Hey guys,
First posting here on MM for me, just put out an intro post earlier today. Glad to be on here finally. As promised I will be posting my detailing work here from time to time. I will take as many pics and come up with as many how-to's and write ups to bring up important topics, discussions and questions about proper detailing and car care. This past weekend I had a long time client bring me her new Z4 to have me do a full basic detail.

so....lets go! Warning- detail write-ups are always picture heavy......the more the better :thumbup:

As said before the client is a long time customer of Premier Shine and recently picked up a 2008 BMW Z4 3.0 6 speed with close to 18K on the clock.
Time to complete- 5 hours
Package chosen- Full Basic Ext/Interior Add-on- Paint Sealant application / scotch guard application


First- some before pics when the car arrived.
Besides the single bird bomb, just normal oxidation, thick pollen, dirt and a good layer of brake dust








The leather was filled with the typical amount of soil, some color transfer from clothing, and the usual slick/ greasy look.
For heavily soiled leather i begin the detail by first putting on a coat of Leatherique Rejuvenator oil and let it sweat out the leather for a good hour. (More on that in another write up about Leather care!) And yes you can let this stand in the sun...it works better with time and heat!




Once the leatherique was applied to do its magic i got out my ridgid shopvac and the Porter Cable air compressor. Using compressed air allows you to loosen all dust/ dirt and debris trapped in-between the dash controls, tight areas such as the gap between the seat and tranny tunnel and other places such as the instrument cluster and defroster vents.
After a thorough vacuum i got my extractor ready - my mighty bissell green machine, yes it works well for me, is cost effective and has lasted me on around 80+ interiors :thumbup: More on carpet extraction in another write up!





After the carpet had been thoroughly agitated with the brush and extracted I then thought a proper pic of the amount of dirt i extracted in my waste tank was needed:


After this I thank began the leather cleaning process by first stripping the Leatherique that had been sitting on the buckets for close to and hour and a half. Sorry for the poor pics, I was trying to work fast and my friend takin pics didn't have time to focus here and there...



Matte (NATURAL) finish starting to come back....


Write up on leather care and a demonstration coming soon as well but for now i'll keep it simple:

The polisher is my older Porter Cable with a brush attached, I find that it scrubs the leather gently while cutting the time and effort taken to effectively clean one seat by more than 75%




Workin it up to a foamy lather:



Next up.... plastic trim, dash center console etc.
Tools- various brushes, swabs, dentists pick, citrus degreaser- various dilutions, simple green diluted 3:1, MF towels, air compressor







Interior Afters: only got a few....camera battery was dying and lunch time came around



EXTERIOR TIME
Movin on to the exterior......

The exterior begins with a thorough pre-rinse

The car obviously had some form of LSP (wax) or protective coating which needed to be stripped before any machine polishing or protective layer could be applied. More on that in the future....

Next up a Citrus Degrease is sprayed heavily on the lower areas, wheel wells, front and rear bumper and in the door jambs to loosen the grease, dirt, grime etc.






Next- Westley's Bleche white- EXCELLENT side wall and white wall cleaner....strong stuff

Agitation:



WHEELS- This is going to be saved for a write up on proper wheel cleaning and care....i will post the pics but not the chemical I use......






This product goes on neon green and after 10 minutes slowly changes to a blood red...it begins to safely attack the iron and metal (brake dust) and lift it off the wheel. pH balanced wheel cleaner that is safe on ALL types of wheels and safe on the new big buck carbon ceramic brakes found on Ferrari, ZR1's etc.
More awesome wheel cleaning beefness:


Gettin the inner drums requires some large tools:


Using the DESIGNATED wash mitt for the wheels to finish her off:




After the wheels, lets begin the decontamination wash, followed by a clay treatment, then a rewash again....
Two bucket method wash system....safest way to wash and minimize swirls etc.

Chemical guys Maxi Suds....real great with a foam cannon and pressure washer....more on that some other time


Thick and rich shampoo

Soft brush to get in and around the jams and cracks:




After this, the car was once again rinsed down and dryed using a electric leaf blower....BEST way to dry a car without using a towel or microfiber.....even some of the most plush and softest microfibers will marr or scratch your cars finish when drying your car after a wash.....especially if you live in an area where the water is hard (thank you NJ)
After it has been dried, we will then once again wet the car down and begin our clay decontamination.
I plan on doing a demo and how=to and all about claying from a-z soon as well
some pics for now:

Blue uber clay, using only water for lubricant





After a proper clay, the car is rinsed down again and also WASHED AGAIN......many detailers miss this step.

