2001 BMW 530 - Used Car Purchase

[G_S_DB]

A co-worker of mine recently picked up this BMW at a really good price -- and with good reason. The previous owner was a female smoker who wore copious amounts of makeup (applied while in the car), spilled her coffee, and had penny fights with her friends (the last one is really just a guess; she may have just been so wealthy that she didn't care about lost change). No, I am not psychic, but let's say I got to know her more the longer I spent in the car. It became pretty clear that she (or any other person) did not take care of such a great car.

I had the time while my friend was out of town to focus on the main areas of concern, and since his #1 priority was the smell of smoke I used the Dakota Non-Smoke spray and let it work for a day. The results were fantastic -- the car sat in my driveway closed up for the next few days and the smell never came back.

Overall the process was

Interior - All Purpose Cleaner+ 4:1 (could have used a stronger dilution and may still not have been enough), every brush I own, and Natural Shine protectant

Wheels/Tires – Wheel brightener and APC+

Engine Bay – Pressure wash the hood liner, hose the engine, APC+ everything else, finish with All Season Dressing

Wash – Two buckets, grit guards, NXT wash

Clay – with Last Touch as lube

Headlights – 1000/1500/3000 wet-sanding, Wool mini-pad with 105, Foam mini-pad with PlastX to finish

Paint – Everything I have hear about BMW was true… it is hard as nails. My DA buffer, burgundy 2.0 pad, 105 at speed 5.9 combination barely made a dent

Finished with NXT 2.0 on DA and black 2.0 pad

Trim/Tires - All Season Dressing

Here are the pics…

Interiors Before

Here is some of the makeup I was telling you about, you'll see more of those lights later...




Cleaning the center stack alone took me more than 4 hours. The worst was all the crud stuck in those slots under the temp buttons.


Before the car was sold, someone cleaned the ash tray but never looked underneath to see the coffe sludge.


The gear shift panel lifted out to make sure that nothing oozed in here.


I don't have any clue what was on the center "handle" of the arm rest, but APC didn't touch it and had to be scraped off with a plastic putty knife!


I was not surprised to see all the... bonded contaminants on the control surfaces, but I was to see all the finishes coming off.


She must have flashed her high-beams... A LOT!


Here is the light from the driver vanity mirror. I don't know what is was covered with, but I could not clean it in the car and had to remove it to use harsher chemicals.




And the Interior After

The goo gone helped, but the M04 really did the job.













This makes me smile
The headliner looks better but I had to leave some stains that wouldn't budge with APC or carpet spot cleaner.



Engine Bay









Headlights


The middle section has been sanded and wooled, but not polished. After this I perfected the process and did three grades of sand paper (1000/1500/3000), wooled with 105, and polised with PlastX.


Sure hope I know what I am doing...


Done!



Exterior Pain and Trim




I sure hope that washes out...


The car was just so caked with baked on dirt. This was the clay after just one section -- the rear 1/4 panel above the bumper.



The paint was in pretty bad shape



This was after MANY passes with 105 on a burgandy 2.0 pad. The results for this test spot were good, but I was unable to reproduce them over the entire car. I probably won't promise swirl free finish on the next BMW I get... unless I get a rotary buffer.



I was able to remove some random stains




The trunk came out OK





Parting Shots














Thanks for looking, I hope you enjoyed.

[CieraSL]

Re: 2001 BMW 530 - Used Car Purchase

Some nasty stuff in there before. Ewwww!

Nice comeback! Great job!

[the_invisible]

Re: 2001 BMW 530 - Used Car Purchase

Yep. It is tough paint, especially the metallic colored ones.

Took me 30hrs in total to remove any swirls on my black 3 series coupe using a rotary and a wool pad with M105, but that includes polishing and jeweling with M205.

Removing swirls using a DA buffer is still possible. There is a lot of information on the internet and you just have to search for it.

[KC's]

Re: 2001 BMW 530 - Used Car Purchase

mama-mia

what a transformations - keep it up

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: 2001 BMW 530 - Used Car Purchase

That interior was a mess. Whay a great transformation. The BMW looks great way to go. I bet your friend was very happy with the results.

[G_S_DB]

Re: 2001 BMW 530 - Used Car Purchase

Some nasty stuff in there before. Ewwww!

Nice comeback! Great job!

Thanks, it was very nasty. I didn't go anywhere near it until I put on my gloves.

Yep. It is tough paint, especially the metallic colored ones.

Took me 30hrs in total to remove any swirls on my black 3 series coupe using a rotary and a wool pad with M105, but that includes polishing and jeweling with M205.

Removing swirls using a DA buffer is still possible. There is a lot of information on the internet and you just have to search for it.

It sure was a beast, but I was able to knock down some of the worst areas. But this just gives me an excuse to buy more toys... I mean tools.

mama-mia

what a transformations - keep it up

Thanks, that means a lot after seeing what you did to that 5 series a couple of weeks ago...

That interior was a mess. Whay a great transformation. The BMW looks great way to go. I bet your friend was very happy with the results.

Thanks. I had to drop the car off without being able to talk to him directly. But I will see him on Thhursday. I'll let you know what he says.

[buckeye3d]

Re: 2001 BMW 530 - Used Car Purchase

Wow...nice work! That was nasty!

[G_S_DB]

Re: 2001 BMW 530 - Used Car Purchase

Wow...nice work! That was nasty!

Thanks, and welcome to MOL. Make sure to stop by the "Introduce Yourself" forum and tell us something about.... well, you.

[MrCLRider]

Re: 2001 BMW 530 - Used Car Purchase

Wow, I bet your friend was super happy with the final results!

[Tuck91]

Re: 2001 BMW 530 - Used Car Purchase

Nice work!

[G_S_DB]

Re: 2001 BMW 530 - Used Car Purchase

Nice work!

Wow, I bet your friend was super happy with the final results!

Thanks guys. I haven't talked to my friend yet, but I will try to get the feedback tomorrow.

[kaval]

Re: 2001 BMW 530 - Used Car Purchase

Epic transformation! I love seeing these details! Nice work

[Hemin8r]

Re: 2001 BMW 530 - Used Car Purchase

Great job. That interior was a mess.

[seth1066]

Re: 2001 BMW 530 - Used Car Purchase

Nice job. I love the makeup cars for buying and detailing; the interiors look really awful, but are some of the easiest to clean.

[gjohn28]

Re: 2001 BMW 530 - Used Car Purchase

That's really a nice job!

I wish I had the confidence and experience to detail an engine bay like that.