I have to say over the few days I had this in I fell in love with it; its the kind of classic that could quite easily cross Europe without breaking sweat, and with its comfortable seats and full length Webasto sunroof, won’t leave you feeling tired at the end of your journey.
Some of you will probably never seen one of these before – basically think BMW CS coupe with 4 doors.
Showing just 79k on the clock and with original paintwork from the waistline up, it really is a cherished car, and can normally be found lurking in the classic section of the Gaydon BMW show.
Basically I was asked to give the paintwork an enhancement to knock back the swirling and improve the gloss.
How she looked on arrival, clean would be a good way of describing it
First job was engine bay and wheels, making sure to cover up so of the more delicate areas, water & 35 year old electrics don’t mix very well…..
Wheels were removed, as the style didn’t really allow for easy cleaning to the backs
As you can see they were a bit grubby, however they are un-laquered alloys so years of baked on brake dust was never going to be totally removed, but it gave me an oportunity to try out some Iron-Cut I got from I4Detailing
Iron-Cut doing its stuff…
Now, I forgot to get an after , but will say even with multiple hits with my favoured safe wheel cleaner and followed up with Iron-Cut the wheels were still far from perfect.
Copper grease applied to hub before replacing wheels and doing the nuts up to factory torque settings. Process repeated to all wheels
Usual wash & clay procedure was then carried out – no pics as it was getting late on day 1
Day 2, i made a start on the paintwork, which had a lot of original single stage metallic with a lot of it reading sub 100 microns, so a bit of extra care was required on these areas; I chose a multiple hit approach with a mild polish and pad for those areas, giving me a very controlled level of removal, a slightly heavier cut was used on the lower areas with the newer clear coated paint.
Various before and afters – different colours are down to the lights and me not changing my white balance setting
The roof was the worst area a) because it was pretty badly scratched b) most of the paint was reading around 85 – 90 microns, so the best I could hope for was to reduce the appearance of the scratches
Before
A sort of 50/50 the side nearest the camera shows a great improvement in the scratches and clarity of the paint
Same area from the opposite angle
The whole finish was then refined further with Swissvax Cleaner Fluid Pro, leaving the paintwork nice and glossy
Whilst I was doing that, I got the missus busy with the Britemax metal polish & sealant on all the brightwork – she was well impressed……
Next up was the wax – Swissvax Best of Show, while that was curing all the other finishing touches were completed, tires dressed with Pneu, glass cleaned, interior given a quick vac and wipedown.
Wax buffed off leaving this….
Some final shots outdoors
