sam726

Hello Julian. Firstly thank you for coming in to see myself and Christian today. It was a pleasure to meet you and I'm sorry we were unable to accomodate your needs at this point in time. Whilst we wouldn't normally engage in this, I would like to point out a few facts so that the other Bimmersport members can stay educated and hear a bit from us too. When you spoke to Christian you were wanting us to use your products and tell us the technique you would like us to use. While we respect all of our customers requests - what you were asking us to do takes all of the quality out of our control; which would negatively effect our business should you be unhappy with quality due to us not following our process. To break down the facts about a brand new car detail is as follows. Step 1) Full wash down of the exterior including wheels, wheel barrels, under guards plus full dry of the vehicle and clean and dry of the door jambs. One hour. Step 2) Decontamination. Yes, all new cars need decontamination. I have attached photos of a brand new M235i we detailed. You can see all of the Iron contamination reacting from transport. Disgusting I know that new cars come out of the factory like this, but at least we were there to fix it. Following up with a very light clay bar for thoroughness. One hour. Step 3) Preparation of surface. We mask all exterior plastics and trims and prepare the vehicle. Quarter hour. Step 4) Machine polish using dual action machines. We use four different size machines, Rupes 21ES, Rupes 15ES, Rupes Mini, Rupes Nano to achieve a perfect finish. All new cars we do, including Rolls Royces and other high end have buffer trails, sanding marks, swirls from the dealership and more. Given in your case on white they are hard to see but I 100% guarantee they are there. Machine polish whole car, single stage. Four hours. Step 5) Secondary wash down to remove any light dusting, residues from polishing process. Again, not always necessary but we pride ourselves on being thorough. Half hour. So far. 6 hours 45 minutes. Exterior Only. Of course this excludes any wax, sealants, tyre protectant or interior detailing which we always do as standard to ensure vehicles leave our studio in pristine condition. This process would be at a cost of $549 for a mid sized SUV including the interior. If you consider here labour, product cost, overheads such as power, water, full insurance for your vehicle and our premises and the such - and given if we add on the finals above we are looking at more like 8 hours - I think this is great value. How much does your mechanic charge? $100 per hour excluding materials? At a rate of more like $68 per before expenses for which which I know and consider as just as skilled as a mechanic then it's great value! If you would like some guidance about our quality I would speak to Jooles C, Martin U, Andy P, Kevin L, Amber E, Tristan J, Richard P, Peter F, Dan S, Ryan H, John M, Raewyn A, Ray R, Seth H, Sam F, Sam R, Nick A and no doubt a raft of other Bimmersport members I can't think of at this time. Again, sorry we could not help to apply your products to your car. As mentioned I wouldn't normally reply to threads like this but of course I take exception when the business Christian and I have built comes 'under fire'. We have never had a problem customer before and we are happy to help with any customer request as long as we don't sacrifice quality. In regards to becoming soon 'bankrupt' we are constantly booked up every single week for over the last 12 months including winter, at the prices we need to charge in order to survive. If we were to lower prices to what you consider fair for the work, I would say we would definitely go bankrupt like you say!

Sam from OCD here. $160 is a great price but I would be questioning the quality. In my eyes it all comes down to your expectation and budget. You might find that the level of quality you get for what you pay your mate is exactly what you are after. Theres a place in the market for every 'level' of cut and polishing and grooming. To give you an idea I can do a cut polish and wax in 5 hours and make a car look a lot better if I wanted to - but it's not my game. We recently corrected Martins E39 M5 (check project threads on bimmersport). It took approx 1 hour for initial wash down, 2 hours for clay barring and decontamination, 11 hours or so of cutting the paint, another 2 hours of refinement polishing and then probably another 2 hours for final wash down, sealant and wax. You wouldn't catch me spending almost 20 hours on a car and charging $160 . On top of that we use three different size machines to polish as many areas as possible, polishes from Germany, waxes from Korea etc etc... But in terms of cost our RRP for that service is $749 (including a full interior and exterior detailing). My advice would be to really have a good think about what your expectation is. Do you want to improve your car or do you want as close to a show car as possible? Also, if you do the show car route do you have the time, knowledge and resources to properly maintain that finish too? Sorry for the long post! Feel free to PM me if you have any more specific queries in regards to anything car care related

Thanks for bringing the car in Martin! Was a pleasure to work on it.