The car is then dried once again properly....all the cracks, emblems, crevices, jams etc are blown out with the air compressor so that as little water is left on the car.....nothing is more annoying than polishing out a door and having a bead of water run down onto your polish and ruin your work area. :roll:

The camera then went ahead and died and we had to resort to my small point and shoot.....couldn't get any pics

Because the customer chose the basic detail package Premier Shine offers this only includes a proper clay treatment followed up by 2 layers of a carnauba wax, the client chose to finish off with a paint sealant (wax on roids) gives you 3 to 6 months of protection other than the 4 to 6 week strength most carnaubas under $200 a pot will give you.
The hood and deck lid were also chosen to be polished out- Flex orbital polisher w/ orange LC pad and Menzerna 106 Fa polish were used....the car was newer and did not need any paint correction MORE ON POLISHING AND PAINT CORRECTION ANOTHER DAY.....
The Z was then wiped down with our IPA dilution to strip any oils and a sealant was applied to cure for an hour, glass cleaned inside and out, trim properly dressed and a final inspection was performed.
Eye candy time......

AFTERS:









Some nice warmth and gloss in the paint

Sun poppin out:





Hope you had the patience to read through it all! I average around 2-5 cars a week so i'll try my best to take as many pics as I can.....Red C5 Vette hopefully this weekend, still in scheduling phase with client.
THANK YOU FOR LOOKIN! Once again I will be putting more information out on how-tos and product write ups etc.
-Dan
Premier Shine Auto Detailing

*Permission to post pictures/ write-up granted by owner*

Ok so the truth is I miss all you guys and want to see all you faces so I have talked to some of my 804 bros and may have a plan. It started off with just us Richmonders but then possible Shennanigans got involved and I thought we need all of you for true MM shennanigans.

The game plan would be to just go to G-Force and do some races, maybe 3? or whatever everyone is thinking but mostly just to get to see everyone would be cool. THIS IS NOT A PRIVATE EVENT. We would be there with the locals and whatnot but it would give us a chance to show off MM track times. The worst case scenario would be we wouldnt all be in the same race but who cares. We still get to see each other and watch each other race like normal.

There is no sign-up or date other then this summer at this point. I will edit if we get interest and a set date. But there will be no sign-up pay early type thing. We would just be friends going to G-Force.

I talked to Justin and Shennaigans are a definate possibilty...I'm sure he will chime in here but maybe we could do a Friday night--Saturday(since most of you have careers now) type thing like our other events but just roll up the g-force satuday and get our races in rather than a normal morning private event.

Although, there is no sign-up, lets still try to be organized if we get interest. Lets try and have a "I am interest in attending" thing and we can get this thing off the ground. In fact I will use a poll but still post up if you interested in karting and shennaigans or just one or the other. Let's try and get a head count here. I know there is alot going on with hyperfest but this could be a nice break without all the work assignments and the need to pay attention at a big track setting.

I'm sure I am forgetting something most likely due to the fact I had already written this once and hit the wrong button and deleted it but anyway....

I'm looking for a set of 15x7, 4x100 wheels (prefered in the +25-35 variety). The only thing I really care about is that they are straight, and I'll most likely paint them. They will be going on my Spec Miata.


On a side note, if anyone knows of 2 Team Dynamic Pro race 2's for sale (same as above) let me know as I already have 2 of them.....

Hey guys,
My name is Dan and I am going to be a junior coming this fall semester and I'm a HSA major/ business minor. I live in Ramsey, New Jersey which is about 30 minutes away from NYC. No i'm not a guido and I don't like the Jersey shore, in fact I hate New Jersey. :thumbup: My obsession with cars started when I was around 8 when my mom came home with a Viper GTS model and I cherished the thing like it was my baby. After that the obsession grew and before I knew it my parents were getting calls from my principal asking them to not allow me to bring my Road and Track mags into class anymore.
For the last 7 years I have been detailing cars and slowly growing my own business- Premier Shine Auto Detailing (website coming soon). Currently I service around 35-50 cars when I come home for the summer months from school and average 2-5 cars a week. I love what I do and I'm constantly reading and practicing my various skills as well as testing out new products. I consider myself a professional but still always learning, the game is always changing. While at school i've been lucky enough to get my foot in the door at Mid Atlantic Motorwerkes as their detailer. I'm responsible for taking in cars from auction as well as trade-ins and using my detailing skills to hit the spots that I see need my attention. (BMW financial does some great buffer swirls!) Working at MAM in H'Burg while taking classes has been an amazing opportunity as I am able to get out of class and practice my various skills on 15-20 European highline models.
What I drive- 2002 Jeep Wrangler sport- 3 Inch Tera lift w/ skyjacker nitro's, 32 pro comp MT's, borla cat-back, full kicker audio and a bunch of other goodies. I've had Rocky (his name) for 5 years and have put around 35K on him. I use the Jeep for what its for- off-roading the piss out of it....It's not a mall crawler by any means. Don't know if he'll stick around after school with the 10-12 MPG i'm getting now but if I do keep the Jeep it will have much bigger plans to build it up even more.

