# M3 CSL - Extreme detailing - WARNING 50 pictures!!!



## omen666 (Oct 10, 2004)

Right then, having recently bought Rob's M3 CSL I needed to get it detailed, particularly as Iâ€™d taken to a trackday and it was covered in brake dust, rubber from track and worst of all molten brake pad deposits!

So this detailing session is not major on paintwork, but about attention to detail and returning the car as close to factory cleanliness as possible.

So set aside Sunday and laid out my weapons of choice.










EXHAUST
Autosol
Megs NXT Metal Polish
Steel Wool, fine
Cotton cloth
Megs MF

WHEEL ARCHES
Virosol
Toilet Brush!!!
AG Intense Tar Remover
AG Vinyl/Rubber Care

WHEELS
Virosol
AG Super Resin Polish
NXT Tech Wax Spray
Megs Wheel Brush
Cotton cloth
Megs Water Magnet (an old one)
Comma Tyre Black
1 x Clear Bucket

INTERIOR
Compressed air cleaner
AG Interior Shampoo
Paint Brush
Lint free wipes
Megs NXT Glass Cleaner
Lint roll (not pictured)

WASH
Johnsonâ€™s Baby Bathâ€¦YES Baby Bath
2 x Clear Bucket
1 x Megs MF Wash Mitt â€" new for above rub-strip
1 x Megs MF Wash Mitt â€" older for below rub-strip, rear & front bumper and general â€˜bugâ€™ work (windscreen and wing mirrors)
1 x Megs MF Wash Mitt â€" really old for under sills, front splitter and rear splitter
3 x Megs Water Magnet for the above
1 x Megs Chamois to draw water out from gathering points; inside wing mirrors, wing vents, between rear bumper and quarter panels etc

PAINT PREPARATION
Megs Bug/Tar Remover
3 x Megs Clay bars for various parts of car (as above)
Lubricant â€" Baby Bath 1:20 mix
Megs MF cloth for wiping of lubricant mix post clay bar
HD Cleanse
Megs Applicator Pad
Ettore MF cloth

PAINT FINISH
Zymol Titanium Wax
Megs Applicator Pad

CAR CONDITION
First of all the car is in mint condition. Itâ€™s a 2004 CSL with 7k on the clock. Been garaged most of its life and armourfended front bumper and wing mirrors. That said, most of the miles are track miles, Nurburgring and Spa. Track work brings with it high temps, lots of debris, mostly very sticky stuff.

There is no corrective work to be done on the car, just a lot of stubborn barnacle like â€˜attachmentsâ€™

THE PROCESS
Exhaust first.

















Loads of Autosol applied with the Fine Steel Wool. The outer cleans up straight away, but the inner is left to â€˜soakâ€™.










Leave that and move onto WHEELS










Virosol doing its magic. Fantastic stuff, citrus based so no damage to wheels. I use it neat as it is so cheap.










Then the wheels have to come off. The track work leaves lots of debris on them. Hot brake pad deposits and tyre rubber really bonds itself on. So after Virosol and Megs Tar remover, its clay bar then finally AG Super Resin Polish.

















The tyres have recently been replaced so its time to get rid of the adhesive patches left by the removed wheel weights. I use a vinyl sticker â€˜smootherâ€™ to do this to avoid scratching the wheel paintwork.










Then another jetwash blast and drying, finishing with Megs NXT Spray Wax and tyre black










WHEEL ARCHES
These need a good scrub for the usual road grime, but also to remove rubber from trackdays. So liberal amounts of Virosol and scrubbing with bog brush!

















There were lots of patches of oxidation in the arches. AG Intense Tar Remover sorted them, then a good scrub, dry and finishing with AG Vinyl & Rubber Care.

















All brake and suspension parts degreased and dressed.


















All that x 4 and wheels back onâ€¦niceâ€¦..










INTERIOR
The interior of the CSL is a little different as it is mainly Alcantara and Carbon Fibre. So very few products used, just good old fashioned hoovering and dusting.

All firm surfaces are cleaned using AG Interior Shampoo. I really like this stuff, it cleans well and evaporates quickly to leave a OEM matt finish. The carbon fibre panels are finshed with Zymol Titanium Wax and come up luuuvley!

Finally all fabric and Alcantara surfaces are finished with a lint roll to remove all bits and lift the fibres.

Last all interior glass cleaned with Megs NXT Glass Cleaner.

















EXTERIOR
First off all it was addressing all of the rubber marks left from track rubber flying up and hitting the car.

























Then its washingâ€¦.usual two bucket method, but I use 3 different Megs MF Wash Mitts. Basically I have them aged/graded per area of the car; working down to grimmest area last. Using the foam function of Karcher jetwash, then on with the wash mitts. Usual straight lines only, two bucket rinse and regular change of water. Finish with nozzle off hose rinse.

























