Polished Bliss®: Ne Plus Ultra - BMW 730...

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tuscan_thunder
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Polished Bliss®: Ne Plus Ultra - BMW 730...

Post by tuscan_thunder » Tue Nov 08, 2011 6:16 pm

( If you're newish to detailing and don't know what our Ne Plus Ultra service is then there are more details here: http://www.polishedbliss.co.uk/acatalog ... tions.html )


This job was carried out last summer but I've only just got round to putting it all together after going through all the pictures (note to self - stop taking so many!)

The owner of the car came to us after seeing a previous Ne Plus Ultra we carried out on a Bentley a while back (here for those that haven't seen it: http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/s ... p?t=159405 )and decided they wanted the car back to showroom condition again. This obviously wasn't going to be the cheapest of jobs but the client's opinion was that they'd lose a load of cash on trade in anyways and as they really liked the car they'd prefer to pay to get it back to how it should be :)

Before any detailing work could be started we'd arranged for the car to make a trip to Kinghorn Body shop as there was a rather large crease in the O/S rear door that PDR couldn't remove.

During repair:

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There were also signs of a bad previous paint job on the roof :

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Clear coat peeling away in places too:

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The roof was taken back to bare metal and done properly this time and then 4 or 5 days later I brought it up to PB HQ ready for me to do my thing :)


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A few quick pictures to give you an idea of the overall condition of the car:

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Usually we'd start by doing the wheels but they were to be sent up to PPS in Inverurie to be powder coated so this stage was skipped and we began with the arches:.

Meguiars Super Degreaser sprayed:

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Then agitated:

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The arches would get a more thorough going over once the car was up on axle stands but it's always good to get the majority of dirt removed outside.



Same process applied to the engine bay:

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Rinsed at medium pressure with water at a temperature of approx 60 degrees:

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Door shuts/petrol cap/exterior trims and badges were cleaned with Meguiars APC (4:1):

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This was followed by a 2 bucket wash and rinse...

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...and then the paintwork was chemically cleaned to remove tar spots and iron filings etc:

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Tar build up in the engine bay too:

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After a wipe over with an old MF towel:

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After a final rinse the car was brought inside and clayed with Meguiars Aggressive Clay although there was barely anything removed. If I'm going to machine polish the car I'll generally use an aggressive clay as it doesn't matter if you marr the finish slightly.



After a thorough dry off with PB Luxury Drying Towels and the Black Baron drier the car was put into position where it would stay for the next week or so and then had the wheels removed:

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Tyre Devotion then turned up to remove the tyres so we could take the wheels up to PPS for them to work their magic:

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Before starting any machine work I removed a few bits and bobs including the front grills and side repeaters:

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I then took a few snaps to show the condition of the paintwork:


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(You’ll notice the defect free paintwork on the door of the above pic - this was a result of the re-sprayed panels from the body shop which were 99% perfect and only needed a very light refine :thumb:)

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As the car was at a nice comfortable height on the axle stands I decided to start on all the lower parts first, but not before taking some paint readings:

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Nice and healthy on the rear bumper as it had been re-sprayed previously.


Defects were removed with Lake Country Foamed Wool pads, Menzerna S500 and the Makita at approx 1800-2200 rpm's:

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After each panel was corrected with the wool I did a 2nd stage of polishing with a Lake Country Cyan HT Pad and Menzerna 203S:

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A few more correction shots:


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The N/S of the rear bumper was really orange peely so a short session with some 2000 and then 3000 sand paper sorted that out:

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Side Skirts next:

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Boot Lid:

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O/S front wing:

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Bonnet:

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After the first 2 stages of polishing the car was needing a good rinse to remove all the dust. Luckily the wheels were back from PPS and Tyre Devotion had re fitted and balanced the tyres (highly recommended if you're in the Aberdeen area):

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They were given a clean up with APC to remove the soap residue from the sidewalls and then given a couple of coats of Swissvax Autobahn. Finally the centre caps were given a machine polish to brighten them up again:

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All ready to go back on :)

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One last job to do before the wheels went back on was to paint the bolts silver:

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With the wheels back on and torqued to the correct settings I put the car outside to rinse off all the excess dust, including all the shuts:

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After sheeting the water off with an open ended hose and then drying off with the Black Baron again I refined the whole car with a 3M Finishing Pad and Wolf's WP-1N, using the long work time of this polish to really burnish the clear coat:

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After an IPA wipe down Wolf's Body Wrap was applied and buffed off after about an hour:

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Wolf's Glass Guard was applied to all exterior glass:

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Wolf's Nano Trim Coat was applied to the exterior trim:

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The door shuts and chrome work were polished and protected with Werkstat Prime Strong:

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Grills also polished with Prime Strong:

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Cleaning with APC before refitting:

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Interior wise it wasn't too bad, it just needed a thorough hoover and wipe down more than anything.

