Detailed: 2003 BMW 330i

I was waiting to detail this car as it is one of my favorites. The car is well maintained and it runs great even after 150k on the odometer, throttle is responsive and the handling is absolutely awesome to say the least. Some of you my recognize this car as I detailed it before back in 2011 but I only did the exterior. This time I was happy to be doing the exterior and the interior and even happier to see that the paint did not get ruined is much as I expected. Now, moving on to the detail and before and after pictures.

I'll start with some before picture to give an idea of the subject

I first started off with a full wash, I used my pressure washer to knock off the dirt and stains and my foam gun to foam the vehicle to help reduce the number of scratches that may occur as a result of washing the car. I use the two bucket method to wash cars so that should reduce if not eliminate the chances of introducing scratches to the car but the foam gun help remove residue and stains and lubricate the paint.

The surface was rough on the car as it was last clayed two years ago. I clayed it and the picture below is after doing only a little more than a quarter of the hood!

I then took care of the wheels. German vehicles are notorious for their brake dust and this one is no exception. The wheels are exactly the design I like but require a lot of patience to clean. All these spokes make them hard and time consuming to clean. I had to scrub hard and use powerful chemicals to get them back to how they should look like

Before:

In process:

After:

Then, it was time to take care of the exhaust tips

Before:

After:

It was now time to dress the car and make sure all the plastics, including the engine bay are restored to the nice black look instead of the grayish color it was, this is a 50/50 shot showing the difference between the plastic before and after dressing

Engine bay before:

Engine bay after:

Masking the car to make sure that polishes and wax won't touch the plastic and won't get in the nooks and crannies:

I then went ahead and started polishing, I used three step process on this car to make sure the finish is restored to what it should be and I added a coat of Buttery Wax. These are some after shots:

Reflection......nice!

Finally it was time to tackle the interior. The interior was the one thing I didn't do on this car the first time I detailed it, so I expected it to be messy and it was, here are some shots before and after.

Before:

After:

I also took care of the floor mats and especially the M logo, here before and after shots

Before:

After:

Trunk before and after:

Before:

In Process:

After

Side of the steering wheel before and after shots

Before:

After:

Console and trans. before and after shots:

Before:

After:

This is an added bonus, while I was working on the back of the car I found that the keyhole of the trunk was dirty and has some sort of a sticky residue so I decided to take care of it. They call it "detailing" for a reason folks.

Before:

After:

Hope you guys have enjoyed this mini write up, the detailing season is here and hopefully I will have many cars to detail and I will have many more write ups. If you have any questions or comments about my process, please let me know. For appointments, please email me directly at hazzi15@hotmail.com

My HUSKY Toolbox

Every time I go to Home Depot for a reason or another these HUSKY toolboxes always catch my eye. I would stop and look at them, open the drawers and envision my tools (detailing and others) neatly stored. For father's day last year, we decided to give my father a HUSKY toolboxes as a gift, cause he used to work with machines and warehouse equipments and he needed something to store his tools. This year he decided to focus on a different business and he no longer use tools so he decided to give me his, pretty much, brand new HUSKY toolbox. I was ecstatic I didn't waste time putting all my detailing tools and Adam's stuff that I need to store safely somewhere and not in my detailing cart. Here are some pictures starting from the bottom going up

My polishers:



Brand new towels and wash mitts



Polishing pads



Brushes and misc.



All other tools
















Of course I'm no where near done with this, I still need to figure out what other tools I need, as I plan to make this my one stop toolbox for any detailing supply or tools. Can't wait to add more to my collection.


Thanks for looking

Detailed: 2008 Mercedes Benz C300

It has been a long time since I posted on my blog here but since last time I posted, a lot of things have changed and between new job and studying for few tests, I barely had any time to write and post on the blog. So, with that said, last week a buddy of mine asked me to detail his 2008 Mercedes C300. He has just bought the car with less than 47000 miles on the ODO

Upon picking up the car and inspecting it, I knew that even though the dealer has supposedly cleaned and prepped it, this wasn't going to be an easy task. The car had some sort of brown stains and gunk stuck on pretty much all panels and the body felt rough to the hand. Right away I did the bag test on the paint and realized that the car needs a CLAY badly! This car had the roughest surface I have ever felt. Anyway, we will get to that later as I go through the quick write up for that detail.

Here are some pictures to show how the car was when I picked it up.

First thing first, I started with the wheels, tires and wheel barrels and applied the Deep Wheel Cleaner which is specifically designed to remove brake dust on sports cars (In order to increase the stopping power of sports cars, the brake pads usually have a higher amount of metal, causing A LOT of brake dust).

Before

The Deep Wheel Cleaner in action

After

I then moved to wash the car by using a Foam Gun to reduce the potential of adding more scratches to the surface as I'm washing the car with the wash pads.

Just after a wash

I then went ahead and clayed the car, here's what I got on the clay bar (after a thorough wash!)

I then went ahead and masked the car to make sure the polish doesn't get in contact with the rubber or in the nooks and crannies.

It was time for polishing, so I started with Severe Swirls and Haze Remover and the green pad then Swirl and Haze Remover, Fine Machine Polish, Brilliant Glaze and Buttery Wax. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of in-process paint correction or comparison pictures (except for the heavily swirled B-pillars) as the time was running out and I needed to focus on the car instead of taking pictures but I have some pictures after the car was done and I felt comfortable with the time. 

B-pillars before

B-pillars after

Here you go

Reflections....nice!

 Engine bay after

Here are some pictures after I delivered it to the proud owner :)

Next time, I will have to find someone to help me out with the in-process pictures as I find myself too focused on the detail that I don't take pictures or if I see something wrong and I go ahead and fix it and after I fix it I realize that I should have taken a before picture first then an after.

Thanks for reading and watching.