Also doing a correction on a black BMW

J

Jon K

New member
Hey guys - so I am experimenting on a '95 530i in black. The car hasn't been washed in like 3 years. Never waxed in probably 5 years. It's horrible. That said, I just got a new buffer (Griot's 6" random) and some supplies so I wanted to try it out.



Here are some before pictures:





Black 530i Correction by Jon Kensy, on Flickr





Black 530i Correction by Jon Kensy, on Flickr





Black 530i Correction by Jon Kensy, on Flickr





Black 530i Correction by Jon Kensy, on Flickr





Black 530i Correction by Jon Kensy, on Flickr





Black 530i Correction by Jon Kensy, on Flickr





Black 530i Correction by Jon Kensy, on Flickr





Black 530i Correction by Jon Kensy, on Flickr





Black 530i Correction by Jon Kensy, on Flickr





Black 530i Correction by Jon Kensy, on Flickr



50/50. The side on the left of the tape line was washed and clayed then washed again. The side on the right was washed, clayed, washed, then M105'd, M205'd, and waxed with Souveran.





Black 530i Correction by Jon Kensy, on Flickr





Black 530i Correction by Jon Kensy, on Flickr



The scratch just above the camera light is still there because I didn't use the DA close enough to the tape so as to not tear it off. I'll be revisiting the left hand side later on. It started to storm so I had to call it short. Notice the "flare" from the light in the reflection is MUCH less swirled/distorted/yucky on the right hand side. Anyone can take a photo of a glossy surface and it'll look good on camera, but putting a light on it especially with a 50/50 line gives you a true sense of the correction.





Black 530i Correction by Jon Kensy, on Flickr





Black 530i Correction by Jon Kensy, on Flickr



Overall I am happy the paint was horrible and the before photos do not do it justice (in terms of how bad it was). The only thing I'd like is to have a crisper reflection. Am I right in thinking the only way to achieve that is with wet sanding? I have wet sanded scratches out before, and I might do that for a couple still faint scratches on this trunk but I really want to try and restore not only the gloss/shine but the mirror-like sharp reflection. You can see in the pictures where I hold the cell phone LED on the tape line, the compounded/polished side of the car still has a good bit of wave/orange peel in it. It's clean and smooth and feels soft to the touch... and I love it, but I have seen some videos where guys are getting like glass/mirror-like reflection. Any advice?
 
If you are gonna brag about putting a light to it then show a decent light, not the flash from the iphone :/



IMO you should NOT try wetsanding. You will need more and different pads, plus you are increasing the difficulty of the job x^3 and time x^5. If I recall that vintage of bmw paint is quite hard, nicely workable, but it will require significant surbuf/mf work (which could burn up the griots) or rotary and wool. The car is large, too.



What pads did you use for m105/m205? What speed on the griots?



You could try a denim pad instead of wetsanding and see if that gets you where you want to be orange-peel-wise. Rotary needed, but can be done with m105 and no wool needed after in a fraction of the time and effort compared to wetsading.
 
jlb85 said:
If you are gonna brag about putting a light to it then show a decent light, not the flash from the iphone :/



IMO you should NOT try wetsanding. You will need more and different pads, plus you are increasing the difficulty of the job x^3 and time x^5. If I recall that vintage of bmw paint is quite hard, nicely workable, but it will require significant surbuf/mf work (which could burn up the griots) or rotary and wool. The car is large, too.



What pads did you use for m105/m205? What speed on the griots?



You could try a denim pad instead of wetsanding and see if that gets you where you want to be orange-peel-wise. Rotary needed, but can be done with m105 and no wool needed after in a fraction of the time and effort compared to wetsading.
Click to expand...



Sheesh. I am not bragging with my light it was thundering and I had to rush to get my stuff cleaned up. I did it after work for like 30 mins last night and just wanted to show my own efforts. Didn't really have time to go find a flash light, if I even have one. It served its purpose better than no light at all so I can see that there is some correction going on. Its not an iphone btw :)



It wouldn't be the first time I've wet sanded a BMW. I have 4 of them. I am most interested in correcting the orange peel and getting the reflection as clean as possible. There are a couple scratches that nearly disappeared but to really remove them they'll have to be wet sanded. I am happy overall with what 20 - 30 mins did, though.
 
Heck, here I thinking you are a newb, lol.



I still think wetsanding is too much work for most, but if you know what you are getting into rock on! That would make a good write up!!



Were any ofthe other bmws black? If not, expect to need more (and closer) steps.
 
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