Pink E30 BMW

A

Aussie Driver

Guest
One of my good mates has a hot little E30 BMW. It is a sexy little car but with his daily driving and long hours it was looking a bit under it's best. So after waiting for some good detailing weather we took our best shot at turning the pink back into red.

Before we started though, my mate decided that he didn't want to go for a full scratch and swirl removal on the car as there are a heap of places where there isn't a whole lot of paint left on it. So our aim was to try and get it red again without taking too much paint off it to do so.

So here is the car in all of it's pinkness. The first job of the day was to clay the whole car.

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After the claying we washed it again and tried to work out how to fix it without rubbing the paint straight off. As you can see, the paint was dull,

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and there were just a couple of swirl marks to try to deal with....

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After a bit of experimenting we decided to go with SSR1 with a light cutting pad on my random orbital polishers. Having two polishers and a number of pads certainly helped us to get the job done a lot faster than I could have by myself.

The next couple of shots are the prigress that I was able to make with the hood. The first is a half and half.

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You can probably still see the scratches just under the reflection of the light on the right. I just wasn't game to try and remove them even though that was the only part of the hood that was clear coated.

This is starting to look a bit better and both of these bits were single stage paint. How any panel shop could allow a car to leave with a panel that was 1/3 clear coated and the rest single stage paint is totally beyond me....

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And here is a cloud reflection shot. If you look carefully for the little dark splotch in the darkest part of the clouds, you will be able to see where the clear coat is failing on that part of the hood. The paint to the right of the ridge is single stage.

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Anyways, after the SSR1 I went over the car again with a polishing pad and the Professional Polish, then EX-P and then Natty's Blue while my mate detailed the engine bay and the interior. After we had finished we parked the car out on the grass for a few shots.

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These shots were taken between our first and second coats of Bold and Bright and the Trim Restorer.

Overall we were really happy with the finish that we were able to achieve on the car. Granted, the finish was no where near perfect but my mate was really happy with what we were able to achieve while still leaving most of the paint still on the car. And my mate really, really wanted to taste the Natty's Blue because he like the smell of it so much!!!
 

BigLeegr

Token Brute and Chief Bottle Washer
Staff member
Looks nice!

Had you already applied some Trim Restorer to one section on the first picture? It looks quite a bit more black than the rest (Right behind the door).
 
A

Aussie Driver

Guest
Thanks. We didn't use any of the trim restorer until after we had finished on the paint. That part of the trim is why my mate was so excited about using the trim restorer, the darkest bit of trim on the car was right next to the dullest.

The car looks like it has been repaired a number of times and each panel is different in terms of the peel in the paint and in some places even the incorrectly repaired damage under the paint. I would just say that the dark strip of trim is certainly newer than the bit on the door.
 
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