Then drying with similar grading of Megs Water Magnet, newest on bodywork, mid on all inner sills/seams and oldest on engine bay and wheels.

Megs Chamois is used to draw out water from seams and detailed bits like wing vents, under rear light clusters etc.

















ENGINE BAY
After drying with oldest Megs Water Magnet itâ€™s a wipe down of all components with Armor All Car Wash Wipes. Then the carbon fibre induction intake is finished with Zymol Titanium wax. The carbon fibre really seems to love the Zymolâ€¦

















PAINT PREPARATION
So onto the paintwork.

Same approach with the claybars, based on age of clay bar and area of car.










No pics of process, but it took about 1.5 hours. The benefit of the Steel Grey is it shows every single tar spot. Believe me there were lots and I got every single last one of them; a painstaking process.

Worthy of a mention is the Supaguard film on the bumpers and wing mirrors. The edges really grab the claybar and you have to keep stopping and using you fingernail to gently remove the claybar â€˜grabbedâ€™ by the edges of the film.

Then Zymol HD-Cleanse on every panel. Despite the car being in shade it seems to dry extremely quickly and proved hard to get off. The finish was very smooth thought.










I am still doing this by hand as there is no corrective work on this car. But I think I will invest in a PC as it will save time and cleanse better than hand job! Ooo errr ;-p

A final wipe down with a clean MF cloth to ensure I have got all the HD-Cleanse off and prepared the surface for the wax.

WAX
Zymol Titanium is my first venture into anything other than the Halfords Megs range.










Applied with a foam applicator rather than by hand (my neighbours think I am barmy already without them seeing me rubbing the car with my hands!!!).

Once again the carbon fibre comes up a treatâ€¦










FINISHING
Finally all external glass is finished with Megs NXT Glass Cleaner










Then a final rub down off all surfaces using a MF cloth and sheâ€™s finished. It took 10 hours start to finish and the car now looks like new.

The final pics are in fading light. The second set are the next morning after a night of dust (house on a very busy road) and morningâ€™s dew had evaporated, but the light is good and provides the best before vâ€™s after comparision I could get due to the late finish on Sunday night.





















































































Next day
































Check out the clouds :nice:


----------



## garyc (May 7, 2002)

F**k me Rob was a slovenly owner. :wink: :wink: :wink:

Nice job. Serious time commitment. It looks great and comes up well. We can't all afford that sort of time although the results speak for themselves.

(cue bitchy BMW bigot "can't use indicators, slower than RS4, won't let you out of junctions etc yawn yawn comments.)

And still a great shape and drive.

Enjoy.


----------



## sssgucci (Nov 20, 2004)

What a car! 

Lovely car mate and good work, great finish. On a side note, throw away your clay bar when it gets dirty, its not good to re-use it. I'm jealous of your motor. [smiley=thumbsup.gif]


----------



## b3ves (May 6, 2002)

garyc said:


> F**k me Rob was a slovenly owner. :wink: :wink: :wink:


LOL, compared to Damon I probably was!

Great job - car looks ace.


----------



## genocidalduck (May 19, 2005)

garyc said:


> F**k me Rob was a slovenly owner. :wink: :wink: :wink:
> 
> Nice job. Serious time commitment. It looks great and comes up well. We can't all afford that sort of time although the results speak for themselves.
> 
> ...


Wont get one from me..I love Robs(Now Damons) CSL and thuoght about buying it. But then i thought the RS4 is quicker :lol: :wink:

Good job Damon...I'm to lazy to put that much time and effort into it. I'd pay someone to do it 

Wouldnt let Mr Demon see it though. As he owns one you will never hear the end of the "I told you so" remarks.


----------



## omen666 (Oct 10, 2004)

He is trying to sell his on bm3w atm so not so sure he can :wink:


----------



## Widget (May 7, 2002)

How much would a professional charge to do a job like that?


----------



## omen666 (Oct 10, 2004)

It depends on the amount of 'corrective' work there is to be done. By that I mean swirls, scratches, stains and faded materials.

Anything from about Â£150 for a low quality job to Â£250-300 for top quality. You only need to do it once a year then maintain it.

This car had been so well looked after there was no corrective work to be done, hence the focus on such detail. Its now in great condition.

I am doing a friends CSL on Saturday, his is in lesser condition and its black so the results such be more dramatic. Looking forward to that. 8)


----------



## omen666 (Oct 10, 2004)

Hi res versions of pics can be found at http://public.fotki.com/Omen666/valetin ... july_2006/


----------



## DW225 (Jun 22, 2005)

Looking great Damon...........I was jealous of the RS6 but the CSL takes it to another level!!!


