Sreten from M539 Restorations is putting out some of the absolute best car content on the YouTube machine at the moment. He currently has several projects underway and is patiently, methodically, and entertainingly restoring all of them. One of his projects is an E65-generation ALPINA B7, nicknamed “Project Chicago” and he’s a saint for taking on one of the most famously unreliable BMW chassis of all time. In this new video, though, it’s mechanically finished and gets an absolutely outstanding detail.
Prior to its detail, Sreten had the ALPINA B7 repainted in Azurite Black, which is a lovely black paint with tons of blue metallic shine. It’s the spiritual precursor to the current Carbon Black, which is similar, and it’s lovely. It also looks fantastic on cars like the B7 because it’s a menacing black paint in darker lights but it absolutely sparkles in bright light. The only issue with Sreten’s paint job was the fact that the paint shop tried to detail it afterward and ended up doing far more harm than good, leaving countless swirl marks, scratches, and even bad sanding marks. While the color was beautiful, the finish looked pretty bad.
So he took the B7 to Yves Heylen at Gyeon, who went to work on paint correcting the entire car and then giving the front end paint protection film (PPF).
It always blows my little mind to see just how much can be done to correct paint. All of the swirls, scratches, and really nasty looking marks can be completely erased, leaving nothing but a perfect, shiny sparkle behind. After the entire car was done, it looked absolutely astonishing. It went from looking like a bit of a mess, if I’m being blunt, to looking far better than it did even when it was new. In fact, it looked so good that it would make me not want to drive it, for fear I would mess it up.
What’s even more remarkable is how good the PPF looked, as you couldn’t tell the difference between the panels that had PPF and those that didn’t. So not the front end of the B7 is protected from rocks chips and minor scratches without any visual downside.
If you’re into car detailing videos, this one is pretty incredible to watch. It’s long but it’s well worth your time to not only see a master of detailing at work but also learn a lot about detailing, paint correction, and even just car paint in general.