Hi Guys, I run Attention To Detail - Vehicle Grooming. I'm bringing a shipment of products from the USA, going to make an order next week and Sonax Full Effect is one of the products I'm bringing in. I'll be selling it for 500ml for $29.99 or 5L Container for $184.99 including a spray bottle to use it with. 5L is expensive yes but much better value than the 500ml ones, works out to be equivalent of $18.50/500ml. Send me a email if your keen sam@attentiontodetail.co.nz - I have a set list of products I'm bring in so can send you a pdf with the whole lot, and can also special order almost any product for you Planning to make the order Wednesday 22nd, should have the products shipped and cleared nz customs 2 weeks after that. Thanks everyone! Sam Gibbons Attention To Detail 021 926 299

Thanks so much Ray. Great to see you, and awesome to do work on such a special car. Just thought I'd mention to Bimmersporters that even though I no longer own a BMW - happy to set anyone up with a deal if they want any work done! Just call/text or email me - 021926299 - sam@attentiontodetail.co.nz Have just posted up the full album of this car on my Facebook page too, https://www.facebook.com/attentiontodetailnz/posts/1489696861292715

Hi Everyone, Have recently sold my E39 and have my old sub box for sale. I made it myself and carpeted it close to the E39s carpet colouring in the boot. The way I made the box is so that it fits snug at the back and follows a similar angle to the back of the boot. Because of the width being nice and snug I never had to secure the box, it just sit there and never moved an inch, better than drilling holes and all! Also its not very deep which means it doesn't actually take up a whole load of boot space, in fact I hardly noticed it was even there with daily use. The box is ported too. Two options: Box alone - $25 pick up. Box with subwoofer and amp - $100 pick up. Amp is a JBL CS60.4, Subwoofer is a Kicker C124 12". Box measures 820mm W x 300mm D x 340mm H. In terms of the sound performance with the JBL and Kicker I found it perfect for the E39. It isn't an overly powerful amp & sub but it definitely fills that lack of low notes from the stock sound system. Only bad thing is rattling number plates on the boot XD Pick up Royal Oak, Auckland or i may be able to deliver it around. Prefer not to ship it because of its size. PM me or 021 926 299

That's good to know, I did always wonder how they would stand up over time. Think I'll try by hand to start with, a bit of manual labour is good for ya

So off they go! Going to just go without the clear coat for now and keep the polishing up. Have included a few quick before photos here and will show some good after photos once they're done nearer end of week. Thanks Lucan for the Style 66s to borrow.

Hey thanks for the info that's good to know. I think ill be investing in a mother's powercone, seems to be the easy way of getting the job done. Will throw some sealant on and should be good, I have some special wheel wax which I can use. Looks good! Should look even greater once the wheels are done! :-)

Darn that would've been perfect! Thanks anyway

Hi Everyone, Does someone have, or know anyone with a full set of E39 wheels and tyres which I can borrow for one week? (next week) I'm taking mine in to have the lips remachined and some damage removed but still need to use my car. Happy to provide a box of beers for anyone willing to lend a set, and they will just be used for my daily commute to work and back, no stupid behaviour guaranteed. If someone wants I could pay a bit but hoping a box of beers might cut it if someone has some spare lying around. Style 5, 32, 37, 42, 65, 66 would be best .....just kidding

I think i'll just polish every couple weeks or so and use a wheel wax to try and keep them looking as good as possible as long as possible!

Cool think I'll go for this option, can't go past the price too at $120 a wheel I can't complain. Will be sure to post some before and after pics before they go in! Now I just need to find a safe cleaner to use for the wheels, assuming an all purpose cleaner/degreaser at a lower end dilution will be fine. I normally Meguiars Wheel Brightener at 10:1 dilution but I think as its acid based would be too harsh for uncoated aluminium.

Hi Andrew, Definitely not opposed to polishing them and not having to clear coat, but would they really need polishing every week? Could be worth the extra to get them clear coated if so. Cheers!

E39 Angel Eye 5 Watt LED Upgrade Bulbs Have been in my car for around 3 months Selling as I have bought 10 Watt bulbs Picture is of the 5w bulbs in my car is taken at night. I don't want to be deceiving so I'd say these look great at night or in shady areas but aren't very bright during the day or in sunlight. These will only fit E39s with factory angel eye housing, they are not rings to install but simple bulb replacement. After $25, will install free for purchaser also PM, Reply or 021 926 299

Thanks man, I think your right about the clear coating, could be worth it. Although i want to keep the budget as low as possible. Just saw on my wanted to buy post that 'e39 tour' is selling some wider style 42s so might wait to have a think about those first before I make any decisions about the refinishing.

