BMW Mini Cooper Detail (Lots of pics)!

[Nick Goodall]

BMW Mini Cooper 2006
The car was dropped off on Friday night so i could get started early this morning, i got out there at 8:15am and started with a quick pre-spray of G101 to help breakdown any wax that was on the paintwork.

While this was left to dwell i got the pressure washer all set-up and the foam lance ready before covering the car in foam:
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I scrubbed the badges, grills, vents with some G101 and a detailing brush, and then rinsed the car down.

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Next step was to clean the wheels using some Very Cherry (non acid) and a few brushes, i worked on one wheel at a time and after doing the wheel set about scrubbing the arches with some G101 and another brush.

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I then washed the car using 2 buckets with an Adam's wash pad and some Zymol shampoo.

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It was then rinsed down once more, and i de-tarred using Tardis working on a panel at a time with a used MF Cloth, leaving it to dwell for a couple of minutes before wiping with the cloth, then thoroughly rinsing.

After the whole car was De-tarred i decided to try IronX for the first time having bought some from CleanYourCar earlier in the week. I poured some into a new AS Spray bottle and started out on one of the wheels, spraying it with the IronX and waiting patiently to see what it could do.

Here's the results
After around 30 seconds you can see it starting to work

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Left a bit longer it was showing more and more purple streaks, working in a similar way to how Tardis melts Tar only this is disolving metal particles that you can't even see!

After a couple of minutes i gave them a quick scrub with a brush to see if it made much difference and it surprised me how much more it was managing to find!

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[Nick Goodall]

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I rinsed the wheel down and then carried on to do all 4 wheels, i noticed on the first wheel that some of the IronX was obviously sitting behind the centre nut cover so i decided to remove all of them to do that section, then of course i could thoroughly rinse them out to make sure no IronX was sitting trapped behind it.

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As this worked so well on the wheels i thought i'd see what it could find on the paintwork, as it's all blue apart from the roof it wasn't easy to get photo's but you can see a few bits of purple showing up here:
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The roof was a different story as it's white, it showed loads of purpleness!!
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My Dad turned up in his BMW so i quickly showed him what it can do on his rear wheel, just a few sprays
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I was really pleased with this as it is obviously doing what it's supposed to, even though it was raining too!

Next was to clay the whole car using some Reglaze as lube and some CYC blue clay but the car was really well kept so there wasn't a lot coming off at all, plus the Tardis and IronX helped.

After claying the rain was still coming down so i gave it a quick rinse anyway, and then parked it up in the garage to give it a good spraying of Meg's Last Touch before drying with a big blue fluffy towel.
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Once it was all dry i set about taking some photo's to show a few of the marks i found and then got it all taped up ready for polishing.
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Few marks found
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[Nick Goodall]

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To start with i set out with some 3M Extrafine on a yellow pad but there were a few bad scratches on the bonnet so i used a Yellow 3M pad but upped the polish to Fast cut plus which seemed to get rid of most.

I then refined using ExtraFine and then finally down to UltraFina with a new Blue pad.

Some 50/50 shots during machine polishing

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The rest of the car was pretty good so i just used Extrafine with the Yellow pad and this gave really nice results. Once finished i wiped down the whole car with some IPA to remove all polish dust, and then removed all the blue tape.

Next step was to try another new product which was Poorboys Black Hole using a new 3M Blue Pad i did the whole car with this and it was awesome, really easy to work and you could see the shine developing right there and then, it only took a slight buffing to get rid of any excess but most of it was worked into the paint which lept things easy.

For the final few stages, i went with a nice coating of Zaino Z2 sealant and left it around 25 mins to cure before buffing off.
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Next i used Dodo Juice Purple Haze to put a nice wax layer on top of the Sealant, while the wax was curing i cleaned the Exhaust using some #00 Gauge wirewool with some Autosol metal polish and then buffed up using a MF cloth.
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Tyres were then dressed with Meg's Endurance Gel and the Wax buffed off.

Windows were then cleaned with some AS 20/20 Cristal view and a glass cloth.