----------



## W7 PMC (May 6, 2002)

Bloody hell Damon, you really are a mirror of your forum status (Too Much Time on Your Hands) :lol:

Total respect & an awesome job 8) . Wish i could find half that kind of time to detail my car, hence why i got Dave to do mine a couple of months ago. You have total dedication to car cleaning & the results show this. Rob really was a pikey owner :lol:

So i was right that it was Rob's old CSL  Why did you not admit this when i mentioned it?? Perhaps you have your own reasons.


----------



## NaughTTy (Jul 9, 2003)

Damon, you really need to get out more mate :wink:

Very nice job - as said above, wish I had that kind of time to spend cleaning...Ella already calls my TT "the other woman" due to the time I already spend on "her" :?

Paul - I think it was mentioned that it was Rob's car on the first thread that Damon showed the pics on


----------



## Carlos (May 6, 2002)

There is something fundamentally wrong about owning a CSL and then obsessively cleaning it. It just doesn't feel right. 

Do you have kids omen666?

Fantastic job btw, reminds me of the whole days I used to spend wax-wizarding my TT (pre swissol) - before the children came along, naturally.


----------



## Guest (Jul 26, 2006)

when r u releasing the video :lol: "cleaning an M3 CSL"

seriously nice going! Like most on here I wish I had that amount of time to spend cleaning/waxing etc :?

btw, r u retired?


----------



## Rogue (Jun 15, 2003)

An excellent write-up, with fantastic results 8)

Rogue


----------



## RenZo (Feb 14, 2006)

looks amazing.. love the attention to detail! what a car!

renzo


----------



## omen666 (Oct 10, 2004)

Carlos said:


> There is something fundamentally wrong about owning a CSL and then obsessively cleaning it. It just doesn't feel right.
> 
> Do you have kids omen666?
> 
> Fantastic job btw, reminds me of the whole days I used to spend wax-wizarding my TT (pre swissol) - before the children came along, naturally.


Well Carl, given my Oulton Park Endurance Race I am not sure you could accuse me of that! Its part of the reason for doing it :wink:

I have little daughter, her car seat is in the pics. But she and my wife were away on Sunday. So I picked my moment carefully.

The point of this kind of detailing is that I won't have to spend so much time maintaining it on a weekly basis. By getting the car stripped of all the contaminates and then sealing it, they won't get to the car so easily in the future.

It really only needs doing at the beginning of summer and then as prep for winter. The rest of the time its just staying on top of it for an hour or two a week.

Mind you it will probably get done again after my next Nordschliefe visit.

Having said all that I am spending all this coming Saturday doing the same to a friendâ€™s CSL (pass stamped by Head Office) so she is very good to me. His CSL is black and not in as good condition as Rob kept this one, so more of a challenge, but the black should come up spectactular.


----------



## scoTTy (May 6, 2002)

Very nice job. 8)

Who'd have thought the biggest polisher on the TT forum would have a CSL. :lol: :wink:


----------



## The Silver Surfer (May 14, 2002)

Nice write up & pics.

A job well done.


----------



## caney (Feb 5, 2004)

you sad git :wink: awesome car mate!


----------



## ResB (Apr 17, 2005)

Excellent job. Dedicated to the core. 

Just a note, don't use the Virosol on ya wheels after waxing or you'll have to do it again! Soapy water it is then....


----------



## omen666 (Oct 10, 2004)

Thanks Res, yes I am aware Virosol strips wax, that why I use the Megs NXT Spray Wax, nice and easy to put on and get off :wink:


----------



## W7 PMC (May 6, 2002)

NaughTTy said:


> Damon, you really need to get out more mate :wink:
> 
> Very nice job - as said above, wish I had that kind of time to spend cleaning...Ella already calls my TT "the other woman" due to the time I already spend on "her" :?
> 
> Paul - I think it was mentioned that it was Rob's car on the first thread that Damon showed the pics on


Hey ho, no point digressing & taking this thread off-topic, i must have missed that & when i asked the question if it was Rob's old car when 1st mentioned that Damon had bought a CSL & i saw the picture & was told by Damon that loads of CSL's had CSL in the reg plate, therefore diverting the fact it was Rob's car, unless i missed some humour along the way.

Anyhow, no matter who's car it was/is it looks stunning & Damon you've done the car justice & i'm so pleased that RWD is giving you alll the fun you expected as it does the same for me every time i drive my Emmy.


----------



## bmx (May 25, 2003)

bloody nice car mate , ive been looking at getting a csl too. i was talking to a mate who has a csl last night , he had seen your extreme detailing on another forum, you must have some serious money laid out on that table. top job [smiley=thumbsup.gif]


----------



## dj c225 (Nov 3, 2004)

Looks good, I miss my carbon blk M3


----------

