BMW M3 CS Sunday clean by an amateur!

[astonhold]

Hello

Having had my car detailed last year, I have since been spending some of my hard earned on various cleaning products trying to keep the car in as good condition as I can. This detailing lark is pretty new to me since I have bought the car and so I have been reading lots of threads on various forums about the sort of products I should use etc etc. With this in mind I have now bought the following products you see below. Please let me know your thoughts on what I have. I am totally open to suggestions of products I should use!



This is the car as of 10:15am. Not too bad, but I have cleaning products and they need using!



Front wheels with a reasonable amount of brake dust on!



Dirt on the front wings and door



And the rear bumper



Nasty black tail pipes



Not sure if you can see, but there is a bird dropping on the roof



So, first off are the wheels with Rim Seven



This is after about ten minutes



Then they were rinsed off



Now on to the snowfoam



This was a few minutes after the foam went on



Left to dwell for ten minutes or so and then rinsed off



Now on to the two bucket wash with two grit guard buckets and two woolly mits



Leaving this





I bought this as part of the smooth surface clay kit as I have never used clay before. I enjoyed this more than I thought!



The car was last clayed in September and it was amazing seeing just how much was pulled off the car.



Next up were the wheels. I'm not so keen on this part! They take ages...



Exhausts. They didn't come up much better than they are in this photo, but will do



Using a once white buffing towel and the quick wax from the smooth surface kit.



Dressing the tyres



The windows next



Now finished, here are the results. This was at 4:45pm!





Unfortunately the sun had gone in







Moved on to the road as I had my Dad's motor to do!



As I said I am open to any suggestions from anyone about products to try. This is my daily driver and I don't have the time to give it a weekly wash, but I do try and keep it reaonably clean. I have got Tom from All That Gleams coming over to give it the once over in May prior to a possible European jaunt!

Thanks for looking

[astonhold]

Not sure whether the moderators allow this, but I have found the post on Detailing World showing my car being detailed by All That Gleams last September

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/foru...d.php?t=240...

[scarebus]

Fantastic, I am very impressed. I will be taking on a few pointers from that the next time I clean mine, thank you.

BTW did you remove the wheels to clean, they look mint.


PS I love the contrast between an immaculately clean car and the over grown garden behind, glad you have your priorities right

[Bolognese]

Very nice OP. Reminds me - I need to clay my car soon.

[superlightr]

nice post. Its great to see a fellow enthusiast love his car.

Good feeling of satisfaction when the job has been done well.

[astonhold]

Thanks for the nice comments. I didn't take the wheels off. I used an EZ Detail brush during wash stage although the Rim Seven stuff is so good it cleaned out most of the dirt without the need for brush! In regard to clay I couldn't believe the difference it made. The paint was noticeably smoother and it was fairly enjoyable doing it

[billzeebub]

Lovely looking CS, before and after the clean! That colour and the alloys are stunning. Great to see people with proper cars as their Dailys , rather than a 320d!..good work fella

[steve_bmw]

nice job! got to get round to doing mine before the summer, needs a good clay and polish.

[duff]

Looks good - some fine wire wool will sort the exhausts out!

[astonhold]

duff said:

Looks good - some fine wire wool will sort the exhausts out!

Cheers mate. I'm off to purchase some wool this afternoon and give them a once over!

[Smifffy]

Lovely work. You started at 10.15 - how long did it all take? (last time quoted was 4.45!)

[astonhold]

Yup 10:15 - 16:45, less 30mins for lunch with me Mum!

[Contigo]

I've used that clay bar and I don't get it. It sort of feels too hard and I always think that I'm scratching the surface of the car and it catches all the time. Weird stuff.

Detailing spray is the business though.

[astonhold]

Contigo said:

I've used that clay bar and I don't get it. It sort of feels too hard and I always think that I'm scratching the surface of the car and it catches all the time. Weird stuff.

Detailing spray is the business though.

Are you using the clay bar with the detailing spray? Sorry if I am teaching you to suck eggs, but spray the surface liberally and then I used half a clay bar, kneeded and folded, rubbing in straight lines up and down around ten times in small area before wiping down with microfibre and then moving on.

It felt rough at first to me and then quickly smoothed to a glass like feel. I used light pressure apart from a couple of areas that had remains of bird droppings. As long as you are 'lubing' up as it were you should be fine!

[Contigo]

astonhold said:

Are you using the clay bar with the detailing spray? Sorry if I am teaching you to suck eggs, but spray the surface liberally and then I used half a clay bar, kneeded and folded, rubbing in straight lines up and down around ten times in small area before wiping down with microfibre and then moving on.

It felt rough at first to me and then quickly smoothed to a glass like feel. I used light pressure apart from a couple of areas that had remains of bird droppings. As long as you are 'lubing' up as it were you should be fine!

Yes with the detailing spray but that can also be used on it's own to get a glass shine.

[astonhold]

duff said:

Looks good - some fine wire wool will sort the exhausts out!

I tried cleaning my exhausts with some fine metal wool and the Autosol, but couldn't shift the black stuff. I have read other threads about this. Any ideas??

[duff]

Emery cloth should get rid of it but it will scratch so use a fine grade and go easy! I think I used a bit of water with it when doing my backbox.

[Smifffy]

Is there a website that you bought all the products from?

[astonhold]

Er... Autobrite Direct, Clean Your Car, Clean Store, Spautopia, eBay and amazon I think!

[Smifffy]

Thx