onto the paint with the rotary off. Ryan refers to it as "Rocks in a bottle"

This is what the paint looked like out in the sun after2x of the S1000:

There will be no 2 stepping this car. A middle polishing step was required with Edge green wool/presta 1500/Flex 3403 rotary at 1500.

It was then finished out with 3M ultrafina/ 3M blue foam 8" pad/ Metabo 1700:

Sorry that its not the same side of the car, but taking alot of pics was not on my mind when I was getting my ashe kicked. :)

I was not 100% happy with the way that the hood came out. But I was intent on keeping my CC removal at 0.1mil or less. I had 15 hours into this Lexus. Some of you may recall the 04 black LS430 that I did in Altanta. With the deep water etching that this car had on the horz surfaces, those areas required more work on this car.

After all the compounding/polishing, I refoamed the car with Z7 and did a 2 bucket wash.

I then applied 2x of Z5pro with ZFX and followed with an application of Z8. Tires got Z16 and the wheels where left as they are getting replaced soon.

Last up was the 2004 BMW 645ci in silver. I think it has approx 30-40k miles. One of the clients owns both this and the black 745li.

The interior was very dirty on this one, the clients girlfriend took the car to the local scratch and shine and told them she wanted the interior spotless as a gift for his birthday. That was 3 weeks ago, they told her this is as clean as its going to get. :soscared: :hairpull

Maybe she will drive the car back by the scratch and shine to show them what a clean interior looks like. ;)

I was also able to instruct the client on proper washing technics and sent him links for proper washing media. From now on he will wash the cars himself, instead of letting the scratch and shine hack them up.

Its kind of hard to tell in the bring sun how dirty the interior was, I think I have some 50/50 shots of the drivers seat below. The whole interior looked like this. The clients g/f thinks all they did was use some leather wipes at the scratch and shine on the interior.

Also I had instructed the client a few weeks ago not to let the hacks wash this car anymore, no need to subject the car to any additional swirls, ect.

I started on the interior.

I used AM 777 APC 1:10 with a MCME using the steamer to further emulsify dirt so that it would be easier to wipe off with a MF. I used this process on the doors, rear trim and all leather seats.

I followed on the hard surfaces with Iz CP and the leather with Z9/10.

The carpets got a good vac.

Then carpets and mats (2 sets) where extracted with my mytee HP60. I used dry slurry in the tank and pretreated w/ ultra pac.

I then started on the exterior by foaming w/ 2oz of CG cwc/1oz of Z7 and the rest water in my 32oz bottle.

I cleaned the fabric top with raggtopp and a soft brush. Gave it a good rinse to ensure that no soap was left.

Wheels-after a good rinse with the pressure washer. I applied some P21S wheel cleaning gel, I let it dwell.

I cleaned the tires and wells with AM red hot APC 1:6 with a few brushes.

I rinsed off all the foam from the painted areas.

I then cleaned the wheels using various brushes.

I refoamed everything and did a 2 bucket wash with Z7 in the bucket and a sheepskin mitt. I then rinsed everything off with the pressure washer. I refoamed the wheels and went over those with a MF wash mitt. Rinsed again.

I checked the paint with my Defelsko Positest DFT Combo. All the panels that I could check where in the 6 mil range. The front fenders, rear deck lid and trunk are all composite on this car.

I covered the fabric top with various towels and taped them down.

I then started to polish the paint:

M105/Yellow edge wool/Flex 3403 rotary 1500 x2 and a few spots x3.

I really prefer the flex over the metabo for M105 polishing. With M105 fast working properties, a trigger IMO is very preferred.

I then decided to use a different finishing polish. I went with ZPC/White CCS pad/Metabo 1500. I was on my last day of the trip and this saved me from washing the car again to remove polishing oils.

I then removed all the MFs from the fabric top and let the car sit out in the hot sun to ensure that the top was dry. During this time I applied ZAIO to the wheels, 2x of Z-16 to the tires.

I brought the car back inside and covered all the paint/glass around the
fabric top to prep for the Raggtopp protectant application.

After applying 3 coats in different directions of the raggtopp protectant. I removed the towels from the painted areas and cleaned up any excess raggtopp with Z6 from the trim, paint and glass.

I then applied 2x of Z2pro and followed with an application of Z8.

I also applied Z2pro to the wheels.

99 740il 92k
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01 Z06-sold