Plastics were treated with Aerospace 303 protectant
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The car was all but done now, last thing was a quick Zaino Z8 wipedown which left the car looking pretty good in my opinion ;-)

Thanks for reading, see pics below
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[Nick Goodall]

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Some close-ups
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[PaulRotheram]

No replies?!
Fantastic work on The mini Nick! How long would you say start to finish this took you?

I'm having awful problems with swirling on my car again after the winter, I borrowed a DA in the summer and the car was spot on, however on the black roof and A panels it's come out bad again!

There's a few products you mentioned I'd like to use, for example the black hole, heard nothing but rave reviews about this!
And started to use megs endurance my self, great stuff! After a coating my tyres have had shine for 2-3 weeks now and still looking OK.

[Nick Goodall]

Thanks Paul!!

What Polish did you use with the DA you borrowed??

A lot of them have fillers in so only when you wash it or wipe down with IPA do you really get to see if the swirls came out as they can be hidden with certain products....

Black hole is a good glaze / pre-wax cleaner and can hide swirls well even if using by hand so maybe give that a go? If you want to get yourself a DA though Black hole is a lot easier to use and won't do any damage to your car - it just makes light work compared to polishing by hand :-)

The endurance gel is good stuff though isn't it, smells lovely too!!

[PaulRotheram]

The kit I used was the meguiars g220 with the menzerna polish and pads.

I'm considering getting this:

http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/polishing-machines/das-6-pro-dual-action-polisher/das-6-pro-sonus-and-menzerna-kit/prod_677.html

Reviews seem pretty good, and I can't seem to find any friendly faces local to me who have a DA
I've been putting it off for a long while to buy one, but looking at your work, and popping in to DW every now and then it seems the only way to cure my OCDness with my car!
Did you find the paint particularly hard on this mini? At times a chisel comes to mind when I work on minor defects!

[Nick Goodall]

The kit I used was the meguiars g220 with the menzerna polish and pads.

I'm considering getting this:

http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/polishing-machines/das-6-pro-dual-action-polisher/das-6-pro-sonus-and-menzerna-kit/prod_677.html

Reviews seem pretty good, and I can't seem to find any friendly faces local to me who have a DA
I've been putting it off for a long while to buy one, but looking at your work, and popping in to DW every now and then it seems the only way to cure my OCDness with my car!
Did you find the paint particularly hard on this mini? At times a chisel comes to mind when I work on minor defects!

The Das6 Pro is a great machine, you can't really do much in the way of damage if you're sensible but polish wise, see if you can find a deal with the 3M polishes and with a DA machine i'd suggest the Chemical Guys Hex-Logic pads..... maybe even just look how much you can buy the machine for, and then speak to Chemical guys to see how much a few pads would be (Check out the carwashnwax trader section on DW)!

[teamorsum96]

good job and nice colour, but alec issigonis and john cooper would be turning in there graves, its not a mini cooper at all

[Nick Goodall]

good job and nice colour, but alec issigonis and john cooper would be turning in there graves, its not a mini cooper at all

Thanks!

I'm not sure they would mind to be honest, you couldn't make a real Mini these days with the safety standards required, so think of these as more of a tribute! At least it's keeping the famous name going and they have a huge enthusiast following much like the original Mini did, i think BMW did well bringing it back - It's certainly proved popular and they are still great cars to drive

[teamorsum96]

maybe so i just think its wrong BMW bringing a mini clubman cooper! whats that lol the clubman was the GT1275.
i am true mini fan,i learnt to drive 1 when i was only 10 and its the first car i every rolled to.........oooooopppppsssss

[Bungleaio]

good job and nice colour, but alec issigonis and john cooper would be turning in there graves, its not a mini cooper at all

John Cooper was part of the development of the car and was very pleased with it.

http://www.ozcooper.com.au/bmwmini_mrcooper.jpg

[Alfonzo]

Nick, I'm not often lost for words, but your attention to detail is amazing. I don't quite 'get it', but am very impressed nonetheless!!! :thumbsup: