About to do my first-ever detail, need a bit of advice

D

Denton

New member
I realized the paint on my '95 BMW is almost dead, so I sucked it up and bought a Porter-Cable and some real waxes/polishes. I'm also detailing my father's 7-series BMW.



Waxes are:

Optimum Compound II

Optimum Polish II

3M Perfect-It II

Meguires #26

Also have old Meg's NXT and Gold Class, all liquid.



Do I need additional products? I would like to use this stuff up before I buy any more. Also, in what order do I do this stuff?



I just ordered a PC 7424 orbital, counterweight, backing plate.



I have 4" foam pads in:

Orange

Yellow

White



And a Megs clay bar, soap, and all of that fun stuff.



The '95 Alpine White 525i has mega swirling and surface scratches, it's never been buffed, ever.



The '01 Titanium Silver 740iL is in decent shape but light swirling. Dad also backed into some bushes so there are some scratches on the decklid that I would like to minimize.



Any advice here? I just don't know what products to use.
 
Denton said:
Any advice here? I just don't know what products to use.
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:welcome



My advice is to read read and then read some more. This forum has a lot of excellent information which will help to clarify you course of action.



Basically for paint you need to correct, then protect.



The simplified steps might typically be wash, clay, compound (if needed), polish, LSP.



Typically, you would wash and clay prior to doing a paint correction to remove any dirt or contaminants on top of the paint.



Correction involves compounding and/or polishing to remove the paint defects. Typical paint defects are oxidation, spider webs, scuffs/scratches, etc. Always start with the least aggressive approach and get more aggressive if needed to remove the defects you are trying to correct. The correction steps will do the most to improve the appearance of the paint.



After the paint is corrected, apply some sort of LSP (ie. wax or sealant) to provide protection against the elements. This LSP will also improve the appearance, but to a lesser extent than the compounding/polishing steps.



Good luck and have fun :laugh:
 
Thanks much for the reply, that's a big help. Still have much reading to do but there is a TON of information for a n00b to digest.



:cooleek:



EDIT: Read through all of the newbie threads and how-tos. I'm really thinking about not using the Optimum Compound II, looks like I could really screw stuff up. :eek:



Second edit: I think I'll do Optimum Polish II, then Megs #26, then 3M Perfect-It II Show Car Finish as a LSP. Make sense? I've Google'd #26 for the past 10 minutes and still don't have a clear idea of what it's good for. I see that people like it on dark cars, and I'm detailing a non-metallic white and a metallic silver so maybe #26 isn't a good fit.
 
A portercable is very beginner friendly and its almost impossible to screw things up. I would suggest picking up some spare panels at a junkyard to practice on. You can read and read till your eyes bleed but in the end practice makes perfect.
 
qbmurderer13 said:
A portercable is very beginner friendly and its almost impossible to screw things up. I would suggest picking up some spare panels at a junkyard to practice on. You can read and read till your eyes bleed but in the end practice makes perfect.
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That's what I hear. I actually am parting out a Mauritius Blue '91 M5 but will be doing my first detail 600 miles away from that car.



The hood on my car is soon to be repainted so I plan on tackling that with the Optimum Polish II first.



Would anyone explicitly NOT recommend using the Optimum Compound II? I worry that it will be too harsh, even though I have a very slight oxidation and some heavy swirling. Hopefully I'll be able to recognize if the polish is enough.
 
Denton- Welcome to Autopia!



Wash, clay, compound, polish, wax- that's the general progression.



I've never used the Optimum Compound but I'd be *VERY* surprised if it were too aggressive for your BMW. I have a '97 and it's clear is *HARD*. I use far more aggressive stuff on it, via rotary, with no problems.



I'm not familiar with the PI-II stuff you have. 3M made/makes a ton of different products that are all part of the Perfect-It II line. I'll leave that product out of the discussion for now.



Normally, the Meg's #26 would be your final, Last Step, Product. Don't worry about whether it's the "right wax for the color" (scare-quotes intentional ;) ). If you want something that'll look about as good and last a *LOT* longer, get something from Collinite. But hey, you have the #26 already and there's nothing wrong with using it on white/silver/whatever.



I'd jump right to the Optimum Compound with the yellow or orange 4" pad, but that's because I've struggled with this particular paint enough to think that'll be necessary. Actually, I'd buy some Meguiar's M105 and use that instead (sorry, I hate giving "buy different proucts" type advice but here it might be justified). I was very pleasantly surprised by how well M105 worked on this paint; I wasn't expecting to be very impressed at all but *man* was I wrong about that.



Use the compound until the marring is satisfactory. Don't switch to the Optimum Polish too soon as it won't do much of any correctcion on that paint (IME). When you do switch to the polish, work it a LONG time to break it down and I mean *LONG*. (You might need to do that with their compound too.)



I'd do all the correction with the compound and then just use the polish to remove the micromarring that the compound will probably leave behind. Let the compound do the work.



Stop and clean your pad out so it doesn't get caked with product (esp. around the outer edge).



