Having completed the work on the E92 ///M3 a few weeks back, I was given the go ahead to come back and attend to the owners E60 M5

Whilst working on the M3 I had a look at the M5 and I knew that some time would be needed to get her back into tip top condition. After arriving around 7am and having had a brief chat with the owner, I had to chuckle. Since his wife's M3 was detailed she has 'allegedly' been using his M5 (as far as possible), rather than getting her own car dirty...Clever woman indeed


With the formalities out of the way I got stuck into giving the M5 some TLC...

The car upon arrival.


A fair amount of road grime all over
















Some bird bomb remains


Tailpipes were filthy





First up the wheels, again not the worst I have seen but they were in need of some serious cleaning...


Sonax applied and left to work while I filled the buckets and got all the brushes ready


The wheels and arches were cleaned with various brushes, APC and CWC...







With the wheels and arches out of the way I foamed the car with CWC which was left to dwell whilst getting the buckets, etc ready for the wash stage

CG buckets and Raceglaze wash mitt ready for duty...


CWC doing it's thing...


After giving the car a thorough rinse I attended to all the small details.

Fuel filler area


Shuts and panel gaps


Emblems



Buckets after washing



With the wash out of the way it was time to clay...This is what needed removing from the surface!

Hundreds of little white spots of who knows what. More than likely wet road paint or something

 

Medium clay was used to save time in removing the contamination. Despite this it still took over 2 hours to remove almost all of the spots. There were some in hard to reach places and on plastics that just wouldn't budge but 99% of them were removed!

After a final rinse the car was dried and the paintwork inspected in preparation for the correction stage.

Paint levels were healthy all round





Some mild defects visible under the LED's




Under the halogens the paint wasn't overly bad with most areas showing only minor signs of RIDS and light swirls.




Some minor swirling in the taillights


Headlights would need some polishing as well



Overall the paint was in pretty good shape which was a relief considering it was already lunch time and I hadn't even started on the paint correction.

Starting out with some 106FA on a 3M polishing pad yielded pretty good results although some of the deeper RIDS were still visible. With that in mind I stepped up to SIP on the polishing pad and got stuck in!

Paintwork nicely cleaned up




Some random shots from the polishing stage






Colour looked awesome in the yellow light of the halogens



Some before and afters...










Headlights came up well with 2 hits of SIP followed by 106FA



The mirrors, particularly the black plastic undersides, were in serious need of some work...








After polishing






This shot looked cool



With the sun starting to set I snapped a few random pics








Final shot for the day

 

Sunday started early as well at around 7:30. Not wanting to upset the neighbours with the pressure washer or vacuum cleaner so early, I took a few more photos and attended to the small details like the tailpipes and chrome trim, etc

Flake in the overhead lights


Some reflection shots




Paintwork was looking slick!




Tailpipes shined up with Raceglaze Alutech metal polish. I think they came out really well considering how they looked earlier.





With all the small odds and ends completed I pulled the car outside to clean the engine bay and start on the interior.

Outside I snapped 2 more quick pics





This is what she looked like at around the same time on the day before!


Being a family car it was no surprise to find that the interior would need some work.

Dusty








There were some white patches on the dash, door cards and seats...










Leather and dash/trim were looking a little dull







The interior was cleaned with 20:1 APC and various brushes and cloths before I decided to attend to the engine bay and give the car a final wash. With the sun almost out in full force I wanted to get the final wash completed along with the engine bay before finishing off the interior.

The engine bay wasn't overly dirty and required only a light rinse followed by some 10:1 APC to remove some dirt buildup in the shuts and all the nooks and crannies.

The heart of the beast!




Good as new




After a final wash I snapped 2 quick pics out in the sun




I liked this shot

 

With the exterior all completed and the car dried it was time to finish off the interior.

I started off by dusting out all the vents and then vacuuming the floors and mats. The trim was treated to 303 Aerospace whilst the leather got the Raceglaze twins.



























Emergency toolkit was cleaned as well


A brush often comes in handy when applying dressing to vents and other small areas you can't access with a sponge or applicator pad



Exterior trim got 303 as well...Only 1 shot sorry!


Tires got CG's Fade to Black. I'm quite liking the satin look it gives to the tires as well as the fact that it's alot less messy to apply




LSP was the Werkstat Acrylic duo (Prime followed by Jett). A few quick shots inside the garage...














Having finished up at around 2:30pm I was once again invited to join the clients with their family for some lunch out by the pool

With the work completed and everything packed away it was still a bit bright for decent photos outside. I decided to head on home to unpack all my gear and have a shower before returning at around 6 to take some final shots...









Final one



As with the M3 I thoroughly enjoyed myself working on this fantastic car. Thanks go out once again to my hosts for the weekend, who as previously, made me feel right at home!

Thanks for looking

 

I really like the post, good work with the car.

 

Never fails to impress!~

 

Fantastic results.

 

Very nice Carn! What part of Gauteng are you from? My brother just moved back to the states from the Lynwood area.