Lude Generation

Evening folks. A friends neighbour has a Z4 she's looking to trade in for a 1 series (quite why I'll never know) and she had asked if I could look at the paintwork as the bonnet was 'cloudy' and could do with a general once over to make it better.

So I carted my trusty kitbox 200yds round the corner and had at it. A day to give it a bit of a spruce up and 'do what I can with it'. So, the process was as follows:

• Citrus Wash
• Very Cherry/Purple Rain & various brushes for the alloys
• Just The Tonic/Meguiars clay for decon stage
• Purple Velvet 2BM wash
• Dried with blue fluffy towel
• Polished with 3M ExtraFine & Menzerna Final Finish to refine (occasional Power Gloss before hand to cut heavier defects)
• Citrus Wash & brushes on roof
• 2BM wash
• ClearVue on the glass
• CG NLTG on tyres and trim
• Black Magic wax

I didn't take too many photos of before or during as I wanted to maximise the time. I did however capture a couple of shots of the 50/50 on the bonnet to give you an idea of just how bad it was.











Not the best photos I know, but you get the jist. It had been cut at this point with 3M ExtraFine on 3M Yellow pads, refined later.

Bit of bleeding from Purple Rain:




The wheels are in a diabolical state, with some very heavy corrosion and pitting. It's a shame as they let down the car quite badly.

Some of the defects I could not remove completely, and this particular one was very strange looking indeed. Andy and I could not figure out for the life of us what may have caused it:


This one we got a fair bit out of:



And a few finished shots:

One glossy bonnet with no oxidisation:










Note the defect on the bumper is almost invisible to the eye now:













Sharon the owner hasn't seen it yet, she gets home from holiday tomorrow, can't wait to go see her and get her thoughts on how it looks now

Fair play. That looks bloody good

I bet shes gna be like Well done mate

Ta muchly Andy was gobsmacked at how the bonnet came up. When I first looked at it, I was hesitant as it almost looked like heat damage (there was no bonnet liner) but upon the 2BM wash and clay, it became obvious it was oxidisation of the lacquer.

Looks great..

My car needs a detail too.

Great job on a not so great car....reserve those skills for jap cars, hah hah

nick_s wrote:Some of the defects I could not remove completely, and this particular one was very strange looking indeed. Andy and I could not figure out for the life of us what may have caused it:

This is impact damage from things like birds/balls brittle leafs etc etc.
Wont dent the metal but it damages brittle paintwork like most German cars. BMW have thick hard lacquer which is great for reducing scratches but my god its soooo brittle and breaks easily and the orange peel is rediculous.

RattyMcClelland wrote:

nick_s wrote:Some of the defects I could not remove completely, and this particular one was very strange looking indeed. Andy and I could not figure out for the life of us what may have caused it:

This is impact damage from things like birds/balls brittle leafs etc etc.
Wont dent the metal but it damages brittle paintwork like most German cars. BMW have thick hard lacquer which is great for reducing scratches but my god its soooo brittle and breaks easily and the orange peel is rediculous.

Yep, the ceramic clears are awful for stone chips due to the brittle nature Thankfully, only the lower half of the front bumper showed much. That impact mark is bizarre, and thinking about it I do wonder if it has been hit with a pressure washer with a dirt blasting lance perhaps given the damage is on the boot lid and the bumper in an almost correlating way (although I suspect more damage may have been caused).

Rudelude wrote:Great job on a not so great car....reserve those skills for jap cars, hah hah

It did sound great, I'll give it that. The I6 is a cracking engine.

Nice work!

Btw. Red fluffy towels almost as good*




(And useful in event of bull attack)