1990 BMW E34 5 Series 520i 

We received a call from the owner of this BMW 5 series that was looking to get the car put back on the road and could I go have a look. He didn’t want to repaint the car and wanted to keep it as original as possible. We inspected it at a local garage and set about a plan to restore it without doing any painting.

The car was dropped off and was deep cleaned a number of times getting all of the debris from all of the different areas around the doors and the boot area.

Meticulous care on pre washing and washing using a highly lubricated shampoo followed by both tar and iron removal and finished off using a clay sponge and a spray detailer. We had to apply iron remover a number of times to ensure all of the iron was removed before moving onto the next step.

The next step was to use a number of different polishing compounds machines and pads to finesse the paintwork back to life. Slowly but surely one step after another it just got glossier and glossier! We kept going until there was an even level of gloss across all panels. The bonnet was a nightmare to do and took over 10 passes to complete until it looked uniform with the rest of the panels!

The interior was next and all of the seats, door panels, carpets and matswere deep cleaned and fully dried. We then protected the fabric by applying Feynlab Textile to all of these areas.

Under the bonnet was a whole different job and was quite time consuming and the sound deadening under the bonnet had quite a lot of oil and grease that had built up over the years and took a number of applications of cleaners before we were happy with the finish.

The wheels also were a time consuming job and had a lot of burnt in brake dust and grime but we got them back looking like new. The wheels centres housed a BMW gel badge and were very worn and tired. The owner sourced a replacement set and we we set about the painstakingly slow process of removing the old badges and the layer of thick glue that was left behind. After this was done we applied a new set of badges and applied a coat of Krystal Kleen Detail’s Revolve X to the wheels to marry the same hydrophobics that were on the paintwork with the wheels to give all of the different areas a uniform finish.

I then washed the exterior with Feynlab Wash and applied an even coat of Prime in readiness of the ceramic coating. I then applied two coats of Ceramic Lite to the bodywork, side windows and rear windscreen. All of these coating were then cured using an InfraRed lamp and the finish was astounding. All of the areas that we worked on looked like new and had the added advantage of now being coated. This was one of the most enjoyable cars I have worked on in quite a while and the owner was delighted with the finish! 

Usual 3 for decontamination, Ceramic Lite on paintwork, Textile on seats. Wash and Prime before coating.

Another vehicle lovingly restored by PTI and Brian Spellman AKA “The Boss Of Gloss”.