1996 BMW M3 (Paint Restored!!!)

[karazyman]

Hi All,

This extreme makeover all started out when my coworker was talking to me about getting his car repainted... and I have always told him that a detail job should take care of it... long story short, I got my DA kit and I offered to worked on it before he tries to repaint the car. He agreed. dropped it off this morning....

1996 BMW M3

Before


Before - If you notice, the front end is a totally different shade than rear of door.


Before


Before


Before


Heavily Oxidized Roof as well.


Hood


Washed with NXT - Got SOME shine....


Clayed it then started masking off the car...




Test Spot


Another Angle


I saw how dramatic the change so i just went ahead and did the whole car... so not much in action shots.....but this is ALL the masking tape i used on the car.....



After


After


After - Couldn't get the sideskirt to buff out for some reason.


After


After


After


After



Products Used:

NXT Soap
Clay Bar
M83 W8006
M80 W8006
#21
#7 on Hood only
NXT Wax.

Total Time: 8 hrs includes full interior treatment.(no pix)

Disclaimer: The car looks way more awesome in person than in pix. The after pix just doesn't show the way it did in person. Hope you guys can see the difference.

[Zet]

Re: 1996 BMW M3 (Paint Restored!!!)

Great work man

So, this was the first time with your new PC, and you did all that plus interior in 8 hours? Wow!

[EricM535i]

Re: 1996 BMW M3 (Paint Restored!!!)

Wow, nice makeover dude

The dull paint is completely gone

[GSKTech]

Re: 1996 BMW M3 (Paint Restored!!!)

This is your first time. WOW.

Very nice. very very nice.

It's really too bad about those side skirts though.

Hopefully you find a solution for them.

[acsuppa]

Re: 1996 BMW M3 (Paint Restored!!!)

Nice job! It's nice to see the great results people get from using Meguiar's products.

[SL1CK]

Re: 1996 BMW M3 (Paint Restored!!!)

Those sideskirts and bumpers tend to be a problem with the BMWs.

I remember, someone on here detailed a red BMW (80 something) and they had the same problem on the bottom of the front end,

[rascal]

Re: 1996 BMW M3 (Paint Restored!!!)

Great work!

[karazyman]

Re: 1996 BMW M3 (Paint Restored!!!)

Great work man

So, this was the first time with your new PC, and you did all that plus interior in 8 hours? Wow!

Yes, this is my first time using a PC to do a full detail on a car. Before I got the PC, I've been doing everything by hand. And usually it takes me about 4-5 hrs for a car on a full detail but this one was kicking my butt from all the oxidization. But in the end, it was very rewarding seeing my coworker's light up when he saw the car.

I did try ColorX on the car as well..but the results were the same as using M83 with the PC so I went with the PC instead.

THanks guys for the comments!

[radiocontrolhead]

Re: 1996 BMW M3 (Paint Restored!!!)

wow, that looks great. the side skirts aren't painted are they? they're plastic? if they're painted maybe you can get someoen to hit it up w/ a rotary? if it's plastic, then theres no way to bring plastic back to life. besides. i think it looks pretty cool like that.

or, u can discard it all together, thats if the skirt is a bolt on.

on a side note, that car looks VERY clean, can't find a ding on the car. very nice car.

[sneek]

Re: 1996 BMW M3 (Paint Restored!!!)

Great job!

l love this pic!

[karazyman]

Re: 1996 BMW M3 (Paint Restored!!!)

wow, that looks great. the side skirts aren't painted are they? they're plastic? if they're painted maybe you can get someoen to hit it up w/ a rotary? if it's plastic, then theres no way to bring plastic back to life. besides. i think it looks pretty cool like that.

or, u can discard it all together, thats if the skirt is a bolt on.

on a side note, that car looks VERY clean, can't find a ding on the car. very nice car.

The sideskirt is painted. That's exactly why i wished I had a rotary to buff it out. I really want to learn it, it'll probably help me shine this car even more if i knew how. The skirt is a bolt on from factory but it's just black under that.. so it looks really bad esp. on a M3.

I agree with you that the is car is pretty clean. No major dings other than typical road debris. There is a burnt mark on the top pass. side of the hood.

One thing I forgot to mention is that the car was half clear-coated (Rear of Front Fender) and half Single-stage paint (front part of the car and roof).

I'm pretty sure the previous owner had gotten in some kind of accident and the paint shop went cheap on the paint with SS instead of putting a layer of clear-coat on. I could be wrong but that's my assumption for now.

I hope this car will get me more business... but since he was a awesome coworker I didnt charge him much in hopes of getting more referrals from ppl that knew what his car used to look like.

SL1ck - Could be what you said, The front bumper color actually looked a bit off from the rest of the car as well. I guess it's just the way the paint reacts with the polyurethane.

[matt_c]

Re: 1996 BMW M3 (Paint Restored!!!)

Now if you polish up those hedlights, it will look even more fantastic. Great job on the paint restoration.

[karazyman]

Re: 1996 BMW M3 (Paint Restored!!!)

I did. haha.. i just hand polished it to clean out the obvious. By the 8th hour, I was losing a LOT of money working on this car.