[BluesHead]

Guys, as many of you are surely aware, a petrol head with no car can be a dangerous beast! All manner of crazy thoughts infect us with mad ideas to quench the thirst. Add a 9 month wait to fulfil any petrolheadism and you have a very dangerous animal indeed! It was from this scenario topped with M2 withdrawal syndrome, a failed attempt to find a suitable detailer in my area and a weekend YouTube binge of Forensic Detailing, Matt Moremon (Obsessed Garage) and Jim White (Details) that the mad notion entered my head – Why not do it myself!!
I’m a reasonably competent home DIY’er, although Electronics and Computing were my main career areas until health issues brought that to an abrupt end in 2014. I’m also a bit of a fussy git and that usually translates to a pretty high standard of workmanship even if I do say so myself, however I, like all good DIYers, have a fair list of projects which we’ll not discuss any further….ah-hem😉. I do have a little experience (mid 80’s) of bodywork activities in a friends body shop and tinkered with filling/sanding/spraying in the evenings on his and my own projects, so I’m not a complete stranger to the field. Being retired I also have an abundance of the last vital, but highly incendiary ingredient – Free Time!
I should also point out that, as my last Physiotherapist described, I have, “not insignificant mobility issues!” With all that in mind and having watched every DIY Detailing vid on YT I thought, what the hell – how hard could it be !!😁

Lets see…. I’ll spread the process out over a couple of posts to keep it short and low on images for each post.

I collected the car on Sat 17th Jan ’23 and after the 50 mile spin home completed a full Decon wash using Garage Therapy Decon Shampoo, both as a Snow Foam and a wash mix in a bucket. As previously mentioned I’m a DIY detailer and don’t follow all the advised processes such as the “2 bucket method” etc. – I have always found that a Grit Guard and a decent wash mit sufficient for my purposes. Many will swear by it and if it works for you – knock yourself out – as they say! I think one should find the level of detail (pun intended) you wish to achieve and work to that. We can't all be Jim White!! BiltHamber Korosol was used as a fallout remover followed by a quick spin round with a clay bar (probably unnecessary on a new car?) and into the garage for inspection.

A thorough walk around with a good LED inspection lamp and I was pleased to see the paint in pretty good condition given some of the horror stories we hear about in this forum. The following pics show some of the defects and minor scratches present and there were plenty of others similar to these but hey, once you’ve seen one scratch……..
Lighting is key here - I found that keeping the light source constantly moving helped pick out the scratches previously missed from another angle. The worst of these I marked with masking tape in the approximate areas to indicate where I should concentrate the polishing later.

Onto polishing in Pt 2…..

 

[BluesHead]

Pt 2 – Polishing.
Having decided to machine polish my car the first thing to consider, pretty obviously, was a suitable polisher. This being a machine intended for very infrequent use, cost was a significant factor in choice. After watching several “beginners polishers” videos on YT I landed on the DA-8 Dual Action Polisher from In2detailing. Mainly because it came with everything needed to complete the car such as both 3” and 5” backing plates and was relatively cheap at £129.99.

A very good video and buying link can be found here:- Review Purchase

Now I’m not even going to begin to tell anybody how to machine polish anything, let alone a brand new car – there are dozens of very good videos on YouTube from many professional detailers giving good experienced advice on the best way to go about this and my best advice would be, find these and follow their directions as best you can. The best piece of advice I would offer though, is to practice on an old car or panel to get a feel for how the polisher reacts in your hands and to differences in speed and pressure.

A combination of a DA (Dual Action) polisher, Sonax Perfect Finish Polish and Rupes Yellow (Fine) polishing pads was recommended by several detailers as the best set-up for a beginners first attempt, so this is what I went with. After a relatively short amount of practicing I tried a test patch on the lower edge of the rear bumper on the passenger side. After a nerve racking 3min I was amazed by the finish achieved. Real clarity and depth in the paint and noticeably better than the adjacent panels.

Feeling a little more confident, I tried a noticeable scratch on the rear quarter panel driver side – the results speak for themselves. I have to confess, this had little to do with me and everything to do with polisher/polish/pad and the techniques of a few YouTubers!

I then methodically progressed along the drivers side, polishing 50 x 50cm areas in a cross-hatch pattern and confidence grew with every pass.

