My new X5 and progress so far with work (pic heavy)

[dpbayly]

Well as promised, after collecting my new new X5 4.4 LPG'ed motor Wednesday I was very happy at the fact I had picked my self up a cracking example and after putting 150 mile on it Im still happy that there are no mechanical faults but with any car thats 12 years old its never going to be mint but i like to make my cars as close to great condition as i can so as soon as i got it home i started work on a list of jobs i felt needed attention:

1-Headlights fogged up
2-inner rear lights fogged up
3-6"area of rust on lower edge of upper boot lid
4-light scratches all over (as expected with its age)
5-Dash pixel problem
6-front tyres (not illegal but not great)
7-Not a fault but i really wanted to do something to free up the V8 roar

Here's a few pics of my progress.

Starting with the head lights:

Before




During the refurb done buy wet flatting it with 400 grit then 800 then 1500



Then finally bring them back to a shine with a machine polisher and compound

after




I then also finished the lights off with swapping out the nasty yellow side light bulbs with LED (i also swapped the dip beam with whiter bulbs but i have no pics)



I then carried out he same process to the inner rear lights:

before



after



I then sorted the rust issue on the upper boot lid

Before (just started to sand it back before treating the area with a rust inhibitor)



after treating it i then filled primed and painted (just realised i didn't take a finished pic but here it is wet flatted back before machine polishing with compound)



To fix the light scratches all over the car I wet flatted with 1500 grit paper the worst of the scratches





Then mask up the whole car, Ive done this many times and its worth spending 20 mins prepping  the car which saves you hours trying to clean rock hard compound out of every little crevice.





Finished pics after  machine polishing then cleaning and waxing are at the end of the post.

After cleaning last night i popped back into work changed the front tyres and all so moddified my exhaust (not to everyones taste im sure but i love it) I removed the back boxes and replaced the with Longlife stainless 10" torpedo silencers with Longlife 5.75" x 3" letter box tail pipes Sounds GREAT.

Then finally late last night i set about fixing my dash, done this five or six times now on various models around this year seems to be a common failure.

How it looked before:



during the procedure:



and after:



Finally here's some pics i took this morning of my new shiny X5





















Well all done i can now go out and play in it......

[Greydog]

Well done, want to nip round and practice on mine. I sure yours would look sooo much better after some more practice you may get other volunteers here too!!!

[Ant]

Love the job on the fixing pixels in the dash, set yourself up in business for that one 

What LED bulbs did you use for the sidelights ? are they blue or just very bright (or a mixture of both) as I would like the same

[AW8]

Impressive work & results..especially if the local tailgate repair looks okay.

The pixel fix supposedly a massive pain to do properly & cant recall anyone doing this d.i.y. before without sweat and tears.

I have used a longlife franchise previously & I  trust their products.

[petert]

Outstanding.  You should go to the meets and sell that expertise!
Peter T

[Denis O]

Nice work.

How did the car change number plates halfway through the process?

[MSPORTBMW]

Very nice mate.....1 of my headlights is misty too and the 2 inner rears. I just wish I could do what you've done...looks great. Nice job.

[dpbayly]

[quote="anthonybeaman"]
Love the job on the mixing pixels in the dash, set yourself up in business for that one 

What LED bulbs did you use for the sidelights ? are they blue or just very bright (or a mixture of both) as I would like the same
[/quote]

Thanks,

The bulbs are a bright white I think the camera is making them look blueish, I've had them kicking about the shed for a while but I'm sure I got them from halfords

[dpbayly]

[quote="AW8"]
Impressive work & results..especially if the local tailgate repair looks okay.

The pixel fix supposedly a massive pain to do properly & cant recall anyone doing this d.i.y. before without sweat and tears.

I have used a longlife franchise previously & I  trust their products.
[/quote]

Thanks,

The local repair looks spot on as I used the crease to lose the edge in and finished at the badge and so for no one can see it even when pointed out.

The pixel fix is really not that bad a job although I've done a fair few now took me about 30 mins from dash out to back in, the bit that puts a lot of people off is the fact you need to drill 4 x 5mm holes behind the dial faces to gain access to the little torx screws to release the display.

I've used long life before and always rate there stuff, this time I just picked up the parts and welded it altogether myself.

[dpbayly]

[quote="petert"]
Outstanding.  You should go to the meets and sell that expertise!
Peter T
[/quote]

When the next meet is near by I'll show up armed with my cordless drill for some dash repairs

[dpbayly]

[quote="Denis O"]
Nice work.

How did the car change number plates halfway through the process?
[/quote]

I bought it with the private plate still on it but it was in the process of being transferred and the day after I got it home the letter came through confirming transfer complete so whacked the new plates on yesterday

[dpbayly]

[quote="MSPORTBMW"]
Very nice mate.....1 of my headlights is misty too and the 2 inner rears. I just wish I could do what you've done...looks great. Nice job.
[/quote]

It's very easy and can be done without the use of a machine polisher just a bit of elbow grease and compound will bring it back up just as we'll it'll just take longer

[Lee4.8is]

Stunning work & dedication , you must be chuffed with the results it looks great. 

Love the super shiny exhaust tips too.

[Sanj]

Brilliant - thank you for sharing. Really impressive results.

[X5Sport]

Very well done.  Jig will be round to get his new toy 'de-peeled'.....

Richard