Dusted down and Hoovered first:

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Then a thorough wipe down of all plastics and vinyls followed by the cleaning of the leather using Swissvax products:

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Swissvax Wood Polish applied to all wood surfaces:

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The seals were fed with Swissvax Seal and glass cleaned with 3M Glass Cleaner.

Spare wheel also cleaned and tyre dressed :D

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The engine bay was dressed with Swissvax Motorshine, I love this stuff and have done my Impreza engine and suspension with it - just make sure to mask off any necessary areas first:


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After a good check over and final hoover of the interior this was what we were left with :thumb:





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Thanks for taking the time to have a look, the next Ne Plus Ultra should be on a Ferrari Enzo which we had planned on having done in August but it was moved to next Spring :)
Mair throttle, less brake

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mainsy
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Re: Polished Bliss®: Ne Plus Ultra - BMW 730...

Post by mainsy » Tue Nov 08, 2011 6:42 pm

Superb work, how many hours went into this one? Its the engine bay that really makes me :shock:
Loving the polished door shuts too :thumbsup

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j2 lot
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Re: Polished Bliss®: Ne Plus Ultra - BMW 730...

Post by j2 lot » Wed Nov 09, 2011 12:13 am

wow - just wow. The attention to detail is mindblowing :shock:

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Shug
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Re: Polished Bliss®: Ne Plus Ultra - BMW 730...

Post by Shug » Wed Nov 09, 2011 10:36 am

Of course, you've really put the work in there, but I guess nothing is free and for this standard of service, the customer would have paid (frankly) through the nose. For a 7 series BM?

I don't understand some people.

Not a criticism of what you do at all, but, like I say, I just can't understand what some people think is worth spending lots of money on. If it was an old 911 or something, yeah, totally get it. 5 year old bland exec car? Odd.

Anyway, not meaning to put a dampener on the thread at all - sorry if I have.
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tuscan_thunder
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Re: Polished Bliss®: Ne Plus Ultra - BMW 730...

Post by tuscan_thunder » Wed Nov 09, 2011 2:38 pm

Can't actually recall the hourly total; Clark will have a record but it was done over quite a time period so not just in for 7 days then out; think it was with us for well over 2 weeks all in though obviously wasn't worked on solidly over that time.


Shug; I know what you're getting at though obviously I'd say he didn't pay through the nose.

In the 7 series case the guy was considering buying a new 7.

Instead, he thought it'd stick a couple of grand (£1,680+vat) into making his car look better than new. He doesn't do a huge mileage in a year and when you think how a brand new 7 would depreciate over a year, against this one which has started to level out, it makes more sense.

Each to their own really; customer asks; customer gets though I think it's fair to say he wasn't expected polished door pins and bonnet catches! (It's these little bits I really love)
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Corranga
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Re: Polished Bliss®: Ne Plus Ultra - BMW 730...

Post by Corranga » Thu Feb 09, 2012 8:48 pm

The attention to detail, and work put into that is increadible, I'm astonished!

Can't help but agree with Shug, though I suppose the owner probably thinks we're nuts for driving around in 14 year old plastic toys ;)

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pete
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Re: Polished Bliss®: Ne Plus Ultra - BMW 730...

Post by pete » Thu Feb 09, 2012 10:42 pm

I love your threads - I think I just enjoy watching someone doing something they enjoy and doing it really well.

I suspect you guys have never actually seen a dirty car though, none of my cars have ever been as clean as the cars in your before shots, let alone the after ones.
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graeme
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Re: Polished Bliss®: Ne Plus Ultra - BMW 730...

Post by graeme » Thu Feb 09, 2012 10:44 pm

Stunning work, but the customer must be mental...
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tuscan_thunder
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Re: Polished Bliss®: Ne Plus Ultra - BMW 730...

Post by tuscan_thunder » Fri Feb 10, 2012 1:02 pm

pete wrote:I love your threads - I think I just enjoy watching someone doing something they enjoy and doing it really well.

I suspect you guys have never actually seen a dirty car though, none of my cars have ever been as clean as the cars in your before shots, let alone the after ones.

Rich's car ( he's one of the PB directors) is featured here: http://www.polishedbliss.co.uk/blog/201 ... emo-video/

My jeep hasn't been washed for 4months either .....
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