After 5hrs or so I had all the drivers side complete. This included the rocker panels which came up very well, and was a perfect opportunity to try the 3" Pad supplied with the kit.
I was also quite confident in using the polisher, regularly swapping out the 3" and 5" backing plates to suit the size of the area being polished. Once I had covered a few passes I started to get a rhythm going and with some 70's and 80's Rock going on Alexa I was thoroughly enjoying it! With a swaying motion going in your shoulders you can feel in your wrists whether the pad is flat on the panel and control the angle of the head to follow the contours of the car giving an even action on the paint. Given my inexperience, I'm dead chuffed with the results and think it was well worth the time and effort. Turned out to be quite a labour of love and much more enjoyable than applying the coatings, but more of that to come!


On to Coatings err Spoiler Alert in Pt 3.....

 

[gringolian]

Looks amazing, and exactly how I learnt to do this with those youtube channels and some others as well. I've polished and coated 3 of my previous cars with the Gyeon Syncro kit and the ease of use is amazing. Unfortunately I'm in the middle of having some building works on my house so my garage has been commandeered by the builders and I haven't been able to do the full process with my M240 yet, so I've given it a decon wash and coating "light" with some Gtechniq C2V3, and I'll keep doing that for a while until I can get it in the garage to give it a proper polish and full coat. Hopefully with similar results to yours

 

[Simon Site Manager]

Blimey Blues, you are one brave man, no way I would take what is effectively a grinder to my car, little own when it was new. Respect!

 

[JW7620]

Great post!

I am too venturing into the DIY Machine polishing foray, I have bought a DAS-6 Pro Plus machine and intend on also buying a smaller mini DA to deal with the smaller areas the 5" wont get into. Being an aircraft engineer I consider my handskills to be pretty good so well see! lol

Having fully decon washed the car last weekend, I decided to throw some temporary sealant on it (AutoBrite Direct Ceramic Magiseal) that should see the protection for the next 3 months until the weather warms up a bit, when I shall do my first attempt at using the DA.

I don't have a usable garage or undercover place to detail my cars, so it will all be done on whilst on the drive, hence the main reason I will wait until April when the weather will be a bit more conducive for polishing and sealing properly.

Forensic Detailing has been my YouTube catalogue of vids choice, much to my wife's amazement that I can watch hours on end of someone cleaning a car. haha.

My M135i is a 2019 so has a few swirls and minor corrections to do, after the previous owner either used a house brick to wash it, had taken it to a car wash or even only ever had it washed by BMW when it was serviced. Further evidence was found with the amount of crap under the arches and suspension when I removed the wheels the other week for the first time.

All good fun! Great work!

 

[Invisiblename]

Great post!

I am too venturing into the DIY Machine polishing foray, I have bought a DAS-6 Pro Plus machine and intend on also buying a smaller mini DA to deal with the smaller areas the 5" wont get into. Being an aircraft engineer I consider my handskills to be pretty good so well see! lol

Having fully decon washed the car last weekend, I decided to throw some temporary sealant on it (AutoBrite Direct Ceramic Magiseal) that should see the protection for the next 3 months until the weather warms up a bit, when I shall do my first attempt at using the DA.

I don't have a usable garage or undercover place to detail my cars, so it will all be done on whilst on the drive, hence the main reason I will wait until April when the weather will be a bit more conducive for polishing and sealing properly.

Forensic Detailing has been my YouTube catalogue of vids choice, much to my wife's amazement that I can watch hours on end of someone cleaning a car. haha.

My M135i is a 2019 so has a few swirls and minor corrections to do, after the previous owner either used a house brick to wash it, had taken it to a car wash or even only ever had it washed by BMW when it was serviced. Further evidence was found with the amount of crap under the arches and suspension when I removed the wheels the other week for the first time.

All good fun! Great work!

To state what is probably obvious, if you're going to do it outside, make sure it's a windless day - you don't want even the slightest piece of grit to get blown onto your polishing disk!

 

[BluesHead]

Blimey Blues, you are one brave man, no way I would take what is effectively a grinder to my car, little own when it was new. Respect!

You think that was brave - wait till you see Pt 3!

 

[BluesHead]

Great post!

I am too venturing into the DIY Machine polishing foray, I have bought a DAS-6 Pro Plus machine and intend on also buying a smaller mini DA to deal with the smaller areas the 5" wont get into. Being an aircraft engineer I consider my handskills to be pretty good so well see! lol

If you can keep aircraft from falling apart I'd say you're there or thereabouts Think you'll be surprised at how easy a single stage polish using good gear actually is!

I don't have a usable garage or undercover place to detail my cars, so it will all be done on whilst on the drive, hence the main reason I will wait until April when the weather will be a bit more conducive for polishing and sealing properly.

Prob worth mentioning that, as has been mentioned, not only do you not want debris getting into your polishing process, you don't want any dirt/fibres etc getting onto newly applied coatings before you get chance to level and buff.

Forensic Detailing has been my YouTube catalogue of vids choice, much to my wife's amazement that I can watch hours on end of someone cleaning a car. haha.

Jon is my kind of detailer - manic just enough to get good results but sane enough to recognise the level us Weekend Warriors can achieve!

 

[spursmat]

Love this thread. Our cars were on the same journey across from Mexico so seeing the story continue is great. Looks like you’ve done a fantastic job and can be very proud of the results!

 

[BluesHead]

Pt 3 – Spoiler Alert!

I nearly missed a step!

Not to everyone’s taste, but I must confess to having a little bit of a Carbon Fibre fetish. Generally love M Performance accessories and was looking forward to seeing the G42 variants boot lid spoiler and front splitter. Loved them both when they came out…….. until I seen the prices – Yikes!! £1400 odd has been the cheapest I’ve seen the splitter and £400 for the rear. While searching for alternatives, I came across the AutoID CS style rear spoiler which is not only half the price of the MP version, but I actually much prefer its lower profile. I have previous experience of AutoID's kit and lots of folk on here and Bimmerpost seem happy with their quality/fit etc so I took advantage of their Black Friday offers and went for their Front Splitter (Pretty much a MP copy @ £630) and the CS Spoiler (£230), great deal and the quality of the weave and lacquer is spot on. Jack and the lads seem like a decent enough bunch too and Christian was an absolute gent sorting out a reasonable shipping charge so happy to give them the business.

Now again, I’m not going to advise folk on how to accost your pride and joy with fishing line, a pry tool, a heat gun and a high speed rubber wheel!
However I would offer this tip – ditch the heat gun! Way to powerful and easy to seriously damage your paint ( from what I’ve read these can easily get to around 400 to 600°C - 752 to 1,112°F).
A normal household hair dryer is more than capable of generating enough heat to soften the adhesive for DIY removal like this.

Not a how too - but this what I did (right or wrong) and I’m more than happy with the result, despite coming unstuck with the unsticking process! 😁

I used a hair dryer to heat the 1st third of the spoiler and surrounding few inches of boot lid. Then, with a small pry tool, lifted a few mm of the spoiler just enough to get a length of fishing line under it. Then a process of, heating the spoiler - “sawing” along the join with the fishing line to break the bond for a few inches – shoving a cloth under the raised spoiler to stop it reattaching – rinse and repeat.

Take it slowly and it’ll soon come off – piece of cake! If you’re lucky, the line will find the gap between the adhesive and the paint and you’re spoiler will come away, leaving little adhesive to remove manually. If you’re not, it will find the gap between the adhesive and the spoiler, leaving a pile of sh#*$y [email protected]#king crud on your boot lid! Guess which one I got!!

And here’s where and how I went wrong.

I had watched a few vids on how to remove the adhesive and in fairness it looked a fairly easy task – a good tip seemed to be the use of a "Wonder Wheel"“ in a drill to abrade the spent adhesive from the paint.

What I didn’t take from these was the speed of the spinning wheel. My first few tries only resulted in an even gooier mess of “chewing gum” being distributed in the direction of the spinning wheel and very little actually being removed. After a frustrating 20 mins or so I gave up with the wheel and resorted to chemical warfare, dousing the whole area in Isopropyl Alcohol and Gtechniq Panel Wipe – this in fairness just made things much worse! Such a mess! After another 30 min of mucking about with this chewing gummy mess, several ruined MF cloths and nearly resorting to Cellulose Thinners and a match! I retreated to the kitchen for coffee and a huff! Rewatching some of the YT vids again and I noticed that they seemed to be using a much lower speed than I was....... back out for round 2!

Technique is indeed everything – after a few trials at a much lower speed and holding the spinning wheel just in contact with the glue for a second or two then lifting off for a second or two, I had the whole gunk, bar a few traces removed in 20 min. I think I was spinning the wheel much too fast therefore heating the adhesive into a gummy mess. Another thing to note - if you look at the pic of the edge of the wheel, it needs to wear itself down a little before it becomes really effective. The "ruff" side in the pic was much more effective than the "smoothe" side. Aforementioned panel wipe took care of any residue in a few wipes and 'Jobs A Goodun!' I then polished the boot lid. The result, no marks, marrs or scratches!

Although, the AID CS Spoiler comes with adequate 3M tape to affix it in place, me being me, thought it wouldn’t do any harm just to add a little at the ends just to be safe! (Probably overkill but hey can't do any harm?)

To fit the spoiler, I used the middle of the rear BMW badge to mark on masking tape, the centre of the boot lid below where the spoiler would lie. I then laid the spoiler gently in position (easy as it finds its own level on the edge of the boot lid) and made sure there was an even gap at both ends. I then marked the centre on a piece of masking tape on the spoiler aligned with the mark on the boot lid. This made it very easy to lay in the correct position when it came to fit.

The boot lid edge was thoroughly cleaned with the AID supplied adhesive promoter. I then cut the red backing paper on both tape strips in the middle of the spoiler and pulled it back and inch or so on the four ends. I then removed all the backing paper on my extra 3M tape at both ends. I gently laid the spoiler in position using the centre marks made earlier being careful to make sure the 4 ends of backing paper were coming out at the correct places. A little gentle pressure on the centre point and then checked for an equal gap at each side. All was good so firm pressure on the centre point again and my son then helped by gently pulling the red paper out from the top and bottom edge as I walked hand pressure along the length of the spoiler to the end. This was to ensure even pressure all along the spoiler with no risk of a hump in the middle so to speak. Back to the centre and we repeated the process out to the end of the passenger side. A few pieces of 2” masking tape to hold the spoiler in position for a few hours and were done! (I did have some pics of the fitting/tape removal etc but my phone seems to have eaten them! - hope this isn't too wordy and makes some sense?)

Just love the design of the spoiler and as you can see the quality of finish is 1st class. Very happy customer!



On to Coatings in Pt 4.......probably!

 

[BluesHead]

Love this thread. Our cars were on the same journey across from Mexico so seeing the story continue is great. Looks like you’ve done a fantastic job and can be very proud of the results!

Necessity is the mother of invention as they say! I'd love to have a professional near me that could offer the service that a lot of you guys have had carried out, especially with PPF. (And let's be honest - the budget too !) My rocker panels were noticeably marred on delivery and despite a polish and 3 coats of ceramic coating the drivers side is already showing marks.

 

[spursmat]

Necessity is the mother of invention as they say! I'd love to have a professional near me that could offer the service that a lot of you guys have had carried out, especially with PPF. (And let's be honest - the budget too !) My rocker panels were noticeably marred on delivery and despite a polish and 3 coats of ceramic coating the drivers side is already showing marks.

This car is definitely heavy on the gloss black! I completely underestimated how large the “diffuser” is on the back. Having no PPF on it will be interesting to see how it holds up to the wash Mitt!

 

[andip85]

This car is definitely heavy on the gloss black! I completely underestimated how large the “diffuser” is on the back. Having no PPF on it will be interesting to see how it holds up to the wash Mitt!

If the bits of gloss that aren't PPF'd on mine are anything to go by not well! Just looking at the black adds another mark it appears 😂😂

 

[Invisiblename]

If the bits of gloss that aren't PPF'd on mine are anything to go by not well! Just looking at the black adds another mark it appears 😂😂

Need to sneak up on it & wear sunglasses

 

[Simon Site Manager]

De-Solv-it Sticky stuff Glue remover, 250ml | DIY at B&Q

A powerful and versatile solution for removing sticky problems around the home and adhesive residue from your household materials.

www.diy.com

Can't go wrong with this stuff!

 

[BluesHead]

Pt 4 – Coatings.

Failed Ceramic Coating – Ha, that got your attention I bet! Three words to strike terror into the heart of any budding amateur detailer! I must admit though, I did approach this part of the process with a fair amount of trepidation and nervousness. What if it goes wrong? What if I can’t do it correctly? What if my paint is a rare blend and reacts with the ceramic and boils off in sheets? OK maybe the last scenario was a bit dramatic, but none the less I thought it prudent to check out means of redress should things go, even a little, awry. Guess what, YouTube has loads of videos on how things can go wrong and what to do to rectify them if they do – who’d have thought! Knowing that things can be fixed, if the worst happens, reassured me enough to move on to actually applying a CC.
(More of this later).

