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Exactly a month ago, Griot's Garage, the most respectable motorcar care company, became our exclusive BMWBlog sponsor. I have been a long fourth dimension client of them and ever since I bought my commencement bimmer, I have been using their products, amidst other companies equally well. You might be asking what fabricated me cull them over the many other auto intendance companies and the answer to that is very simple: abreast the high quality products, the main selling signal for me was their manuals and DVDs that guided me throughout the detailing process.

I have to acknowledge, I was far away from being a pro when it came to detailing my car and I felt like information technology was a "rocket scientific discipline". The commencement thing I did when I bought my beginning product from them was to watch their instructional DVD and refering to the printed manual.

I've come up a long way since then and now I feel similar I know what the hack I'm doing and boy, let me tell you lot, that feels really good, especially not worrying virtually ruining my car. So, right after they signed upwardly with us, I decided that my new  BMW 335i was due for a complete detail. I bought my car in January and I didn't really accept any detail jobs since then.

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Products Used

Speaking with Mike Bailey. from Griot's Garage, I told him how I am non very organized when it comes to tools or just things in general, and then he advised me to get the Griot's Garage Car Care Organizer. Great pocketbook that will hold all of your car care products and much more than. My wife thought that I have only purchased my 20th laptop bag, and then information technology took me a few minutes to explicate to her what this is. Nevertheless, she simply doesn't understand us, the car lovers.

Anyway, side by side step was to update my old orbital that I accept been using for years. I kept reading about the newer random orbitals, and so I decided to get the Griot's Garage one. Mike again swore by this orbital and by looking at price, I thought information technology was quite off-white and the reviews I read were very positive.

From that betoken, I asked Mike to guide me through the process of choosing the right products for my car, such as polishes, wax and the other necessities. Since my car is fairly new, Mike advised me to go with the Motorcar Smoothen 3, which is a very mild smoothen. The next affair down on my listing was the wax. In the past I've been using other carnuba wax products, which seemed to be missing some clarity. Griot'south Garage recommendation went towards the Best Of Show Wax product, which tin can be applied by hand or by the orbital automobile.

I learned from my previous detail jobs that even before you offset polishing or waxing your automobile, the paint needs to be "clayed". Living in the Chicagoland expanse and going throgh some rough winters, the car'due south paint picked up a lot of clay that stuck on the paint. Even if yous alive in a sunny and warm place, your pigment will most likely become crude and you will notice a lot of dirt or simply flies existence asimilated into the paint.

Their Paint Cleaning Clay was i of the just produtcs that were left on my list. Once more, the price was very reasonable and combined with the Speed Shine in a special deal, information technology was all I needed.

For a total of $235, I had all the products that I needed and I knew information technology would final for at least a year, if not fifty-fifty more. In my opinion, the investment was totally worth  it and you will see that in the photos below.

Detailing Process

Since Sunday was a cute mean solar day in Chicago, I decided to go over my friend's house and "mess up" his driveway a picayune bit. I started by inspecting the car or even ameliorate said, the paint, and while overall the car seemed like new, I did find a scratch on my passenger door. Boy, was I pissed…..

Anyway, I let it go for a second since I knew that this is my chance to really exam their oribital and polishing. Before I began my detailing, I decided to take some photos of how my car looked like beforehand.

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Before...Kinda dirty, correct?

Before detailing gallery

I started to launder downward the car a picayune bit, mostly to moisturize the pigment. I took some automobile shampoo and started to launder downward the car, console past panel. By doing this, information technology gave me the opportunity to wipe down the car immediately without getting any watermarks on the car.

Thirty minutes later, the car was gear up for the adjacent pace: using the dirt on the pigment. I grabed the clay and figured that only one-half of it should exist enough for my motorcar's size. The clay is quite hands to mold and form and by using some Speed Shine, I managed to bring to an compatible land. I, once once again, started to work on each panel individually, in a vertical movement while spraying the  paint with the Speed Shine. Non to my surprise, the clay picked up a lot of dirt and I could feel the crude surface each fourth dimension I would become over the paint. Again, about 25-30 minutes lates, I managed to go over the entire car and now the paint had a nice and smooth attribute. I was getting close and closer to the polishing stage.