I will be posting detailing write-ups, instructional write-ups with pics and product reviews. PLEASE ASK ME ANY QUESTIONS YOU HAVE ABOUT DETAILING- interior/exterior care, polishing, correcting a problem etc. THATS WHY I WANT TO BE HERE- to simply help MM and have a great time.
Thanks to Jake and the other guys for taking me in with open arms and of course Natalie as well
Thanks for reading guys!
O, anyone else a Foo Fighters fan? :beer:

Ok so I am thinkin of going electric fans when I refresh my cooling system on the M as soon as I get the cash to do so.

I'm definatley going an aluminum radiator and looking at different fans...it looks like a popular choice is a 16" fan that looks like it would be the same size as stock and fit within the stock shroud, but would it be better to get say two 10" fans and an aluminum shroud or perhaps no shroud with two fans...any suggestions, advice, or past experience?

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

Hi kids and kiddies,

I'm part of the "obligatory M3 group" and I have a few questions for you more seasoned with weird German car things.

First and foremost, my engine whistles at idle. Not loud, but enough that you can hear it about 10 to 15 feet away. Belts look pretty new and no cracks, and it disappears under power. Fan maybe? If so, it's time to upgrade to fan-less or go with the diesel fan.

Second, it's making an odd chugging noise at idle too, not necessarily a tick but pretty much a chugging noise. No, I don't think its the vanos as that got replaced around 20k ago. It usually only does this when its hot outside and the car is up to operating temp, so I'm not sure exactly what that means as i'm cartarded.

Third, around 750rpm there's a very weird rattle under the drivers side of the undercarriage. I think it might be the heat shielding, but I can't pin point exactly where it is. Any ideas if heat shielding, if loose, would actually cause an audible rattle?

Putting my flame suit on here, but I've searched around and can't find any definite explanations for this stuff. Since you guys are all lvl. 80 car mechanics, I thought it'd be appropro to ask you.

Sincerely, Obligatory M3 owner.


P.S. Beat a 52 in a 25 mph speeding ticket today in court. Officer said the only reason he didn't give me reckless is because he liked my car. The lesson here, always keep your car nice and shiny. (I don't, I just got lucky that day)

hey guys/gals,

here is some stuff that is still good that i do not have room for due to moving, but i'd rather not throw away. the catch: you have to get them this weekend. Let me know if anyone wants this stuff. i'll be posting on CL on saturday or sunday before recycling or trashing this stuff.

located in the tysons corner area on the falls church side. call/text seven.Oh.three -- eight five five -- eight six four three

computer tower and components -- no hard drive
details: AMD processor, Corsair RAM (2GB), ATI graphics card, USB 1.0 m/b, bunch of fans that still work, power supply, broken cd rom drive
(pictures to come)

2008 stock 600rr (slip-on)
(picture to come or you can look it up on a stock photo :-P )

telescope
(pictures to come)

steering wheel puller


usb logitec wireless keyboard and mouse
used for 7 years, but still works perfectly

basic lax stick (traditional net), vortex gloves, and a white ball

Who's old car is this? Joey and I saw it at Fox Mill/Fairfax County Parkway. I waved and realized that the white-haired older lady had no clue why two young guys thought her car was cool.

It's a black E36 328i sedan with a yellow MM sticker near one of the foglights. Had the 'sport' wheels (i.e. not bottlecaps).

Boobies, was this yours?

Get these out of my garage! They will fit every BMW that's 5 lug except the E39 5-series.

These are the wheels that came on the higher-trimmed E34s of the day. Technically they're "Style 5" wheels (says BMW), but they are not the megabawlin' three-piece-and-a-bottle-of-wine Style 5's that everyone and their puppy dog puts on their Eeverything.

Offset is Et20 I believe. They're 15" wheels and perfect for that eloquent "stock" look. There are three brands of tires on four wheels, the P.O. of my car was a real class act.

One has a Futura Touring HR, sized 215/60/15. Based on my (potentially incorrect) reading of the date stamp, the tire is from ~2003.

One has a Lexington (WTF?) ES-335, sized 215/60/15. From 2004?

Tread and sidewalls on both the Futura and Lexington are good.

The other two have Yokohama Avid T4's, sized 225/60/15. They have good tread but are of questionable age, and have some light surface cracks on the rubber of the sidewall.

The wheel with the Lexington has some curb rash, the other 3 are good aside from some brake dust. I can clean them up before I ship or hand off. All 4 tires passed VA Safety inspection and handled one 30 minute Hyperdrive session at VIR.

All have the BMW centercaps and if I sell them as a set of 4, you'll get the BMW/BBS centercap removal tool as well.

Looking for $200 or best offer for the set. If you want just one wheel, let's talk.

Finally got my shit together and listed it for sale. The price is obviously Craigslist proofed and negotiable.

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