After 5 hours of detailing...

I just finished my Spring detailing for my 2012 535.

After washing, double rinsing, claying, washing and rinsing again, and drying with hurricane-force (230 MPH) blower, I polished the car with Meguiars Ultimate polish with my Porter Cable DA, and finished with Meguiars ultimate paste wax.

It was a long but fun process, especially now that we have great weather in Houston.

After seeing the results, I can't help but thank those who steered me towards Carbon Black. What a fantastic color!

Here's the fruit of those 5 hours:

Nice

Sent from my HTC Glacier using Bimmer App

Looks great! How long did it take?

Originally Posted by Needsdecaf

Looks great! How long did it take?

Err... 5 hours...

Beautiful!!!

Originally Posted by alex_c

Err... 5 hours...

I was going to do that today (or the detailer I hired was) but we have a rain postponement till next Sat. Your car looks spectacular.

Beautiful car. One of your pictures is now my desktop until I get my 535i.

Awesome looking Bimmer....

awesome alex!!

Everytime i see those quad tips I'm jealous.... gotta get that done.....LOVE EM

How can you have quad exhaust in 535?

Originally Posted by alex_c

Err... 5 hours...

That's actually faster than I thought. I must be getting old. That would have taken into a second day.

Looks great! Nice job!

Wow Stunning ! I can't wait to wax and detail mine ..

Terrible weather here - It will have to wait until the weather gets nice...

Enjoy it !

Simply gorgeous. I wonder what 5 hours worth of work would look like on a Titanium Silver 535? Not nearly as spectacular, I'm sure, but still ...

Wow, thank you ALL for all those nice comments!

I guess that part of the joy of having a BMW is being part of such a nice community as this one.

Originally Posted by guitarman

Beautiful car. One of your pictures is now my desktop until I get my 535i.

I'm flattered! I have to admit that while I was waiting for mine, I did the same thing with somebody else's Carbon Black 535...

Originally Posted by mpress

awesome alex!!

Everytime i see those quad tips I'm jealous.... gotta get that done.....LOVE EM

Thanks! For me, the best bang-for-the-buck mod there is!

Originally Posted by DerStig

How can you have quad exhaust in 535?

I swapped the diffuser for one from the 550 and had a muffler shop add the quad tips. Not easy to find a good set of tips that actually fit in the short space available... around 6".

Originally Posted by HWF

Simply gorgeous. I wonder what 5 hours worth of work would look like on a Titanium Silver 535? Not nearly as spectacular, I'm sure, but still ...

The thing with Titanium Silver is that it always looks nice. It does not show dirt as much, and looks clean much longer. Carbon Black on the other hand shows every speck of dust and dirt if not clean, but when you take the time to make it shine... it really does!

For me washing and detailing my cars is both a good exercise and a relaxing activity, so having such a "needy" color is a good match!

Alex I'll be honest with you. Ur car looks perfect.
Don't change anything else....maybe some carbon fiber mirrors but that's in IMO.
Those quad tis put u in a different league my friend!

Wow....looks great!

With imperial blue, I'm planning to clay, polish with Menzerna (have a couple types if necessary) and top it with Power Lock. It should really make it pop. I hate dark cars as they are a pain to take care of, but they look fantastic when clean and detailed.

great job!

for what's out there, like machines like PC and Flex I'd never pay to have someone detail my cars. i've slowed down since shoulder surgery, but i've gotten a lot of practice over the years.

phil at detailer's domain offers great stuff. the dealer's "detailers" can't touch my work.

glad you had fun working on your car.

when i do my 535, i'm planning on 2 days. it's a big car.

Looks great!! I spent the day washing off the this sap like dots all over my car. No looks much better.

Originally Posted by schnell525

Wow....looks great!

With imperial blue, I'm planning to clay, polish with Menzerna (have a couple types if necessary) and top it with Power Lock. It should really make it pop. I hate dark cars as they are a pain to take care of, but they look fantastic when clean and detailed.

great job!

for what's out there, like machines like PC and Flex I'd never pay to have someone detail my cars. i've slowed down since shoulder surgery, but i've gotten a lot of practice over the years.

phil at detailer's domain offers great stuff. the dealer's "detailers" can't touch my work.

glad you had fun working on your car.

when i do my 535, i'm planning on 2 days. it's a big car.

I think that if I had taken one minute more, I would have been lynched by my wife and kids!

But still, it was 5 hours at a very fast pace, no stops and no breaks. No wonder I was worn out after I was done.

Originally Posted by BMWfanatic87

Looks great!! I spent the day washing off the this sap like dots all over my car. No looks much better.

Argh! I HATE tree sap. In winter I am always looking where to park, to stay far away from the pine trees and their dripping sap.

Alex,

That's serious amount of work. The F10 is just short of the 750i. It's a big car! I have another daily driver so I don't rush it, but i plan on doing a clay and most likely 2 stage polish to take out the swirls. i'll do the interior another day. I've had my 535 6 months and it only has 1300 miles on it. It's not used much--but I want to make the thing just flat out shine. You did a great job. I may wait until late May or June. Our early spring in the Great Lakes generated a lot of pollen, then our temps dropped into the upper 20's. Trees went back into sleep-mode, but I'm sure they'll fire back up.

I hate taking care of dark cars, but these look great when clean.

Now see, I'd put that much time into my car too except that it takes 5 hours. Don't get me wrong, its not that I don't think my car is worth 5 hours, its more that there in WA, even if I start with a bright sunny day, within 45 minutes it will rain, then it might hail some. Then, (about 1.5 hours later) it will be sunny again, but will snow about 30 minutes after I go back outside with a bucket. I could of course wait until torrential rain is in the forecast, since that almost certainly means it WONT rain, but likely it will be overcast, gray and dull....so you can't tell if the car is shiny or not anyhow. The only upside is in the 45.6 seconds of bright blue sky, there no better place to be.......until the wind blows a hail of pine needles into your grill.

Very nice, but is there a small spot on the right hand front door?

Originally Posted by Imothph

Now see, I'd put that much time into my car too except that it takes 5 hours. Don't get me wrong, its not that I don't think my car is worth 5 hours, its more that there in WA, even if I start with a bright sunny day, within 45 minutes it will rain, then it might hail some. Then, (about 1.5 hours later) it will be sunny again, but will snow about 30 minutes after I go back outside with a bucket. I could of course wait until torrential rain is in the forecast, since that almost certainly means it WONT rain, but likely it will be overcast, gray and dull....so you can't tell if the car is shiny or not anyhow. The only upside is in the 45.6 seconds of bright blue sky, there no better place to be.......until the wind blows a hail of pine needles into your grill.

Man you crack me up! Hahaha, sorry to laugh at your expense...but your examples are hilariously spot on and I love the bitter sarcasm; I spent some time at Ft. Lewis so I know what you mean LOL

Originally Posted by Die Wolfe

Man you crack me up! Hahaha, sorry to laugh at your expense...but your examples are hilariously spot on and I love the bitter sarcasm; I spent some time at Ft. Lewis so I know what you mean LOL

I've had the sometimes pleasure of owning four black cars one after the other - I went with silver this time figuring that'd be better........alas, Washington 5, me Zero

Really nice job!