E46 M3

[Sammo 2476]

45 minutes ago, m325i said:

Haha ditto! 
/r/bmwcirclejerk 

(did my lights look too bright?)

Didn't notice the lights, just those big ol’ M3 arches

[m325i 704]

I was a big wax/sealant guy. Finally committed to a ceramic coating. Gotta say on first impression I can see the appeal.

Paint wasn't too bad as I had polished it years ago, but did have water spotting and needed a polish. I wasn't going to chase the last 5% - Polishing is a nightmare. Even blasting through it it took ~5-6 hours. 

I used;

• Carpro Fixer (for some 'worse' areas)
• Carpro Essence all over
• MF cutting pad
• Finishing pad only on the bonnet where I went pretty hard to get the water spots out. 
• CQuartz UK 3.0 + Reload

It's a dream on all the black trim, (PDC sensors look brand new!), wipers etc. 

It looks the best it ever has, so looking forward to the long term review!

It has convinced me that I would put a coating on a 'non corrected car' - maybe just a quick polish. And I would live with some locked in swirls (on say a white car) to get the coating benefits.

Going to cull my detail cabinet now...

[NUSTAD 243]

Nice work looks mega.  I shelled for OCD treatment on my carbon black - been very happy with result and resilience.

need to do it myself for the daily drivers…….

[m325i 704]

11 hours ago, NUSTAD said:

Nice work looks mega.  I shelled for OCD treatment on my carbon black - been very happy with result and resilience.

need to do it myself for the daily drivers…….

Yeah paying for a polish is money well spent. Coating is pretty easy to apply though. 
 

Driving around in a freshly polished car is always quite fascinating. Within an hour I had two people literally wind down their windows and compliment it. 

[Sammo 2476]

2 hours ago, m325i said:

Yeah paying for a polish is money well spent. Coating is pretty easy to apply though. 
 

Driving around in a freshly polished car is always quite fascinating. Within an hour I had two people literally wind down their windows and compliment it. 

Good to hear - it looks amazing. Keeping a car always clean is the best mod.

Might explore ceramic coating after I get panel / paint done.

[isis 16]

Nice work - I am about to jump on the Carpro band wagon and looking at using Reflect as a finishing polish and then a coat of C-Quartz. I've got some Mezerna 2400/Chemical Guys to use as light compound and then top up with Reflect using their Gloss pad.

I haven't used a MF pad before as i've been using the Orange foam pads. Anything to watch for with an MF pad? And any reason you went straight to Essence? 

Cheers

[m325i 704]

55 minutes ago, Sammo said:

Good to hear - it looks amazing. Keeping a car always clean is the best mod.

Might explore ceramic coating after I get panel / paint done.

Definitely do it. That’s the easiest time to 

[m325i 704]

43 minutes ago, isis said:

Nice work - I am about to jump on the Carpro band wagon and looking at using Reflect as a finishing polish and then a coat of C-Quartz. I've got some Mezerna 2400/Chemical Guys to use as light compound and then top up with Reflect using their Gloss pad.

I haven't used a MF pad before as i've been using the Orange foam pads. Anything to watch for with an MF pad? And any reason you went straight to Essence? 

Cheers

Nothing to look out for as far as I know. 
Paint wasn’t too bad. I read that with a MF cutting pad and Essence actually cuts quite a bit and is a primer for Cquartz. 
Some sections I cut first though. Results were pretty good with one step though so I accepted 90-95%. I would love to see how perfect you could get it if you did a full 2 step though. 
 Quartz definitely darkens the paint colour a little. 

[Neil McCauley 240]

@m325i spotted you giving it the berries past Diamond Takeaways as I was en route to London via the airport, sounded good coming on cam 😁

When you say MF pad do you mean foam as compared to wool?

I went down the Rupes rabbit hole a few years ago and run Farecla product on rupes pads and DA in a professional setting - I'd be interested to see if the CarPro range compares 

[m325i 704]

MF = micro fibre. 
Rupes is nice! I just used a Supercheap DA. 

[m325i 704]

~203km

Thanks to Hell BM, a few maintenance items that have it driving like it’s 15 years newer. 

- drive shaft bearing, new guibo (2nd time it’s been done. Was trashed) 

- all gear selector bushings etc. (existing e60 short shifter) 

- engine and gearbox mounts

- new boot struts!!! 
- coded out LED errors. I’m convinced people pay a lot for new cars for that “hard” LED indicator flash. Certainly modernises it. 
 

The drive train feels (relatively) smooth and awesome. 
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

 

Edited June 11, 2023 by m325i

[hybrid 1039]

Looks amazing as usual, great to see you still have it.

[m325i 704]

1 minute ago, hybrid said:

great to see you still have it.

Learned my lesson 😝

[hybrid 1039]

2 minutes ago, m325i said:

Learned my lesson 😝

haha, after many years youll be glad to know the e30 will be getting a total repaint this year. 

[m325i 704]

Just a clean for the sunny weather.

[M3AN 4015]

Looking lovely, making good use of our limited sun, although the plates look naff and detract from the overall appeal.

I'm never sure why people go to the effort to obscure otherwise public plates, especially when they're already visible in the thread. Nothing Gained I'd suggest...

 

[m325i 704]

35 minutes ago, M3AN said:I'm never sure why people go to the effort to obscure 

 

Hey bro. 
Please let me know where my plate is displayed in the thread. 
(I’d just rather a small amount of anonymity/deniability) 

You obviously made your bed a decade or two ago 😆 

[Harper 464]

44 minutes ago, m325i said:

Hey bro. 
Please let me know where my plate is displayed in the thread. 
(I’d just rather a small amount of anonymity/deniability) 

You obviously made your bed a decade or two ago 😆 

Last photo on page 5

[m325i 704]

1 minute ago, Harper said:

Last photo on page 5

Thanks. (But fake)

[M3AN 4015]

14 hours ago, m325i said:

Please let me know where my plate is displayed in the thread. 

https://bimmersport.co.nz/topic/48623-e46-m3/?do=findComment&comment=677049

Nearly 3 years now... and the effect is so much better when you view it with Firefox... 😂

 

[m325i 704]

22 minutes ago, M3AN said:

https://bimmersport.co.nz/topic/48623-e46-m3/?do=findComment&comment=677049

Nearly 3 years now... and the effect is so much better when you view it with Firefox... 😂

 

Thanks for that.