Hologram removal on a black 2006 BMW X5 - Rasky's Auto Detailing

RaskyR1

Rasky's Auto Detailing
The owner of this stunning vehicle recently purchased it out of state having only seen it in photographs. The seller listed that it had been "professionally detailed".....well, we all know what that means half the time! :D



Here is the photo the current owner sent me once he got back in town and got it all cleaned up. :wow:



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As you can see they did a poor job at detailing and a great job at creating some holograms, but they really weren't near as bad as some of the cars I've seen posted on these forums.





Here is the car the night she arrived....I love MN winters! :rolleyes:

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After a thorough wash using CG Citrus wash N' Clear I pulled the car out in the sun to try and capture some good pics of the holograms. I had a hard time capturing the true condition but between these pics and the one the owner took you should have a good idea of how bad they were.



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After claying the car with Meguiar's aggressive clay and ONR as lube I went around and captured some pics of a few concern areas.





Small spot above the drivers door handle

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TOGW could be found in several locations

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Deep scratch which didn't fully remove but it was almost unnoticeable when I was all done.

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Staining on some of the trim

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The UV coating was starting to fail on the drivers side lamp. I sanded it down with some 2000 grit paper and then polished it out with M105/M205 which did a great job and It came out really well.

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There was several weird water stains on the roof, both glass and paint which removed easily with some M95 and and Orange LC pad on the PCXP.



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Because of the severe holograms on the vehicle I wanted to be sure and check all the panels for paint thickness. Most the readings were in the 130 range with no areas of major concern.

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All taped up and ready to go.

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My ugly mug doing a test spot with M105 and a orange LC 5.5" pad.

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My test spot confirmed both good and bad. The good was that M105 on the PC did an excellent job of removing the holograms and it finished down great.



Here is the panel after M105 and an IPA wipedown

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And here was the same section after M205 on the PC with a black LC pad and an IPA wipedown

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Now for the bad news...once I removed all the holograms I started seeing all the deeper scratches that were previously hidden by all those fine micro scratches. Unfortunately M105 on the PC and orange LC pad were not going to cut it at removing these deeper scratches and I had to call up the owner and let him know we needed to do a 3 step correction. :(





My actual correction process was as follows:





  • Meguiars M105 with the rotary equipped with a Purple Foamed Wool LC pad
  • Meguiars M105 with the PCXP equipped with a orange LC foam pad
  • Meguiars M205 with the PCXP equipped with a black LC foam pad





Some sun shots after the correction, no LSP here yet. I actually ran down and rewashed the car too since it was covered in buffing dust from the first two correction steps.

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Love the flake in this paint!

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After I got it all washed I went over the paint with some CG EZ-Cream Glaze....this was my first time trying this stuff and it seemed to work very well. Thanks DJ! :D



-LSP was Opti-Seal and I later followed that up with some Optimum Car Wax



-Tires and wheel wells were dressed with Meguiars Hyper Dressing at 3:1



-Trim was done using Poor Boys Trim Restorer



-Exhaust tips/chrome were cleaned with Optimum Metal Polish and #0000 steel wool



-Exterior glass was cleaned with Meguiars D120



-All jambs wiped clean with Meguiars Last Touch



I was running late on this one as a result of the added correction step and the owner was waiting for a while as I finished things up. Because of this I forgot to take some after pics like the headlight and water spots. I will add them later as the owner offed to take them for me. :2thumbs:
 
Very nice correction Chad!



Next time see if M205 on an orange pad will work for that middle step. It may or may not....
 
gmblack3a said:
Very nice correction Chad!



Next time see if M205 on an orange pad will work for that middle step. It may or may not....



Thanks Bryan!



I actually did try a small spot with it and while it looked good I really wanted to be 100% sure there were no holograms in the paint. I opted to stick with the M105 since it finished down so well anyway. ;)
 
Thanks Chad! I still can't believe how well it turned out!



Here are some more 'after' pics - forgot to snap some of the roof but it is just as mint as the rest of the car!



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Before:

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After:

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Right into the sun - unreal :hifive:

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And the headlight looks awesome

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Thanks again! :clap:
 
wow chad car looks beautiful! Excellent work! So what was your secret on those headlights? I find that the BMW Headlights always tend to have the failing UV coat. You just used 2000 grit sand paper and that was it aside from M105 & M205?



Thanks
 
Great work there Chad. Yeah, it can be frustrating when you can't even see some of the deeper RIDS until after you've removed a layer of swirls and holograms. There always seems to be a few surprises hiding underneath!
 
Wow Rasky!!! :drool:



That is some amazing work!



