[Mark e90]

I used KPMF Vinyl from MDP supplies. It's still pretty cheap, from memory it was around £15 per meter of a 60inch roll so you have plenty to play with and redo if needed. I haven't had any problems with it but I have used some higher quality vinyl ( 3m, APA ) and application is way easier, much nicer stuff to work with. Make sure if you do buy 3m get it from a reputable company as there is a lot of fake 3m stuff on eBay etc. If it's curling back the vinyl will have been over stretched, a good tip I picked up from a pro is to use no head until it's absolutely necessary, that way you are only stretching the material the minimum amount.

[Spanner99]

Just had a quick browse through their site and it seems to be pretty reasonably priced so will probably order some. Did you just get the automotive vinyl or one of the other ones?

[Mark e90]

Its was KPMF Carbon Fibre Airelease i used £13.14 on their site

[Mark e90]

Got the wheels off and away to be powder coated. They didn't have any really bad kerb marks or anything but they had about 10 coats of paint on them and lots of little corrosion spots coming through. They were a bit of a mess when looking at them close up so needed done !







Got the wheels back and they are now looking great I just went for the same colour and they managed to match them pretty good





Now to get them really looking the part !

Sealed up with Fusso coat and some CarPro PERL on the tyres





New centre caps and badges to finish them off









I would say they are ever so slightly darker which i like. So much better than how they looked before, i now realise just how tired they were beginning to look


Sitting nicely on 15mm spacers




Also picked up some goodies to keep the wheels looking fresh




A quick wash and i must say the car isn't looking too bad ( white reg on the back as i was using it as a template for new reg )

[Mark e90]

This bundle of goodies showed up at the door so was time to get started on the paint correction and coatings detail

Went with Gtechniq so the car has had Crystal Serum Light on all paintwork plus wheels and then 2 coats of EXO V3, the only thing that only got 1 coat of EXO was the roof and wheels as i ran out !




Obligatory snow foam photos





Car was still beading well with just Fusso Coat



Car was then clayed and dried



Wheels removed




Compounding started, used Rupes Mk2 with Meguires microfibre cutting pads and Megiures 101



Then finished down using Rupes white finishing pad and Meguires 205



Paint was then wiped down with IPA and inspected, all looked great so on with the coatings



After applying Crystal Serum light i left the car to sit for around 5 hours then applied 2 coats of EXO V3 back to back



Same process with the wheels, front and backs



All glass then coated with 2 coats of Gtechniq G5



All rubber trim treated with Gyeon Q2 Trim Coat



Polished the exhaust with some good old autosol, find that stuff hard to beat and then decided to coat the with some left over CSL, don't know how that will hold up but figured it was worth a try.




Finally complete with wheels back on the car, I didn't take many before photos of the car as i just got stuck in and wanted to get the job completed over the weekend but i have included some photos i took of the paint a few weeks ago when i was trying out different polishing combos and also have attached some photos of how the paint is looking now.


Before




After









The car is still tucked up in the garage and hasn't moved yet so haven't had a chance to take some proper completed photos but the paint looks incredible in person, can't wait to see how it looks in the sun and the water behaviour

[e28bmw]

Looks amazing, I wish I had the garage, time and knowledge to do a job like that

[McPikie]

Originally Posted by e28bmw

Looks amazing, I wish I had the garage, time and knowledge to do a job like that

Same here. I can't bring myself to pay someone £250 to do it for me

[Mark e90]

Thanks guys.

I'm actually moving house and unfortunately I will no longer have a garage for the foreseeable future this is the reason I went with a semi permanent coating.

I think it would cost a bit more than £250 for a correction plus coatings detail.

[Mark e90]

Quick water behaviour video

[Mark e90]

Well after re routing my aux and charge cables to a single exit at the ashtray (trying to tidy things up), Apple updated the IOS to 10.3 and now all aftermarket adapters no longer work

It seems all the aftermarket iPhone cable makers are going to need a while to catch up with this as they are now all advertised as not compatible with IOS 10.3

Old Setup




So i ordered this which just arrived this morning.



I was never to keen on these bluetooth converters as i just thought they would sound rubbish compared to a direct connection through an aux cable, I was wrong ! Yeah when using them with a very good pair of headphones i can hear a slight distortion at high volume but through the aux in my car i can't tell the difference at all

Tried to set it up as tidy as possible




Just wish i had done this in the first place, so much better not having wires all over the place when using the AUX.

[Rustymage]

Originally Posted by Mark e90

Well after re routing my aux and charge cables to a single exit at the ashtray (trying to tidy things up), Apple updated the IOS to 10.3 and now all aftermarket adapters no longer work

It seems all the aftermarket iPhone cable makers are going to need a while to catch up with this as they are now all advertised as not compatible with IOS 10.3

Old Setup




So i ordered this which just arrived this morning.



I was never to keen on these bluetooth converters as i just thought they would sound rubbish compared to a direct connection through an aux cable, I was wrong ! Yeah when using them with a very good pair of headphones i can hear a slight distortion at high volume but through the aux in my car i can't tell the difference at all

Tried to set it up as tidy as possible




Just wish i had done this in the first place, so much better not having wires all over the place when using the AUX.

I found I had to crank the volume up for the bluetooth adapter to work :/

[RajB]

Nice on the detail firstly. Can't beat a proper correction of the paintwork.

As for the iPhone I haven't yet updated to the latest but didn't realise that was part of it lol.

[Mark e90]

Originally Posted by RajB

Nice on the detail firstly. Can't beat a proper correction of the paintwork.

As for the iPhone I haven't yet updated to the latest but didn't realise that was part of it lol.

Yeah unfortunately thats the case now, its pretty poor from Apple though as they don't even offer a 3.5mm + lightening listen and charge adapter so its not even like you can go and buy one from them that works

The only thing they offer close to this in their stores is a Belkin listen and charge adapter which is £35 !!! but that just has 2 lightening inputs so you can only charge and listen on the supplied lightening headphones, which are rubbish

Anyway as i said I'm more than happy with the bluetooth solution, i find it works just fine. I set the phone to full volume when connected then just control it through the cars volume, which is what i do when using a traditional AUX cable aswell. Plus i like the fact i can flick through tracks without touching my phone, with the new laws nowadays you can never be to careful

[mrbubba]

Originally Posted by Rustymage

I found I had to crank the volume up for the bluetooth adapter to work :/

I use a Tunai Firefly as recommended on these forums. You can set the phone up (Android) so that you don't have to have the volume cranked up, mine is at normal level to the radio 😀

[Spanner99]

I maybe being a bit dumb here but what about the cars bluetooth connectivity? What do you do if you get a call as it won't be connected to the car?

[essex_lad]

Originally Posted by Spanner99

I maybe being a bit dumb here but what about the cars bluetooth connectivity? What do you do if you get a call as it won't be connected to the car?

I have an anker Bluetooth adaptor in mine and my phone automatically connectors to both using the cars Bluetooth for phone still and the Bluetooth adaptor for multimedia audio.

Mark do you find you get interference from the alternator with yours?

[e28bmw]

Originally Posted by Spanner99

I maybe being a bit dumb here but what about the cars bluetooth connectivity? What do you do if you get a call as it won't be connected to the car?

That shouldn't be an issue and you can connect to both at the same time

[Si335d]

Great finish on the detail.. really made the colour POP!