Yet again, I’m sure you’ll be amazed to hear that there are a plethora of detailers, recommending just as many types and makes of Ceramic Coatings on YT. All the major players having a version of some sort or another. After much perusing, I narrowed it down to some of the Geyon Q2 products or Gtechniq CSL and EXOv4. There didn’t seem to be much between them (or any others) in terms of finish and ease of application so in the end it was the strength of recommendations by many YT’ers in particular Matt Moreman (Obsessed Garage) that swung me in the direction of the Gtechniq products, even if EXO requires an extra coat. So I decided 1 coat of Crystal Serum Light followed by 2 coats of Gtechniq EXOv4 and a topper coat of Gtechniq C2v3 after a few days to allow the first coats to cure. If its good enough for Matt Moreman then its got to be good enough for me.

Gtechniq CSL – Application.
CSL actually looks surprisingly easy to apply, but surprise surprise, I’m not going to tell you how! – As usual, check out all the previously mentioned YT’ers for proper professional advice from people who actually know what they’re talking about, I can however, offer a few tips which I discovered as I went along and found useful during the process.

Lighting is Key! – Unfortunately, I don’t possess the groovy big Hex-array lighting rigs that some of the luckier prof’s seen to have. I had a collection of 1 high output LED work light, a few desk work/inspection lamps and a few hand held LED inspection lamps. Spacing these around the car as I worked gave the best lighting I could create. This was not ideal however as they had to be re-arranged many times per side/coat to allow adequate vision. I would recommend getting as many high output light sources as you can, it really makes life a lot easier in the long run. Use a hand held lamp to highlight the work area from EVERY angle as you level/buff – it’s very easy to under level/buff or miss a patch completely and moving the light really helps pick out these spots.
I cannot stress this enough!

Panel wipe each panel as you go - As it says on the tin! Do this particularly after the polishing stage but also for every panel between each coat. Will help make sure you get no fibres of debris in your coatings.

Mark your work area – As you move around the car applying the coating to 50x50cm squares, I found that strategically placed pieces of masking tape North and East (working left to right) of the current area helped me ensure that no area got missed. Its very easy to get confused as to where you have been.

Pressure is everything – When first wiping off the coating (levelling), you really are levelling NOT removing the product, the least amount of pressure on the cloth as you do your cross hatch pattern gives best results. Barely the weight of your hand is all that’s required and you can see the “even-ness” of the coating when you get it right (very satisfying!). Also, try to wipe in to the wet area when you can, this helps reduce the amount of spread and helps reduce the risk of high spots (dry unbuffed/unlevelled patches of coating). With the second wiping (buffing), you can apply a little more pressure but I found that more passes at higher hand speed produced better results than less passes with more weight on the cloth. MAKE SURE you over wipe the working area by at least 10-15 cm on every side on your buffing pass – again, this will help reduce the risk of high spots. The last phase of the buffing pass is brilliant, as the slickness of the coating emerges as it dries – very, very satisfying!

Dealing with a High Spot
After the CSL application, I used my hand held LED lamp to thoroughly inspect every inch of the paintwork. Constantly moving the lamp to highlight it from every angle I could. On the leading edge of the power bulge on the bonnet I found 2 areas of what I can only describe as concave sided triangles, 1 about 2” across and the other about 1”. Having previously seen that these can be reasonably easily dealt with, I wasn’t too concerned however I was admittedly a little uneasy about removing them. First recommendation was, starting with the least aggressive, gently polish the area with Perfect Finish on a MF pad by hand. Smallest patch disappeared after two passes, bigger one was not for moving. Resorting to the machine polisher, I gave the bigger patch a quick polish, 2 pass cross hatch pattern with barest weight on the polisher – job done and a very relieved detailer! Re-coated the areas with CSL – no harm done!

Unfortunately I have no before pic but here’s the result.

Gtechniq EXOv4 Application. (2 Coats)
Just the same as CSL – panel wipe each panel before you start, mark your work area, keep it well lit, monitor your pressure when levelling and buffing, keep a hand held lamp on the move from all angles as you buff and enjoy the end stage of each buff (oOo err Mrs!).

Multiple inspections between coats of EXO (to the point where I was sick looking at the damn car!) revealed no areas for concern, so I left the car for a few days to cure fully. Gtechniq say this can take only a few hours but, as I was doing this in sometimes 8-10dgre temps, I was keen to give plenty of time.

I’m mightily impressed with the results. The depth of the colour and the slickness of the paint is fantastic. I don’t have the lighting that the prof’s have to produce the studio quality pics they do, but I think these look presentable enough!

First day out, 80 mile round trip in slush, mud and sleet on salted roads 😧 Black cars are so hard to keep! - Wish someone would have said! 🤣

On to Pt 5 – Costs and Conclusions.

 

[BluesHead]

Pt 5 – Costs and Conclusions.

