Rich H
Member
Registered: 26th Oct 05
Location: West Sussex Drives: E46 M3
User status: Offline
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Hello All,
Apologies for the lack of write up's of late - things are still flat out at RD towers - a lot of maintenance and also a lot of leather repairs which I hope to be able to post a few photos of later this month.
As always you can keep up to date with my day to day movements on Facebook and Twitter!
The last 2 days has seen me back behind the rotary on this Z4 coupe - I originally quoted this back in January but due to various reasons it's only just been able to get the TLC it deserves!
Booked in for a major enhancement / mild correction detail with Zaino as LSP, along with an interior detail and engine bay tidy.
Upon arrival yesterday in less than ideal weather conditions:
Overall, not too bad, just a bit grubby around the edges - initial inspection of the paintwork back in January didn't look too bad either (how wrong could I be!! - more on that later)
First up was the engine bay; cleaned and degreased with Autosmart G101 using various brushes, rinsed off and blown dry with the hot air dryer. Plastics dressed with Autosmart Rubber & Plastic dressing (excess buffed off the following day) metal work tidied with Autosmart Tango, and small runs of transport wax addressed with Autosmart Tardis:
The owner also asked me to debadge the car, so this was done prior to the wash stage:
Heatgun on low setting to soften the adhesive:
and Autosmart Tardis to remove the remaining glue - just requiring some polishing later:
Next up the tyres and arches were thoroughly cleaned with Autosmart G101 and various brushes, and the wheels with Autosmart Smart Wheels (no photos at this stage as you've seen that time and time before!)
Autosmart Hazsafe was then applied to the paintwork to soften the dirt and left to dwell whilst I filled the buckets before being rinsed off:
before a final pre rinse of ValetPro Orange PreWash through the foam lance was applied, nooks and crannies agitated with a detail brush:
and fiddly bits on the wheels with a cotton bud:
rinsed off and then thoroughly washed using ValetPro Concentrated Car Shampoo using the 2 bucket method, grit guards and lambswool mitt.
Re-rinsed and dried with Miracle Driers.
The first thing that became immediately apparent was the reasonably recent smart repair showing through on the rear quarter :doublesho
I'd noticed a fair bit of compound splattered around prior to touching the car at all, it'd appear that the polish had been masking the wet sanding marks rather than removing them though:
this was gently hand polished with Megs 105 on a Lake Country applicator pad and later machined with Megs 205 on a 3M black pad via the rotary:
On to the decontamination stage (taking care to avoid the above section!) First up, CarPro Iron-X:
Followed by Autosmart Tardis, re-rinsed, then finally clayed with Bilt Hamber regular clay, using the rain, and Autosmart Reglaze as lube:
Re-rinsed again, and dried using Miracle Driers and the hot aid dryer (as the drizzle had finally subsided!)
Now at this point, photos stopped as plans went out the window! The usual pad & polish combinations I've found to work very well on previous Z4's were failing to touch the paintwork on this - which matched with Scott from Beau Techniques findings on a recent silver Z4 he worked on too - for some reason, solely silver ones seem to be rock solid!
I found it impossible to capture any defects, but the car was pretty severely swirled - a far cry from how it appeared a couple of months back, but I have a feeling the thorough decontamination stages removed all traces of filling products revealing the true condition.
I worked my way up through combinations and ended up with Megs 105 on a Festool wool pad - even after 5 passes and ~6 microns removed, there were a fair few swirls and RDS remaining, but I cut it off at that to leave scope for future work and to keep with in our original timescale and budget. This was later refined with Megs 205 on a 3M black pad leaving the paintwork looking a lot healthier with a great depth and gloss restored.
Paintwork was prepped for Zaino via Chemical Guys EZ Creme Glaze, then treated to 3 coats of ZF-X'd Z2:
(with Z6 wipe downs between each coat)
and topped with a final coat of Z8.
Wheels and door shuts were sealed with Zaino CS:
and glass with the Carlack twins:
Exhausts made presentable (the best I could achieve) with Britemax twins and fine wire wool:
Up next was the interior, again not too shabby, but requiring a bit of attention in places:
A thorough hoover was up first, followed by all plastics cleaned with Megs APC (including all air vents etc with little swabs etc):
Leather with Dr Leather wipes:
and mats shampooed with Autosmart Brisk Low Foam:
and a quick spray of Chemical Guys New Car Scent:
leaving:
Internal glass cleaned with Espuma Crystal Blue, tyres dressed with FinishKare Top Kote Tire Dressing, honeycomb mesh with Aerospace 303, arches with Autosmart Rubber & Plastic, and I think we're about there:
Another vehicle ready for the Refined Detail 'seal of approval' 
As ever, thanks for looking,
Rich 
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Daveskater
Premium Member
Registered: 29th Apr 08
Location: Oxford, UK Drives: Jap wagon
User status: Offline
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Cracking job 
Numberwang!
Originally posted by AlunJ
I like you Dave, you are a man of men
Originally Whatapp'd by Neo
Dave's maybe capable of a drive-by cuddle
Look at my pictures
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Anty
Premium Member
Registered: 19th Mar 08
Location: droitwich
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Daveskater
Cracking job
+1 
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Brett
Premium Member
Registered: 16th Dec 02
Location: Manchester
User status: Offline
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Good job rich Interested in seeing these leather repairs too 
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Daveskater
Premium Member
Registered: 29th Apr 08
Location: Oxford, UK Drives: Jap wagon
User status: Offline
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There's a point, I was wondering Rich - was wondering where you picked up this leather repair stuff
Numberwang!
Originally posted by AlunJ
I like you Dave, you are a man of men
Originally Whatapp'd by Neo
Dave's maybe capable of a drive-by cuddle
Look at my pictures
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Rich H
Member
Registered: 26th Oct 05
Location: West Sussex Drives: E46 M3
User status: Offline
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Cheers all!
Dave - I attended a course towards the end of last year for the training, and spent the time I was snowed off flat out practising!
Here's a few pics for now:
https://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=227338355840&aid=277755 (does that work?!)
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Daveskater
Premium Member
Registered: 29th Apr 08
Location: Oxford, UK Drives: Jap wagon
User status: Offline
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Nice one mate Yeah, link works A guy at work's mrs is doing a leather course in uni so wondered if you did something like that obviously not full time at uni though
Numberwang!
Originally posted by AlunJ
I like you Dave, you are a man of men
Originally Whatapp'd by Neo
Dave's maybe capable of a drive-by cuddle
Look at my pictures
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Chris C
Member
Registered: 2nd Jan 05
Location: Hemel Hempstead
User status: Offline
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Nice job as always, my vxr needs to be machined I think :-(
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StueyBoy1989
Member
Registered: 22nd Feb 07
Location: North West London
User status: Offline
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Rich - i'll be in contact over the next few months for sorting my leather out mate.
Very good job to the usual high standard.
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Rich H
Member
Registered: 26th Oct 05
Location: West Sussex Drives: E46 M3
User status: Offline
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Dave - no, not a Uni course, just an intensive few day training course
Chris - cheers! You know where I am if you want to get it done 
Stu - Cheers And yup give me a shout if you want the leather sorting - I won't be able to do anything before June time now very easily anyway
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StueyBoy1989
Member
Registered: 22nd Feb 07
Location: North West London
User status: Offline
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i'll get some pic of what i need looing at then you can tell me if its possible....
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Rich H
Member
Registered: 26th Oct 05
Location: West Sussex Drives: E46 M3
User status: Offline
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Perfick
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richardworrall
Premium Member
Registered: 20th Sep 05
Location: Derby
User status: Offline
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loving the detailing of the stripey mats
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