Polished Bliss: CSL fundraiser for the blind

With the end of the year looming, we recently held another club demonstration event, this time for members of the BMW Car Club. As is always the way, we donated a free full correction Zymöl detail to the club, and asked them to raffle it off to their members to help raise money for charity. Hats off to the club, as they managed to raise a grand total of £700 for the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association. Our thanks to everyone for digging so deep, it’s much appreciated. Competition to win the raffle prize was fierce, and in the end the lucky winner was a chap called Derek, who owns the rather tasty CSL you can see below. Derek dropped the car off on the Thursday, giving us three days to prepare it for the event on the Sunday. Here’s the process and pics...

Upon arrival, the car was pretty mucky from it’s 100 odd mile dash up the road to us in the rain, but the good news was that the underlying paint condition was pretty good. Here’s a few before shots; note the state of the exhaust tips...







Derek was keen to have the engine spruced up as part of the detail, and a quick peek under the bonnet revealed that a little more than the usual wipe down and dressing was going to be required...





Thus, it was out with the freezer bags to cover the sensitive electrical parts, then on with a liberal spray of P21S Total Auto Wash, which I then left for 10 minutes to do it’s work before rinsing off with the low pressure hose...





The rest of the car was then washed in the usual way, with an initial blanket of Meguiars Hyper Wash, then hand washing with Meguiars Shampoo Plus and mitts/2BM, then wheels with Menzerna Gel 7.5 Wheel & Tyre Cleaner and Autosmart Tardis and finally the lower halves with Autosmart Tardis before claying with Meguiars Detailing Clay Mild. After one last rinse, I used our leaf blower to dry the car, then moved it inside ready for the correction work the next day.

My apologies at this point for the lack of correction shots – both Clark and I were in the frame of mind to just crack on rather than fanny about, so pictures were a low priority. In addition, the paint really wasn’t that bad, so not that much to shout about either. However, here is a good example that reflects the job overall...

Before



After RD3.02+Polishing Pad @ 1800rpm



Wetsanding with 4000 grit to lessen remaining RIDS



After more RD3.02+Polishing Pad and finally 85RD+3M Blue Pad @ 1500rpm



The usual story then – fairly easy correction of more than 95% of the defects, but a handful of leftover deeper random scratches that refused to budge. The 4000 grit did improve some of them, but others were too deep for the given paint thickness, which was into the 70s (microns) in places. C’est la vie.

Interestingly the front bumper had only just been painted before the car came up to us, and the paint quality was great... but the presentation left a bit to be desired:



After RD3.02+Light Cut Pad on the PC



Remember the engine bay? Well, after dressing it with 303 Aerospace Protectant and dusting out the shuts, it ended up looking as good as new...





After completing the correction work, we finished off in the usual way; Zymöl Vintage for the bodywork, Zymöl HD-Cleanse on the glass inside and out, BF Long Lasting Tyre Gel on the tyres, PW Wheel Sealant on the alloys, Megs ASD in the arches, and BF Heavy Cut Metal Compound and the Dremmel on the exhaust tips followed by Megs NXT All Metal Polysh. The interior got APC then Zymöl Vinyl, plus a thorough vacuuming.

The Afters









Check the exhaust tips compared to before in the first pic above - half an hour with the Dremmel was needed, but the details are important!



















And what makes days like this all the more worthwhile...



Our thanks to the members of the BMW Car Club who attended and supported the event, and to Derek for letting us loose on his pride and joy.