X5's can be a royal PITA to detail because of all the plastic trim surrounding everything. I'm sure the pictures don't even show how truly bad it was either.



What a great looking truck! The metallic flake is exploding...



ABSOLUTELY PERFECT! :xyxthumbs
 
Looks great! Very impressed of how well the PC did with M105 on Orange at first though too. Gives me hope, ha...
 
toyotaguy said:
nice chad!!!!



thats my go to combo sometimes as well!!!



Thanks Eric! I haven't used the PFW in a while now but I may have to start using them more often! :)



DiamondD said:
nice job on the bemmer stunning auto.



Thanks DD!



NOM3RCY said:
Thanks Chad! I still can't believe how well it turned out!



Here are some more 'after' pics - forgot to snap some of the roof but it is just as mint as the rest of the car!





Thanks again! :clap:



Thanks for adding the additional pics Brian! I'm glad you are happy with the work.



FYI, I think I'm going to have to hire you to take all my pictures from now on! :D





vtec92civic said:
wow chad car looks beautiful! Excellent work! So what was your secret on those headlights? I find that the BMW Headlights always tend to have the failing UV coat. You just used 2000 grit sand paper and that was it aside from M105 & M205?



Thanks



Thanks!





Yep, a little sanding with 2000 took it all out and then I removed the scratches with M105 on the rotary and a orange 4" pad followed by M205 on the PC and a white 4" pad. I did apply some Opti-Seal to them as well and let him know that they needed to be polished often since the UV coating is gone. ;)



gofast908z said:
Beautiful!!!!



Thanks Jeff! :thx



DetailnByDustn said:
Excellent work! Nice job on the lights!



Thanks Dustin!



TSC17 said:
Great work there Chad. Yeah, it can be frustrating when you can't even see some of the deeper RIDS until after you've removed a layer of swirls and holograms. There always seems to be a few surprises hiding underneath!



Thanks Todd! Yeah, those nasty little hiding RIDS have burnt me more than once now. I think we need to come with an acronym for them....SHRIDS? :D



Sneaking Hidden Random Isolated Deep Scratches?





RickRack said:
Wow Rasky!!! :drool:



That is some amazing work!



X5's can be a royal PITA to detail because of all the plastic trim surrounding everything. I'm sure the pictures don't even show how truly bad it was either.



What a great looking truck! The metallic flake is exploding...



ABSOLUTELY PERFECT! :xyxthumbs



Thanks Rick! Yeah, all that trim made for a lot of extra taping too! I think I used a whole role of blue tape! :D



It was a very nice truck and I agree the flake is crazy!



brandn3w said:
Looks great! Very impressed of how well the PC did with M105 on Orange at first though too. Gives me hope, ha...



Thank you!



M105 on the PCXP can achieve some amazing correction! ;)
 
nice job. How long did you spend on the correction?



I only ask because my Mom has a black X5 thats in desperate need of work and i'm trying to get an idea of how long it's going to take.
 
Rez90 said:
nice job. How long did you spend on the correction?



I only ask because my Mom has a black X5 thats in desperate need of work and i'm trying to get an idea of how long it's going to take.



Thanks!



I think I had around 16-18hrs tied up into it. I also did a few things on the interior simply to try out some new products though, which were unrelated to the job. I also had my PDR guy come down and remove a few door dings.
 
RaskyR1- I'm late to this party, but I wanted to add my "nice job!" to the other responses. I'd be interested to hear how often those lights need redone (in case you keep track of the vehicle). I probaby woulda thought about replacing them, but, well...$ ouch!
 
I've never seen another X5 with light damage like this one. We also have a 2002 4.6is with 80k miles on it and the headlights don't show anything near like what was happening on the 4.8.



I think they will stay nice and clean for years now that it will be properly cared for.
 
Accumulator said:
RaskyR1- I'm late to this party, but I wanted to add my "nice job!" to the other responses. I'd be interested to hear how often those lights need redone (in case you keep track of the vehicle). I probaby woulda thought about replacing them, but, well...$ ouch!



Thanks man!



I would think that if one used a light cleaner followed by some sort of sealant regularly that they'd stay looking new. So many variables though that it's like saying everyone would get "X" months protection from a wax/sealant. ;)







NOM3RCY said:
I've never seen another X5 with light damage like this one. We also have a 2002 4.6is with 80k miles on it and the headlights don't show anything near like what was happening on the 4.8.



I think they will stay nice and clean for years now that it will be properly cared for.



I'm excited to see the blue one all cleaned up too! :)





EisenHulk said:
Great work!!!



I love the before and after pics from the same angle!!!



Thank You! :)
 
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