Beautiful 2003 LSB e46 M3 Detailed

[Darkstar752]

Got a chance to detail a rare Laguna Seca Blue M3 this weekend, amazing car and color to work on! The DSLR even had a hard time catching the true beauty of it, but the pics will have to do Let me know if you have any comments/questions/PM's

Car was had 80,000 miles and showed it, took ~17 hours


Upon arrival, this customer drove 1.5 hours to have me detail it so it was pretty dirty:






Started with the rims, just a quick clean as they were gonna be replaced in the next month:






Bugs got their pre-soak with APC:



Car was then foamed, twice:


Fresh bar of Riccardo was chosen:


Car was pretty contaminated, after 1 panel:



Washer jet cover removed to clean under it:


Clean:


Surgery Prep:



Let's see what the paint looks like, Swirl-maina/hologram combo package :facepalm:



Even the dim lightbulb on the side shows significant marring:



First paint reading. Avg was in the 90's/low 100's, range from 82-120.



Only 50/50's I took, was pressed for time. This was after the first hit of P203, followed up with 106FA but can only see that in the afters.



This panel had the deepest scratches/thin paint, got about 85% correction, other panels with more paint I was able to get to 98-100%




Some kind of etching:


Etching removed:


Black keyhole:


10 painstaking minutes and many Q-tips later...


Polished hard till bout midnight, snapped a pic and hit the hay to wake up early the next morning as I had another client coming mid-day:

[Darkstar752]

Started the next morning with the mats, 50/50 of the front ones:



Driver's after extraction:


Steamed the entire interior, after pic of the M pedals:


Sills before/after:



Smoking vents


Interior after:



At this point the 2nd client, visible in the background, showed up so I shuffled the cars around a bit and did an IPA wipedown and pulled it out into the sun to inspect the polishing job up to this point, most of it was done, still a couple areas needed it(roof,bumpers). As you can see, quarterpanels came out close to 100, hood about 90some%. Paint is still naked. :






Finished it up, put 2 coats of Powerlock on, 24 hrs apart as I had the car for 3 days. Still needed undercarriage spray, applied later. Final sun pics:





Exhaust tips shining again, insides have some water condensation:









Thanks for viewing! Questions/Comments welcome

[Mike Lu]

Nice work man Hope I know how to do it myself

[mike5411]

Looks great!

It's nice to see someone else from the valley on here.

[Darkstar752]

Originally Posted by Mike Lu

Nice work man Hope I know how to do it myself

Thanks man! And no worries, all of it is easy besides the polishing, but once you have the polishing down it's pretty easy. Like learning how to ride a bike

Originally Posted by mike5411

Looks great!

It's nice to see someone else from the valley on here.

Thanks man! First time seeing anyone local, if you ever need help detailing or want to borrow some products(I have too many), I'd be happy to help! I'm on Macada Rd btw, I'm outside/in the garage a lot detailing. Hell if you get me a couple clients I'll do your car for a severely reduced cost, maybe even free if you get enough.

[MuttGrunt]

Nice documentation and great sun-shots. Great work and I hope the owner appreciates his freshly revived M!

[Das M]

Looks very nice indeed. I love clean LSB, looks so nice.

[Darkstar752]

Originally Posted by MuttGrunt

Nice documentation and great sun-shots. Great work and I hope the owner appreciates his freshly revived M!

Thank man, and he does thankfully Glad the sun came out too, it was only out for about an hour, the past 6 days before that had been pouring rain.

Originally Posted by 335viaSTi

Looks very nice indeed. I love clean LSB, looks so nice.

Thanks man, has to be one of if not the favorite color I've ever worked on.

[ADV.1 Matt]

LSB gets me every time! Great detail job and writeup!

[Brandon26pdx]

Oh man that car had seen way too many automatic car washes.

[Brosef]

nice work. love the LSB, but that front plate is a travesty.

[Darkstar752]

Originally Posted by ADV.1 Matt

LSB gets me every time! Great detail job and writeup!

Thanks Matt, appreciate the kinds words

Originally Posted by Brandon26pdx

Oh man that car had seen way too many automatic car washes.

Probably, but keep in mind this car has 80,000 miles on it and is coming from Philadelphia, so I was expecting the paint to be beat-up.

Originally Posted by Brosef

nice work. love the LSB, but that front plate is a travesty.

Thanks! I love the color too, and for the front plate, to each his own

[GOLFFRR]

sick, love that color. Great job

[Darkstar752]

Originally Posted by GOLFFRR

sick, love that color. Great job

Appreciate the kind words Thank you!

[3Bimmer1994]

Beautiful i use the Poorboys wax