Helping to restore a modern classic - BMW E30
The first thought that will cross some people’s mind is ‘Why do all that work on an old car’. It is quite simple – because the owner loves it!
The E30 BMW is a personal favourite, I own one myself in the same colour. I was contacted by the owner, Tom, who has spent some serious time and elbow grease overhauling this car to get the mechanicals up to scratch but felt a bit of professional help on the exterior was needed next.
Tom lives locally so dropped the car off to me and I kept it for a couple of days to take my time with the job. In its original shade of Zinnobar Red, the car was very badly oxidised in places and experience has shown that single stage paint (i.e. there is no clearcoat) doesn’t like to be rushed when polishing. The pads clogging up with dead paint can be a bit of a chore, so a bucket of warm soapy water was on standby and a good supply of clean pads.
So, here we are at the start.
A bit of sun in between the showers revealed a lot of scratches, swirls and badly faded in places, particularly the offside rear quarter panel.
First task was to get it clean. A good pre-soak with a citrus detergent first, followed by a rinse with the pressure washer. Wheels were soaked with Redberry wheel cleaner diluted 3:1 with water, then agitated with a Swissvax brush and pressure washed off. The rest of the car was then treated to a good wash with a mit and Meguiars Hyperwash before being rinsed again.
The lower half of the car was absolutely covered in tar so a good hour or so was spent with a dedicated tar removing fluid to get this off, followed by these areas being given a quick was and rinse, then the whole car being clayed using yellow polyclay. Once finished, a final rinse before being dried and put into the garage out of the rain.
As is not unusual for a car of this vintage, paint depth’s were quite varied. Of biggest concern was the very faded offside rear quarter. The car has actually done very few miles (around 70k I think), so my guess is that is spent a lot of time with that part of the car sat in a pool of sunlight as the bumper was very faded just in that location too. I’m quite sure good old T-Cut has been at work because the paint was less than half the thickness in this area, compared to everywhere else. Once again, the paint thickness gauge shows its worth.
So, starting at the bonnet, and trying a few combinations, I settled on 3M Fine Compound. This gave this result:
Rather pleased with that, I moved on around the car. Not pictured, but I unscrewed and removed the indicator repeators from both wings to allow easy access to the whole panel.
You can see in the after shot that the reflection of the Brinkmann lamps still looked a little misty. Once the whole car had been cut back, I used light finishing polish to ensure a crisp sharp finish.
I worked my way along one side and called it a night, it was around 19:30.
As I was moving the cars about to get them in the garage, I thought it was quite funny seeing how 15 years evolution looked for the BMW 3-series.
Day 2.
Next morning, more of the same.
Once finished, the whole car was treated to a coat of Chemical Guys EZ Creme Glaze to try and add some oils to the paint. This was then followed by 3 layers of Jetseal 109, also from Chemical Guys, to offer a barrier against the UV damage that causes faded, and finally a coat of 5050 wax to add warmth and wetness to the finish.
Tyres and rubber/plastic exterior trim were all treated with Chemical Guys New Look Trim Gel. Door shuts (cleaned at the start) all given a coat of Jetseal, Glass polished inside and out and the interior given a thorough vacuum and wipedown with an upholstery cleaner.
Here are the finished shots, I’m very grateful the sun came out.
I collected Tom to bring him back to his car and I’m glad to say he was delighted, his face was a picture! A brilliant car and a detail I got a massive amount of personal enjoyment from.
Testimonials
“I would definitely recommend anyone to use Shine On regardless of marque, Paul is a genuinely nice bloke who has the rare attributes of actually loving his job and doing it to the best of his ability (bordering on OCD). I personally plan to use this service at least every 8months to keep the cars looking at their best.
And to top it all off…..even my wife commented on how and I quote ‘amazing’ it looked, that testimony alone is worth its weight in gold!
Andy (M3 and Battle Bus!)”