Here’s the Items I bought for the project – Note some are not specifically related to the polish and coatings. ( Garage stock!).

Sonax Perfect Finish 250ml £17.81
Gtechniq EXO V4 Crystal £49.95
Gtechniq - C5 Wheel Armour £22.89
Gtechniq Crystal Serum Light £44.68
Gtechniq Panel Wipe £9.50
in2Detailing DA8 900W £129.99
Gyeon Foam Applicator Block £2.70
Gyeon Q2M Suede pk of 10 £4.50
Rupes DA Fine 3" x 2 £11.70
Rupes DA Fine 5" x 2 £16.20
Rupes DA Fine 6" £9.00
Official 'Wonder Wheel' £13.99
MR.SIGA MF Cloths Pk of 24 £13.59

Total £346.50

Given some prof detailers are asking North of £2K (Albeit including PPF and lots of hours of labour), this is not bad value.
Given access to budget and a reputable detailer with the necessary skills, I’d be happy enough to pay for this service (Assuming I didn’t want to do it myself of course – but I would expect a higher level of finish).

Conclusions.
I had been planning this project for months before the car eventually arrived. Researching, pricing, reading reviews and watching YT videos on all aspects of Ceramic Coatings and their application, so I was looking forward very much to getting stuck in, when it came. I was in no hurry and there was no pressure on me to finish, so the plan was to take my time and do the best I could, but most importantly, try to enjoy the process and hopefully the end result.

When my 20 x 14 foot (6.1 x 4.2m) garage was installed I had plenty of room to access a car from all sides and getting around a car was no problem. Roll-on 4yrs and the garage has turned into more of a workshop/hobby room/man cave and as you can see from the pics, I have lined the walls with work surfaces, storage racking and shelving. This has reduced access to the car to the point where, I had to move it as far over to the rear left corner as I could (practically touching the garage door), so I had enough room to comfortably work on the driver side and bonnet/front grill/bumper. Then I had to move to the top right hand corner so I could access passenger side, boot/rear bumper etc. This meant that I had to do - Polish / 1st coat CSL / 1st coat EXO / 2nd coat EXO, all on the drivers side/front. Then move the car and repeat the process on the passenger/rear side. This extended the time it took to complete the car as I had to allow for drying/curing time twice for each coat. This meant a lot of early mornings and late nights to allow sufficient time between coats. I was also working in cold winter temps, so was mindful to keep the garage as warm as possible and allow extra time (maybe needlessly) for curing.

I enjoyed the whole process immensely and found most of it supremely satisfying, I have to admit though, during the 1st coat of EXO on the passenger side (technically my 5th coat) I was getting a little weary of the receptiveness of it all and I did celebrate the final buff of the rear bumper with quite a loud “Thank [email protected]&k For That!”.🤣 Having said that, 5 min later I was buffing other panels just for the sheer enjoyment of feeling the slickness of the paint and frankly, taking pleasure in the results I had achieved. Not bad for an ‘oul crock like me!
I had a “day off” the following day as I had aches in muscles where I didn’t even know I had muscles!!

Is the finish perfect? – Not at all, not by any standards, there are still little marks in the paint and rocker panels which the SPF could not remove despite multiple passes, but I had never intended to use a heavier cutting compound and these marks are not what SPF is intended for . They are also virtually invisible without an inspection light. Would I expect these marks to remain in a £2K, 2 stage professional polish and refinement? No, for that kind of time/money I’d expect nothing of this type to remain.(I do accept however, 100% is unreasonable to expect).

Did I achieve my goals of enjoying the process and the result? – definitely!
The result for the costs are a bonus! I’m delighted with what I have achieved given all the circumstances and would be happy to stand my finish up to any amateur detailer’s work!

Would I encourage other amateur detailers to have a go? – 100%, if you have a garage and a reasonable skill set, there’s no reason why you couldn’t achieve the same (if not better) results as mine.

Would I do it again? – absolutely!….. only better!😉

And I still have the wheels to coat with Gtechniq C5 Wheel Armour, an AID Front Splitter and some AP CF Arch Guards to fit!

I gave her a gentle maintenance wash today and then applied the topper coat of Gtechniq C2v3 - I think it looks pretty good!

On to Pt 6 – fitting the AID Front Splitter…. Maybe?

Onto Pt 7 – Wheel Ceramic Coating with C5….. If I ever get round to it

On to Pt 8 – Fitting of AP CF Arch Guards….. If I get enough comments below – dear god I’ve been watching way too much YouTube 😱😖