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Polishing an Icicle
This is a 200K mile X5 we had in the shop this week for a detail and ceramic coating. White paint is tough. You wash it and it looks white. You clay bar it and it looks white. You polish it and your pad is filthy, and it looks white. But then when you ceramic coat it and step back, it looks WHITE. You don’t realize how many shades of white paint there is until you try to color match the touch-up paint. In the end, I think it came out great.
Below are some before and after photos. Steps involved: power wash, clay-bar, hand wash, machine polish, touch-up, and ceramic coat. Interior leather repairs were minor with some small tears being repaired and some selective re-dye of worn areas of the seats. Steering wheel refreshed with ColourLock LeatherFresh.
BMW E36M3 Preservation Detail
Right now, the E36 M3 is probably fully depreciated. A low mileage one in great condition will cost $9-$11K and still require $3-$5K of work. A high mileage one in fair condition like this one might fetch $3-$6K. The owner of this car wanted to sell it, but was not attracting any buyers at his price point. It makes no sense at all to drop $10K on a restoration and $5K on suspension, tires, and repairs to have a $10-$12K car when you’re done. That’s where the idea of preservation not restoration plays out.
It looks like the whole car has been resprayed at least once with some areas getting resprayed 2 or 3 more times. The paint was heavily oxidized, scratched, and cracked on the hood. The cracking is probably due to excessive amounts of filler that were not allowed to cure before respraying at some point. Not much I can do about the cracks, but I can bring it back to an even shine so it looks great from 5 feet away.
I worked on this car for about three days and would typically charge between $750 and $900 depending on total effort and supplies expended. After a long soak, pressure wash, and clay bar, I wet sanded the hood and compounded the entire car before polishing. The trim was flaking off so it was repainted in satin black before coating the car in Reflex Pro II ceramic coating. I then framed the car in ceramic trim coat. With regular maintenance washes the coating should last 1-2 years.
The key to a black car (or white for that matter) is actually the trim. Sure, you need to get the paint to a uniform level of shine, but getting the trim as dark as possible makes it pop. The leather seats were also worn and cracked, but after a deep cleaning, minor repairs, and a good sanding, they came back very nicely with several applications of Leather Fresh as did the steering wheel.
M3 Quick Release with Horn Button
It is possible to modify the steering wheel clock spring so you still have a working horn button and turn signal cancel. In my case, I’m using an NRG short hub and NRG Quick Release 3.0 along with a Sparco steering wheel. The horn button was salvaged out of an old BMW 2002.
Assuming that you’re not going back to a stock wheel with airbag any time soon, you just need to grind back the connectors, leaving the two pins circled in the photo for the horn. Use a continuity tester to figure out which is ground and hook up your connectors on the Quick Release hub. Then hook the horn button to the wheel half of the QR and you’re all set.
For a more detailed write up of how to do this yourself, see this post from 2017. The parts on the E46 M3 and the R53 MINI are almost identical.
Protecting the Garmin Catalyst Screen
On the whole, the Garmin Catalyst is a rugged tablet. The case will protect the internals from an accidental drop or bump in the car, and there is a lip on the face to protect the screen should you set it face down. But there were two aspects about the screen we didn’t like so much: It’s very reflective, and likely to get messy with all that touching. The auto makers have teams of engineers who work out where to best places screens in a car for maximum utility and minimal reflections. You’re just trying to figure out where you can place it so it has good line-of-sight to the GPS satellites and you can reach the screen while driving.
So what is our suggested solution? Generic tablet screen protector. We bought and tested two different ones from Amazon. They were the cheapest 7 inch matte screen protectors we could find. Here’s a video that shows the result of our tests.
Both worked well. The SuperShieldz pack came with 3 vs. 2 for NuPro and it was less expensive. But you would be satisfied with either one.
Supershieldz: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0821TRGWX/
NuPro: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06Y5WW2XT/
Introducing the Garmin Catalyst Performance Driving Optimizer
From the first time we read Ross Bentley’s summary about the Garmin Catalyst, we knew we had to add it to our product catalog. So we’re proud to announce that GeorgeCo Motorsports is now an authorized Garmin Dealer. We’ve gotten our first few units in stock and as soon as we update the inventory database, they’re gone.
So let’s back up. What’s the Garmin Catalyst and why get so excited about a tablet computer? There are many lap timers and data acquisition systems out on the market, some better than the others. Some (most) are complicated to use, and require off-track analysis. The Garmin Catalyst takes a different approach, offering real-time feedback to improve your driving. It’s not about RPMs, brake pedal pressure, or throttle position. It’s about pace and form and line.
The Catalyst isn’t for every HPDE driver. A beginning student is going to be too inconsistent lap-to-lap and would find the feedback “carry more speed” is probably dangerous. And on the other extreme, the experienced racer looking for that final tenth isn’t likely to find it here either. (My go-to coaching advice: it’s your pedal release….) But the advanced intermediate to experienced advanced HPDE driver who knows there’s .5 to 2 seconds a lap to still be gained — that’s the target. You get the benefit of an experienced AI coach riding in the right seat, without the additional weight penalty of carrying a passenger. This could be a great tool for an enduro team to use in practice, especially if there’s a huge range of skills among the drivers that have teamed up for the race.
Too many lap timers give you an “optimum” lap time by pasting together your best times through every corner on a track. But that’s not how the real world works. Fast out of one corner often means a compromise into the next. The Catalyst gives you realistic track segments, and offers not only advice on line, speed, turn in, apex and exit, but can also show you what that line looks like. You can also choose how much coaching feedback you want to receive as you’re driving. Turn off the audio coaching and use it as a more traditional lap timer and review your session back in the paddock. Turn on basic coaching for feedback as you drive, or enable the advanced coaching feedback to fine tune your line.
Read about the details or purchase over on our product page. Look for upcoming posts as we unbox and install it. Garmin offers several mounting options and more accessories are coming out in the coming weeks.
