Rich H
Member
Registered: 26th Oct 05
Location: West Sussex Drives: E46 M3
User status: Offline
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Well I have had this car on the books for a couple of months now - it's owned by a regular client anyway, but this has always been maintained by his companies valeters 
Anywho, to cut a long story short, the car arrived back in the UK recently after being in various other countries for the last few months, predominantly sat for long periods of time, outside. The elements took its toll and it was looking very sorry for itself when I was first asked to take a look at it.
The owner needed it the next day and I was on a tight schedule so I only had a couple of hours to "make good" but we agreed for me to come back another time and give it a better tidy up.
The original before's to give you the picture:
As you have probably spotted, this isn't just an ordinary 335 M Sport lol. Full custom exhaust, map, coilovers, mahoosive brakes and my favourite wheels!
During the initial tidy up I washed and clayed the car as well as gave a quick hand polish with AG SRP which did remove some of the etching, but not a huge amount, and filled in the rest of it. The glass was almost dangerous as you could barely see out of it. Nothing shifted it (inc. most polishes) in the end I resorted to using fine wire wool which took an absolute age 
A month passed and I finally had a gap in my schedule to revisit it. The car has only been used a handful of times since I last did it and the owners now away, the brief this time was to remove as much of the etching as possible. So not a correction detail as such, more a major enhancement.
So how it stood again before more extensive work:
The graphics on the back are blurred in the name of confidentiality :thumb:
As you can see, a lot of etching remained:
And some scuffs on the rear bumper from taking stuff in and out of the boot:
So the process:
Foam: BH Autofoam mixed with AS Hazsafe
Wash: AS Autowash
Clay: Previously done with BH Regular, not done this time as barely covered any miles, just gathered dust!
Once all washed and dried I set about taping up trim and carrying out the usual pad and polish combos. Initial signs were good with Lime Prime and a 3M Yellow pad, but it just didn't have quite enough bite to remove the deeper etching. I went all the way through the scale using almost everything in my artillery, but the only combo that shifted the marks fully was 3M Fast Cut + mixed with 3M Ultrafina on a 3M Orange waffle compound pad. Several passes were necessary on some panels, whereas the plastic areas corrected far easier.
A few inevitable buffer trails were left but were later removed when I carried out a seal and refinement in one using Dodo Need for Speed via the rotary on an Elite Red finishing pad.
Exhausts: Britemax twins
Wheels: Now in need of a refurb. Nothing at all touched the etching on them - not acid, polish etc. Gutted 
Tyres: AS Finish
Glass: Nielsens Blue Glass II
The results:
Near enough all the etching was removed. The only area still affected to a certain extent now is the mirror base plates which were too fiddly, even with a small spot pad. Think you'll agree it looks a bit better now though lol.
Hoping to continue to maintain this now as I love the car - it sounds absolutely awesome. Going to try and get the owner to take me out for a spin in it when he is back in the country 
Thanks for reading - hope that wasn't tooooo boring!
Comments, questions & constructive criticism welcome as per usual.
Cheers,
Rich 
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Marc
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Registered: 11th Aug 02
Location: York
User status: Offline
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Scratches on bumper on a new car is a digrace!
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jamez_zz
Member
Registered: 9th Nov 06
Location: Hullywood
User status: Offline
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Very nice. The exhaust cut outs look shocking though.
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sand-eel
Member
Registered: 15th Mar 07
Location: carluke/braidwood--IRNBRULAND
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by jamez_zz
Very nice. The exhaust cut outs look shocking though.
whats wrong with the exhaust cut outs 
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AlunJ
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Registered: 3rd Apr 07
Location: Newport
User status: Offline
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If I owned a car like that, I'd be ashamed if it was that dirty... I mean I'm ashamed when my corsa gets dirty lol! Top work as always Rich 
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jonnysri
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Registered: 16th Jun 05
Location: Leeds (Ilkley)
User status: Offline
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thats a gorgeous car. well done rich
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RS6
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Registered: 5th Nov 03
Location: with MJ
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those alloys are amazing! looks good rich
how sore are your hands these days lol
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Colin
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Registered: 4th Apr 02
User status: Offline
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Company car - most owners are of the fuckit i'll trade it in against a new one next year mentality to be bothered to look after it!
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SVM 286
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Registered: 13th Feb 05
Location: pain
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by jamez_zz
Very nice. The exhaust cut outs look shocking though.
ditto
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SVM 286
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Registered: 13th Feb 05
Location: pain
User status: Offline
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Nice work Rich. Quite the transformation re the lustre.
Astonishing bit of orange peel though for a car like that.