Before I moved on to the orbital and polishes, I washed down the motorcar one more time, just and so I can remove all the residual left from the clay. It wasn't much, so this time I was done relatively fast.

Before I started to use the Griot's Garage random orbital, I asked my friend to effort to catch the pigment scratch on camera. It was sunny outside, so this might not be the best shot, merely at least you tin can run into the size and depth of information technology.

2 inch vertical scratch
ii inch vertical scratch

Kinda  nasty looking, correct? Especially on a new car, but that's what yous get for living in a large urban center.

At present permit me evidence yous some photos of the car after the thoroughly wash. It looks better, simply nowhere near the level I want it to be.

Every bit I mentioned in the begining of my commodity, I take e'er been afraid of using orbitals or any other buffind devices. The fear of ruining my pigment has always made me exercise manual work. Only when I got the random orbital from Griot's, I asked Mike over again for some pointers and tips. He basically told me non to worry nearly the pressure applied on the auto, since the orbital works different than the others and well-nigh important, to use the orange polishing pad with a thin layer of Motorcar Polish three. Here is where I messed up a little fleck. I placed too much smooth on the pad and when I started the orbital, many smoothen paste drops splattered all over my car. Was I a picayune pissed? Maybe, but that was entirely my fault since Mike, and his instructional DVD, clearly said to utilize a thin layer, like to putting butter on bread. I guess I should have paid more than attention or to use some mutual sense :)

I removed some of the extra polish solution, and I attempted to beginning the orbital once again. WAY better this time, no splashing and the orbital just "latched" onto my machine, moving in random motion. Did I mention how light the orbital actually is? I didn't experience for a second that my hands were tiring from belongings it and it was quite fun to move information technology around the paint. Their instructional DVD has more information on how to properly move the orbital, and then you can ever refer to that if you feel similar y'all're lost.

All I can say is that after I worked down the scratched area, I could clearly see an comeback. A few minutes later after the smooth rubbed in and information technology was barely visible on the pigment, I cleaned upward the surface just so I can accept a look over again at the scratch. And……it was GONE. My confidence level went up a bit and I gave myself a pat on the dorsum for the expert job performed.

Hither is the photo after

No scratch anymore

Merely before I went even further, I used my microfiber towerl to remove all the residue left from the polish, if any. The concluding pace in the process was applying the All-time of Show wax. I changed the foam pad to the "cherry-red" one, per the instructions received through visual and audio and I started to utilize the wax on the orbital pad, a thin layer this fourth dimension. Over again, the use of the random orbital was easy, pleasant and not concrete challenging, so over again I worked on each panel individually and making certain that the wax is practical properly. I spent a picayune more time on the waxing part, just because I wanted to make sure that it is beingness practical uniform. So, 40 5 minutes later, my beautiful BMW 335i was car-show prepare.

Again, I was impressed with my skills. Simply kidding, my skills are very express, but the quality and easy apply of the Griot's Garage products, fabricated my life easier and most important, fabricated me look like a pro in front of my buddies.

Since information technology was getting a little late, I didn't have time to employ the orbital on my windows, which according to Mike, information technology will make them clearer than clear. But next time, I hope I will test that likewise. I won't get into the interior detailing right at present(that's another commodity righ there), but before I let you lot go, I will post the final photos. In my opinion, the car looks AMAZING and pretty much the same as the date I picked it up in Germany at the Welt.

Please have a look at the photos and if yous have any comments, questions or suggestions, and most important suggestions on how to exercise an amazing car detail, please tell us.

BMW 335i after detaling with Griot's Garage products
BMW 335i after detaling with Griot'south Garage products
BMW 335i after detaling with Griot's Garage products
BMW 335i subsequently detaling with Griot'south Garage products
BMW 335i after detaling with Griot's Garage products
BMW 335i after detaling with Griot's Garage products
BMW 335i after detaling with Griot's Garage products
BMW 335i subsequently detaling with Griot's Garage products
BMW 335i after detaling with Griot's Garage products
BMW 335i after detaling with Griot's Garage products
Look at that reflection
Look at that reflection