BMW E36 325i Arctic Green

When this car came in, it looked pretty okay,but the paint felt rough to the touch.
When inspected with a 300w halogen light before washing, I couldn't see any swirls or scratches, only during polishing when dirt in paint has been removed, the scratches showed up.

This car had not been detailed before, although it's washed quite regularly at the petrol station car washes, the tires were full or dirt grime and brake dust. All they did were swipe tire dressing over a dirty tire.

Each tire I had to pre-treat, rinse, and scrub and rinse twice to get it squeaky clean.

The paint had some scuff marks here and there, some were removed with M80 by hand, the side mirror required wetsanding.Besides that the whole car had M83 and M80 and then two coats of NXT Tech Wax. That took care of the exterior. The vertical panels were mostly swirl free, except the hood and roof, couldn't get all the swirls out.

The interior smelled 'salty', smelled like a guy's armpit after a game of football, well not that bad, but something like that. :P .
So the leather seats, doors, half of the roof, dashboard, centre console, glove box got scrubbed with APC cut at 10:1. The back of the chairs had some scuff marks that couldn't be removed. The interior roof had spots of what look like curry or just dirt, it was scattered all over the roof area of the passenger side and driver's side. Those spots got pre-treated with goo-gone and then followed up by APC.

The vinyl back of the chair were the dirtiest part of the car, got scrubbed twice and wiped many times.

Then when everything is dry, leather got conditioned and all vinyl and rubber got protected with NXT tech protect and buffed off immediately to remove any shine or oilyness.

Interior before:

what's a cactus doing there?


Very grimy steering wheel.


Left is after cleaning, right is before.


I had to change about 5 buckets of water to do the rinsing for the interior


Products used for interior:
-Meguiar's All Purpose Cleaner 10:1
-Meguiar's NXT Tech Protectant
-Meguiar's Gold Class Rich Leather Cleaner/Conditioner
-Eagle One 20/20 glass cleaner
-Goo Gone

Interior after:




Exterior pictures:

Products used for exterior :
-Meguiar's Safe D-Greaser 4:1
-TurtleWax Ultra Gloss Platinum Shampoo
-Perma Glass No.2 Clay
-Meguiar's Gold Class Trim Detailer
-Armorall Original
-Meguiar's Hot Shine Tire Spray
-M83 DACP
-M80 Speed Glaze
-1500 grit sandpaper
-Meguiar's Last Touch 1:1 as clay lube



removed with m80 by hand.



wetsanded, and removed sand marks with m80 by hand.




wetsanded, and removed sand marks with m80 by hand.



m80 by hand.


Clay after hood only.

And after long hours of this

and this

I need longer arms and legs...

Vertical panels were I can say swirl-free


The hood and boot had about 30% of swirls that I couldn't remove with PC+83(still not cutting it ). But both the owner and I were very satisfied. I know I was .

Exterior After Pics :
Sorry I finished up a little bit late, the sun was almost down and blocked by the clouds.













Thanks very much for reading,
Merry Christmas and Happy Detailing!