BMW E39 M5

Some cars need no introduction. Enthusiasts still call the E39 M5 the greatest sport sedan BMW ever built, and this gray 2002 example wears Icon Rocklear, our permanent paint protection coating. Twenty year old paint now shows real depth and a wet gloss across the long hood, and the flake in the gray reads brighter under light instead of flattening into the panel the way tired factory paint usually does.

The E39 is a hard car to keep looking correct. It was the first M5 with a V8, the 4.9 litre S62, and the body is deliberately understated: slab sides, minimal creases, a shoulder line that runs uninterrupted from the front fender to the tail. There is no styling drama to distract the eye, so any dullness or unevenness in the finish is the first thing you notice. That is also why a coated finish reads so obviously on this shape, since the reflection has one long clean run to make.

Icon Rocklear bonds into the factory clear coat instead of sitting on it as a layer that wears off. On a car this age that is the whole point. It resists the UV fade and dulling that turn two decade old paint chalky, it does not yellow, and it needs no waxing and no yearly service appointment to stay where it is. This one rolled back into the Milpitas shop for a maintenance wash about a month after the install, which is when we put it under the studio rig.

Twenty seven photos in the set. Wide front three quarters under the hex lights, a symmetric head on, the full driver side profile with door reflections, then close work on the kidney grille, the roundel, the M5 badges on the door and rear quarter, the side mirror, and the quad exhaust tips. See what Icon Rocklear does for paint like this.