Hey Guys,

I recently picked up a 2004 R53 Mini Cooper S with 84k miles back in February. The paint was decent, but had tons of swirls and scratches. Since then I really wanted to take a stab at doing a paint correction myself and start getting more into the actual detailing of a car. I decided to do just that. I started at 7am, and finished with everything around 7:30pm. A lot more work than I anticipated, but the results are well worth it

Polisher: PORTER-CABLE 7424XP
Pads: Chemical Guys Hex Logic Orange and White Pads

• Step 1: Wash
• Step 2: Carpro Iron-X
• Step 3: Chemical Guys Clay Bar
• Step 4: Carpro Eraser
• Step 5: Cut (Meguiars Ultimate Compound)
• Step 6: Polish (Meguiars 205)
• Step 7: Meguiars Ultimate Black (Plastics)
• Step 8: Carpro Eraser
• Step 9: Cquartz Ceramic Coating
• Step 10: Carpro Reload

Results (Not bad for a 14 year old car):

 

That is awesome!!! Looks great. Wish I had the patience to do that to my car.

 

GREAT WORK...you should be very proud. Your car looks better than new...

 

Looks great! I did mine a couple weeks ago. It sure is a lot of work, but so worth it.

 

Great job! I know it’s hard the first time you prep, Polish and ceramic coat a car but in the end it looks excellent.

The best part is it will look that way for well over a year , which most people that use sealant and wax don’t get.

 

Thanks Definitely requires a lot of patience, but I'm happy with the result.

Thank you! Not quite better than new, but looks good for its age. haha

Awesome! Definitely worth it.

Appreciate it! I have my weekend car ceramic coated as well, and it makes life so much easier. I'm curious to see how long the CQuartz will last. I have Gtechniq on my other car.

 

Here is one picture that best shows the condition of the hood before. As you can see, it wasn't in the best shape.



Also here is a short video I took of the paint after just one pass of the compound! In total I did two passes of the compound, and one pass of the polish so the finished product looks even better than on the video.

 

When you are ready to try an easy ceramic coating system look up Gyeon Syncro. You will not be disappointed with the ease of application and removal and the results.

CQuarts should last at least a year or longer with proper washing and maintenance like CarPro Reload.

 

Great info! I'll definitely check out Gyeon Syncro. A year is not bad for the CQuartz. Doing a polish and reapplying CQuartz once I year won't be too difficult.

 

 

A great looking Gen1

 

Thanks! This was my first time, and it wasn't as hard as it looks. I'm sure you would do fine

Thanks! Been one of my favorite cars so far.

 

Decided to re-do my hood, as there were some deep water spots that were not quite gone the first time. Results turned out great. Did 1 pass of Meguiars 205 to remove the coating, 2 passes of Ultimate Compound to cut, and topped it off with another pass of 205. Re-coated it with CQuartz and applied Reload. Turned out really nice and not more water spots. I ordered new white racing stripes as well, so the front will look brand new.

 

This reminds me of an another post that I made recently on HP mods, something like just as men will never figure out women and shopping, they will never figure us out with our cars.

 

Did you have any issues with Carpro Reload streaking? I have read posts about people having issues with it. From similar discussions it appears that HydroSilex Recharge does not have as many issues.

 

CarPro Reload works great. The key is remember to shake it between sprays.
I also see people get streaks all the time because they use way too much.

It’s the same with glass cleaner. I have seen people pump 5-6 squirts on one side window. It just one window, you only need one squirt and move it around with your towel.

Most times I only spray the towel and not the glass or the paint.

 

This. I only sprayed reload on the towel itself. After reading many posts and watching many youtube videos, it seems like the safest bet. I did not experience any streaking using that method.

 

First wash. I love the way water beads on a ceramic coating

 

Your mini looks amazing. So good!

But don't polish every year if you can avoid it. Polishing removes clear coat (and eventually base coat paint).

Modern (post-1980s) car paint is around 6 thousandths of an inch thick (~150 microns); about 1/3 of that is clearcoat. That's half the thickness of a sheet of paper.

A light polishing is good for 0.5–1 microns; a heavy correction runs around 4. Sounds like you should have plenty, with 50 microns of clearcoat to work with. But, it seems the ultraviolet light protectants reside in the top 25% of the clearcoat. Based on this, you've got about 12 microns before you seriously expose the base coat to UV and fading.

Aggressive polishing can eat up that 12 microns fast. Take care of your paint and do the minimum possible polishing. It's definitely a case where prevention is better than cure. Try to stay ahead of the swirls so you don't need to do a heavy correction again.

Anyway, I'm really posting to praise your car and the work you've done. Indeed it looks better than new, and you've done a better job than I usually do

 

Great info, thank you! With proper care, I shouldn't need to do a polish every year. On my other car, I exclusive use Chemical Guys ECO-RU to clean it + 500gsm micro fibers, no water. No swirl marks for the past 4 years. Since this is my daily, I typically take it to the coin wash to power wash the surface dust/dirt away, and then bring it home and use the ECO-RU to finish it up. In my experience it's been the safest way to avoid swirl marks.

Definitely appreciate the kind words, and I'm thrilled the way it turned out!

 

I know this is not necessarily detailing, but my new parts just arrived as well! Did a ceramic coating on my new wheels, so they will keep them protected and aid with washing. This will be an aggressive fitment, but should be able to dial in enough camber to make it work.

 

Just want to say 12 hours to do all that work seems really fast to me - nice job!

I had CQuartz Classic put on my 04 R53 three years ago and have just been adding Reload ~3 times a year since then. No idea if the coating is still under there, but the surface is amazingly smooth after periodic lightly claying and Reload-ing.

For Reload, my detailer had the same advice as people above - just spray a tiny amount on a fluffy microfiber towel and rub & wipe. I have white MF towels reserved just for Reload.

 

Appreciate it! CQuarz and Reload is such a good combo. It has made cleaning the car so much easier and I love how good it makes the paint look. My sister-in-law couldn't believe that the car was 14 years old. haha