FWIW, I don't think you need to practice on spare panels or otherwise approach this so cautiously. More likely IMO, the BMW clear will be so hard that you'll end up going in search of the M105. Who knows, maybe your car is different from my '97 :nixweiss But I wouldn't expect it to be and mine was one *tough* car to correct (note that I'm used to working on Audis, which have a well-deserved reputation for having very hard clear; I'm used to it, but the BMW still taxed me).
 
Accumulator, big thanks for your helpful post. Really glad to hear that BMW CC is pretty hard...I figured as much on a Euro car after reading about the notorious Audi clear.



Don't worry about recommending new products as far as Meguires goes. I was really referring to my lack of ability to get mail-order products. I think I could find M105 locally...some places have the beige bottles.



Glad to hear about the compound, it was looking like it would be an expensive paperweight.



I'm a BMW expert, sorry to toot my own horn, and I will promise that the paint is identical. So really glad to see you have experience with a '97.



Again, thanks a ton. I've absorbed every word, that was most helpful.
 
Denton- Glad to be helpful.



Heh heh, you might not be so glad about the hard clear after you've worked on it for a while ;)



See if your local autobody/paint supply place has, or can order, the M105. My local place hadn't even heard of it (I got mine online) but as a Meguiar's vendor they could always get some.



I was kinda surprised how well the M105 worked with a PC/4" yellow pad, especially how well it finished out. I'm not sure the Optimum Polish would even improve things all that much, but then I never do all that well with the Optimum...just not my cup of tea for some reason :nixweiss



(My '97 M3 sedan, in Byzanz metallic, is a long-term project that I start/stop/resume as time and interest allow; I won't be doing the follow-up to the M105 for a while. Sitting there in the shop, it sure looks good for paint that was merely aggressively compounded.)



Oh, and no worries about tooting your own horn :D I appreciate expert knowledge and IMO there's nothing wrong with being up front about knowing your stuff.
 
My God, you have Byzanz. Where's the drool smiley? Holy moly, what I would do for a Byzanz M3. Wow. I've seen Byzanz once in person, not for everyone but boy is that a neat color. I bet you can make the copper really shine.



I'll see what I can do on M105. I won the Optimum stuff in the Bimmerforums Optimum giveaway so it's nice to be able to use the free stuff.
 
Denton said:
My God, you have Byzanz. Where's the drool smiley? Holy moly, what I would do for a Byzanz M3. Wow. I've seen Byzanz once in person, not for everyone but boy is that a neat color. I bet you can make the copper really shine..
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Yeah, I simply love that color but for some reason I'm just not in love with the car :nixweiss Probably because all my previous M3s were manuals (with mods) and this one's an automatic (and stock/slow)...I dunno...if I really liked it I'd finish this endless detail and *drive* the thing but instead I just mothball it while I buy/play with other cars.



I bought it with ~75K miles and bringing it up to my standards is a daunting undertaking to say the least (I spent over a week on just the undercarriage).



Regulars here have heard all this before but I don't mind reposting it as you sound like somebody who can appreciate how special the car is. I hear they only built ~100 in Byzanz.
 
Accumulator said:
Yeah, I simply love that color but for some reason I'm just not in love with the car :nixweiss Probably because all my previous M3s were manuals (with mods) and this one's an automatic (and stock/slow)...I dunno...if I really liked it I'd finish this endless detail and *drive* the thing but instead I just mothball it while I buy/play with other cars.



I bought it with ~75K miles and bringing it up to my standards is a daunting undertaking to say the least (I spent over a week on just the undercarriage).



Regulars here have heard all this before but I don't mind reposting it as you sound like somebody who can appreciate how special the car is. I hear they only built ~100 in Byzanz.
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Byzanz is rare, I believe the rarest of the M3 colors minus British Racing Green and Imola Red.



My 525i started life with two pedals and sprouted a third under my ownership with 126k miles. You should do the same...and pick up the song "Falling in Love All Over Again" to play on the first drive as a manual. I drove an automatic M3 once and was underwhelmed. It's competent but not what an M3 should be.



Swap it, without a doubt.



I'd love to see Byzanz pop. It's a, well, versatile color...changes a bit depending on light, similar to Techno Violet.
 
Denton said:
Byzanz is rare, I believe the rarest of the M3 colors minus British Racing Green and Imola Red...[/quoet]



Oddly enough I've seen more Imola Red ones listed for sale than Byzanz :nixweiss





You should [convert to manual]...
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For *this specific application* an automatic is actually preferable...but the M3 just isn't right with one. I toyed with the idea of getting it supercharged, but I have issues with local BMW service anyhow. The whole thing is sorta a misfire for me :cry:



And to be honest, after my Korman-built e30 M3, remotely normal ones just aren't all that appealing.



..I'd love to see Byzanz pop. It's a, well, versatile color...changes a bit depending on light, similar to Techno Violet.
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Oh yeah, absolutely. I think one of the reasons I haven't already sold the car is that I simply like having something so attractive sitting around the shop. And it's quite close to the color of my late mother's '69 Charger R/T (coolest mom-mobile around when I was a kid).
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