Detailed : 1967 BMW 1600

Check out the full video HERE

The Next Detail was one that didn’t go as planned. This all original 1967 BMW 1600 has only 12k original miles and a stunning example. The pale ivory color fits this car so well, but needed some serious work to get right. When the owner asked about getting it in, his main concern was preservation of the rubber seals, gaskets and trim. Some of the seals were dry rotting and staring to crack, while others still showing little to no wear.

We started by cleaning and clay baring the painted surfaces as well as the glass. Most of the trim on this car is raw steel or aluminum, so everything needed to be tapped of to avoid altering the finish. Before we got started, we took one of our new beta products to rejuvenate the seals. We cleaned all the seales that wer solid and in tact with oberk Tire and rubber cleaner to get a good base for the conditioner to bond. We used a hyper concentrated water based silicone and brushed all the rubber seals on the inside and left them to soak. All the exterior seals and trim were treated post paint correction to avoid issues with tape adhering or additional issues.

We measured the paint and got a good average of 4mils on this paint which is thick for the single stage factory paint on this car. It’s likely it didn’t get polished much or at all after being delivered from the factory. The horizontal surfaces like the hood, roof, and trunk had major etchings, defects and scratches that needed to be addressed. Typically, on cars like this, I actually choose light polishing over correction unless the customer asks, but I made the decision that we needed to really cut this car down to “exfoliate” some of the dead paint that was at the surface. On a newer Vehicle, I would actually choose to sand this paint, but to avoid changing the texture on the paint, I choose to heavily cut the paint. We tested both wool and microfiber pads, and while the wool finished better, the microfiber created a more uniform leveled surface. The final combination was the standard Oberk Microfiber cutting pad and Oberk Cut Compound. We didn’t chase defects and scratches but did an intensive cutting session where we measured regularly and removed .3 mils on the top surfaces, and much less on the sides. This still left plenty of measurable paint for the vehicle and made it look a lot better.

Once we get to the polishing step, we quickly realized that the paint did not like to be polished with foam. It would gloss the surface very well, but almost magnify defects and actually cause its own defects or marring that made the paint look worse. After a few sections, we actually chose to use the Rupes Yellow wool pad paired with Oberk Sole. This provided a perfect finish for us to lay down out Swissvax Crystal Rock Carnauba Wax to seal in the paintwork.

This Detail was actually pretty in depth, and we have video from this detail also. We had about 30 hours in the paint and seal rejuvenating, and before wrapping up, lightly detailed the trunk, engine bay and interior. We hand polished the brightwork both on the inside and the outside of the car, cleaned the floormats, and polished all the paint in the engine and door jambs as well.

The owner of this car has a soft spot for this car, as his first car ever was a BMW 1600, so the detail and experience was something special. I had a lot of help on this to complete it from Zach Minch, who is a local car enthusiast and hobbyist detailer. We helped as we slowly polished the car to get it looking the way it does now.

Enjoy the pictures and stay tuned for the video!

VIEW the VIDEO HERE

The products used are what we love and support people and products who support us as well. Some of the links below are paid sponsors, but still represent product we support and enjoy using with great results.

Rupes Ibrid 1' and 2" polisher - https://amzn.to/3JOMhIi

Rupes 3" LHR 75 pneumatic polisher (best 3" polisher out) - https://amzn.to/42SOqLG

Rupes 15mm polisher Mark III - https://amzn.to/3lPUCn0

KXK Dynamics sanding blocks - https://oberkcarcare.com/collections/tools/KXK-Dynamics

KXK Dynamics sandpaper - https://oberkcarcare.com/collections/tools/KXK-Dynamics

Oberk Rinseless Wash - https://oberkcarcare.com/products/rinseless-wash-concentrate

Adaptiv inspection light - https://oberkcarcare.com/products/ada...

Microfiber towels - https://oberkcarcare.com/collections/...

Tire – Rubber- Plastic cleaner - https://oberkcarcare.com/products/tir...

Wash Sponge - https://amzn.to/3G2WDTU

Bucket, dolly, and grit guard setup - https://amzn.to/3ZkEIPi

Grit guard if you already have your own 5 gallon buckets - https://amzn.to/3ZkEIPi