Help with scratches in BMW clearcoat

S

stingers96

New member
hi all. Been lurking for a while in preparation for my first real detail in a number of years. I am a total weekend warrior with total ocd when it comes to my cars. I have been washing my own for years but havent been able to find the time to detail them myself until now. I found a decent detail shop locally, but they never did it as good as i think i can do it myself. My passion for scratch free liquid like finishes goes back to my teenage years when i had summer detailing business for a few years. Those days i did it all by hand. On my own car a Black (not metallic) VW Corrado I used Malms polish and carnuba wax. That car looked perfect. Ill never forget the way the Malms would cause a haze to form over the body the day after detailing when the car was left out in the sun. the company told me it was the oils coming to the surface, after it was wiped down and buffed the car had this amazing wet look.

So a few weeks ago i started purchasing a bunch of new products (chemical guys, to many to list, and a PC 7424, and lots of pads) Then did a test run on my Jeep Wrangler (2011 black 2dr, not metallic) After a few tries i purchased some new products(more chemical guys ) I was able to successfully remove a heavy swirls with v34 followed by v38 polish to finish it to a beautiful shine. Probably nicer then when it was new!

After some more research I tried some test spots on my Carbon Black Metallic 2013 BMW 650i and was not happy with the results. I did some more research and decided to buy some Menzerna products to get through the ceramic clear coat. I purchased Fg400, PO203s(PF2500) , PO106FA (SF4000) and PO83 (SI1500). I also bought some Blackfire SRC Finishing Polish and Gloss enhancing Polish. I also purchased Swissvax BMW specific wax and the pro cleaner.

After some more reading i decided to step up to a Rupes Bigfoot 21es as well. I got the Blue, Green and Yello Rupes 7" pads, and Chemical Guys MF Pads (both F1 finish and F2 cutting). I should have enough product to achieve the finish i am looking for.

After properly washing and claying the BMW this morning, i began trying different combinations of pads and products starting with the least aggressive moving to more aggressive to find the right combo to remove the nasty scratches in the finish. (I forgot to mention that my dealer thought they were doing me a favor by washing the car before returning it last time it was in for service. My regular service rep knows not to wash my car , its almost always clean, but this time they were out and their replacement didn't see the note on my file in the system. I am sure it was run through a dirty gross car wash, and now its scratched like mad)

First i tried the yellow Rupes pad with the 2500, no luck, then the green with 2500, no luck, then the green with 1500 still scratches. then the blue with 1500 still scratches!!! Before i try the blue with fg400 i wanted to get some opinions here. I have prepared the pads by saturating with product using my fingers to work it in. wiped off the excess and applied a few pea sized drops. I put the machine on the surface and using speed 3-4 sometimes 5 worked in a cross hatch pattern with slow hand speed for about 2 minutes per section with no or very little pressure. Don't get me wrong i have removed some of the defects but can remove everything. Its not just the RIDS that are left, there are a LOT of scratches.

I cant seem to get any good pictures, I am going to try again with a different camera....in the meantime I am looking for some advise here, am i doing something wrong? Or is this clear coat just this tough?

Any and all advise is appreciated.
 
check the pad comparison todd did recently. that should give ya an idea

where are you located?
 
I think i may have a megs MF cutting pad around, i am going to try that and then maybe the CG MF f2 cutting pad with the SI1500 and post back the results.
 
if you are trying to remove scratches and swirls, don't be afraid to bear down on the da polisher with your polishing/compounding pads, you just don't want the backing plate to stop moving. you are not going to damage anything and defect removal will be easier.
 
also work in a smaller space if you are not seeing correction 2'x2' is good I know when I was trying to correct I was doing half a hood at a time and wondering why I was not getting very far.
 
something is not right here.... I removed swirls and scratches easily with a white/orange pad and wg tsr/fg on my 2013 sapp black bmw with my flex 3401

the flex w/ wg polishes will remove light swirls and scratches with just a few passes.... sometime you will have to use moderate/heavy pressure and/or use the edge of the pad, depending on the application to get tricky ones out

the rupee is a good machine, I have read, but it takes practice to get it to work right... the flex 3401 is a swirl monster out of the box

show us pics
 
so i switched to a megs MF cutting pad with the PO83 (SI1500) using moderate pressure, sometimes tilting the machine, i was able to get rid of most of the defects. I followed with a CG F1 MF pad with PF2500 and then with FF4000 on the hood and trunk. It came out beautifully!

this paint is not the same as black BMW paint metallic(sapphire) or not(Jet). Its a special paint only available on cars with the M sports package and the M6. If you haven't seen it its a dark dark blue, that looks black at night and in the shade. In bright light is has a blue sparkle. Though its not as dark as my 2009 version was, i actually liked that one better. It was much darker, people thought it was black. I have to imagine that the paint has a hard clear coat to make it scratch resistant, but not car wash proof apparently.

Ill try for some shots today. Last night when i finished there wasn't enough light to show the shine.

Thanks to everyone for the help. I think it was the combination of the MF pad and the pressure that got the job done. I am glad i didn't have to use the FG400, that seems like a lot of cut for new paint. I think i got about 70-75% of the defects out, which i can live with. if it wasn't a metallic paint i may make another pass but its hard to see the defects in the paint, unless you're really looking.
 
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