Removed mine from my car the other week too. My screen was annoying me as it constantly had this little navigation and compass symbol taking up 1/4 of the screen from the left hand side whereas others I'd seen didn't have that. After scrolling forums and settings I couldn't get rid of it so lived with it. Took out the nav unit and suddenly had a full screen radio & obc! YAY Great design how the boot light clips right back into the bodywork underneath the nav unit where the light would be for cars without the nav option.

I bought a new cup holder for my E39! YAY!

Cool have PM'd you

I'm currently in the process of organising to refinish my 2-Piece Style 42's. I have 18x9s on the back and 18x8s on the front. All have minor curb rash, clear coat peel and cracking on the lips and one has a small bend in the inner lip. I have just been ringing around a few places and getting full quotes for $250-$300+ per wheel from Arrow Wheels, Wheel Fix it etc... I also made an enquiry to a welding/engineering service in Penrose who have quoted a very nice $120 per wheel which is if I take the tyres off and take in just the wheels; then they will seperate them and machine and polish up the lips to a shiny mirror finish although this doesn't include clear coating. My local tyre guy will happily take off the tyres and then refit and balance when they come back for around $30/wheel, so really looking at $150 per wheel but without clear coating. Is it worth getting the wheels re-finished without clear coating them and just keep up with aluminium polishing? I clean my car weekly, if not more, so I don't really have an issue with polishing them up but I'm wondering whether I should be forking out to re-clear them too? And if anyone has any great idea of places to try for quotes etc... I'm all ears. Ta, (have attached a picture for reference)

As far as I can find out the resolution is 400x230 or really close to that. Did you mean that it would cause an issue as it would be really bad viewing quality or that there would actually be an incompatibility between what I'm trying to input and what the screen can handle? Cheers!

Hi Bimmersporters. I have something in mind I'm wanting to try and hook up but not sure if it will actually work or not so I'll explain a little further and hopefully someone can help me out. I have a E39 with the factory 16:9 widescreen + tv tuner and navigation (Japan Import). I'm wanting to install a reversing camera into the car, which I understand is relatively easy to do based on online instructions (adding a relay to make it auto switch when in reverse) and connect to the factory video input on the tv tuner. I want to then confuse things a little. Since I've ripped out the Japan navigation I thought it would be cool if I could rig up my mobile to the front monitor and use it for google maps etc... In my mind I can imagine using a video out to mini hdmi adapter for my LG G2, then use a HDMI to RCA adapter to convert this to an appropriate signal for the car and then somehow attach this to the video input also. The thing is that the standard video input I believe will automatically play audio from the video input source (which is mono and crap and I don't want, I'd rather keep the radio or CD Changer going while the display shows my mobile), however from what I understand when using a reversing camera switch the radio or cd audio will keep playing in the background. Also I think the standard AV channel will turn off when the car is moving? I'm wondering how hard (if even possible) do you think it would be to have a system where I have two video sources into one video output on a splitter. I.E. Reverse Camera + RCA Input output to reverse camera input. Then as well as having a relay to turn on the reverse camera when the cars in reverse I'd also want a switch so that I could manually fool the tv tuner into thinking the cars in reverse, and then somehow have the two video sources switchable. Essentially this means I could switch on the reverse camera or secondary video input manually and still have the reverse camera switching on when I put the car in reverse. I have attached a rather crappy, but somewhat useful diagram to try explain it a bit visually. Apologies in advance for being a bit naive towards this and for any mistakes I've made!! Cheers

Hi Everyone, I know this is a pretty long shot but does anyone have, or know of someone who may have a couple of Style 42s in 18x9 size. I am currently running a staggered setup of 18x9 in the back and 18x8 in the front but am potentially wanting to look at changing the fronts to 18x9 to be wider and with more dish like the rears are. Can consider swapping with my two 18x8s if it's any help. All conditions considered as I would probably get them refurbished anyway. Thanks so much!

Depends how bad the lights are really. Mine are far too bad for that have already used autosol and plasticx on a DA polisher with cutting pads and while it removed some of the yellowing on the surface it was definitely still there

I'm not too sure about the RainX kit since it doesn't seem to be very widely used. To give you some idea of the 3M kit have a look at these two links: http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=716869 http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=447676