Red E36 Touring

[paul46]

looking good Ben, got some proper stance going on there

[BenKoflach]

Thanks Paul - I do love coming out the front door to this every day :p

[P78]

good work man

[BenKoflach]

A colleague, Paul (from sister title Retro Ford mag), and I were lucky enough to be invited to Autoglym HQ the other day - the guys there said they could teach us a thing or two about cleaning and protecting our paintwork before the winter kicks in. There'll be a full update in Performance BMW in the December issue, naturally, but here's a quick sum-up of the day.

Paul and I met up pretty damn early, so to make the most of the empty work car park, we got a few 'before the off' snaps. That's his Mk1 Fiesta, as you may have guessed. 'Spot the lows' comes to mind.



The sun was right in my face, though this shows the fitment quite nicely, looking back at it.



Though I'd always done the wheels last when cleaning my car, it's apparently best to start with them. The Contours do look good clean.



Next it was time to get rid of the build up of bugs on the front - I never really put much effort into it, so it was certainly much needed.



All done, and onto the rest of the car for a quick degrease, going over with tar remover and a wash.







Including a bit of snow-foam action.





After a thorough rinse and a dry, it was onto the finer details - polish, bumper care, glass cleaner and the like.







Not looking bad...



Time for a quick pre-wax cleanse.



Then onto waxing - using Autoglym HD wax, of course. I'd only ever waxed my car once before and never realised how quick it can be - the HD wax seems to last forever, too, barely needing any to cover the whole car.





Then time to take the wax off. Wax on, wax off - Paul was shown how quick and easy it was.



Following that, it was time for a quick demonstration of just how good the wax is - here you can see the water running off.



Lovely beading.



And all done!







I left feeling a little sorry about the damage to the previously pristine cleaning bay entrance



All in all, a pretty damn good day! I took a guided tour of the factory, the lot - the factory tour should be going in the January issue, while the treatment to my Touring will appear in December's

[Jacko_162]

now thats a clean BMW

[stinkinrich]

Superb job! I take it the car has been detailed before with a rotary buffer in the past?

[BenKoflach]

Superb job! I take it the car has been detailed before with a rotary buffer in the past?

Not as far as I know, I wouldn't mind it being done though! Friday was more about showing us what we could do at home, and showing what the Autoglym range can do. I was left genuinely amazed!

[stinkinrich]

Great finish then on factory paint! I think i'll be getting some and having a go.

[BenKoflach]

Yeah, certainly worth a go! Whereabouts are you based?

[Jacko_162]

u make me feel bad, now i gotta clean my car. but i always thought autoglym stuff was a cheaper ranged product for "general" at home folk...

[BenKoflach]

Nah, the Autoglym stuff is pretty top notch, just priced very well. Or at least that's always what I've always thought.

Anyways, found this pretty sweet photo on the Euromedian Players coverage -



And the Touring is now back on the Rotas, complete with chunky new 235/40 Yokohama S-Drives at the back. I'm pretty chuffed with how it came out, thought I'd need spacing. I do on the front but I'll wait until I've got wider tyres for them too.

I'm back in love with driving, the grip is insane although I definitely need my tracking done and I need to soften up the rear shocks. The handling is a bit scary but still rapid through corners - love it! And there's almost no rubbing, just a tiny bit at the driver's side rear which I need to look at, I can't see where it's happening.

Anyway, I'll get some decent photos at the weekend, these are shit.

[stinkinrich]

Im in Bournemouth bud

[BenKoflach]

Im in Bournemouth bud

Ah cool, I'm a bit above Brighton, was thinking we might be closer

[BenKoflach]

...and that sounded massively gay, sorry!

[stinkinrich]

aha could be worse im sure!