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Graham88
Member
Registered: 16th Apr 07
Location: South East Kent Drives: E46 M3
User status: Offline
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Can't believe how dirty that is in the first few pics!
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BYRON
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Registered: 1st Jun 04
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Colin
Company car - Wmost owners are of the fuckit i'll trade it in against a new one next year mentality to be bothered to look after it!
unless I have missed some text, im not sure how many company cars have mods like wheels, sus & exhaust aswell as move from country to country? Looks like a private purchase to me? Rich may well know
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Rich H
Member
Registered: 26th Oct 05
Location: West Sussex Drives: E46 M3
User status: Offline
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It's difficult to explain without giving away too much. It is a company car but he owns the company. And company is more "team" that's all I will say
This car is the least valuable one he owns so it gets abused lol. Mods on it indicate what it gets used for tbh - not just motorway abuse (although it does get that too!) 
Orange peel like that is common place on BMW's these days - but yes, shocking!
Exhaust cut outs aren't great, but I think you'll find they're more concerned over performance than looks in that particular case lol.
Hands - don't ache these days, just the rest of my body
Oh and to finish off my day there, the van decided to develop a flat battery which was a bit embarassing!
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VegasPhil
Premium Member
Registered: 16th Jan 05
Location: Fareham, Hants Drives: Octavia VRS
User status: Offline
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It's a work horse isn't it 
Looks well used anyway
Corsa 2.0 16v Vegas - Sold
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Colin
Member
Registered: 4th Apr 02
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by BYRON
quote:
Originally posted by Colin
Company car - Wmost owners are of the fuckit i'll trade it in against a new one next year mentality to be bothered to look after it!
unless I have missed some text, im not sure how many company cars have mods like wheels, sus & exhaust aswell as move from country to country? Looks like a private purchase to me? Rich may well know
Bosses company car!!
Like my ex ex boss took his lambo bird shooting because the land rover was in the garage, used his brand new dodge ram to take an old rotten garage to the tip & ended up waiting 6 weeks for a new rear screen after putting it through with said garage.
Generally have a dont give a fuck & fuck-it its getting traded in soon anyway attitude!!
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CORSA NUT
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Registered: 3rd Aug 01
Location: Wirral
User status: Offline
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I think it's a fucking disgrace to treat any car like that...let alone one worth so much.Just blatent arrogance, ignorance and lazyness.
Dosn't deserve it.
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A1EX
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Registered: 29th Mar 00
Location: Turku, Finland
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to some ppl its just a peice of machinery that gets used for what it is, its just a car at the end of the day
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sand-eel
Member
Registered: 15th Mar 07
Location: carluke/braidwood--IRNBRULAND
User status: Offline
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I don't get whats wrong with the exhaust cutouts, its the standard ones made bigger, what else can you do?
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SVM 286
Member
Registered: 13th Feb 05
Location: pain
User status: Offline
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They just look mishaped and rough as a bear's arse to me really.
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SVM 286
Member
Registered: 13th Feb 05
Location: pain
User status: Offline
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Rich, is there anything you can do to rectify/improve orange peel like that?
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Rich H
Member
Registered: 26th Oct 05
Location: West Sussex Drives: E46 M3
User status: Offline
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He owns plenty of other cars which are in far better condition. The DB5 for example
Orange peel can be improved to a certain extent through wet sanding, it's a bit of a pointless exercise on a daily driver though as you reduce the safe working limit of clear coat on the paint though, meaning there's less margin for correction work in the future.
I did do a 6 series for a main dealer last year predominantly to correct the large amount of hologrammes their bodyshop had inflicted, but found it actually responded quite nicely in regards to reducing the surface from looking like a resprayed satsuma too.
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SVM 286
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Registered: 13th Feb 05
Location: pain
User status: Offline
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ed
Member
Registered: 10th Sep 03
User status: Offline
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What was on the paint to start with? I leave my car months in between washing it when I'm in Brum and it never gets like that. (I guess one reason is it is kept in an underground carpark for weeks at a time). But I've never seen anything like that, looks like it's been galvanized
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VegasPhil
Premium Member
Registered: 16th Jan 05
Location: Fareham, Hants Drives: Octavia VRS
User status: Offline
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I'm guessing it's from being on boats and then left in the sun?
Corsa 2.0 16v Vegas - Sold
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Rich H
Member
Registered: 26th Oct 05
Location: West Sussex Drives: E46 M3
User status: Offline
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Foreign rain with high limestone content, parked under trees, by the coast etc and then baked on during the summer in better weather than we have over here! Monaco for example.
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