WX51TXR + Menzerna vs BMW 330Ci (got the better of me)

[WX51 TXR]

Less than a year old, suffering from a multitude of sins (heavy swirls, scratches), all brought about by the worst dealer preparation I have ever seen – someone had even run a rotary over the light clusters, swirling them heavily! The paint also felt very gritty, so I steeled myself for a long session. Here’s the process…



Wash (all done in heavy rain!)



Whole car rinsed at moderate pressure using the Karcher

Alloys treated with Meguiars Wheel Brightener cut 4:1, left 60 secs and rinsed with hose

Whole car foamed with Poorboy’s Slick n Suds (4:1 mix in foam gun) and left to dwell for 5 mins

Whole car rinsed at moderate pressure using the Karcher

All trims and inside the arches treated with Meguiars Safe Degreaser cut 10:1

Whole car washed with Poorboy’s Slick n Suds using lambswool (bodywork) and microfibre (wheels and inside arches) mitts, and the two bucket method

Whole car rinsed with an open-ended hose

Car then moved inside the garage and dried with waffle weave towels



Clay



Blackfire Clay (aggressive – no point wasting time)

Blackfire Clay Lubricant

Excess lubricant mopped up with waffle weave towels



Polish



Whole car taped with 3434, then machine polished with PC, using Menzerna IP and Lake Country orange light cut pads. The IP removed some minor cobwebbing and heavy marring from the claying step, but hardly touched the deeper swirls and didn’t do anything to the scratches. Switched to Menzerna Power Gloss and Lake Country orange light cut spot pads, and went at it hard, with maximum pressure and speed. Four goes later, I estimate that 75% of swirls and none of the scratches were removed, and that was it! Holy crap, BMW paint is hard! I showed the owner the results, talked through the options, and agreed to complete the rest of the car to the same standard. A lesson for others here – if you can’t complete a job to the standard you or the customer expects, say so as soon as you become aware of it – be honest and the customer will appreciate it. That said, I felt terrible, first car I’ve done that I was truly unhappy with at the end of the day. So, I knocked a few hours off the price, and I will be returning with a rotary once the art is mastered. To help mask the remaining defects, Menzerna Finishing Touch Glaze was applied by hand. All residues were buffed with Poorboy’s Super Thick n Plush towels.



Protect



All bodywork protected with Menzerna FMJ, buffed using Poorboy's’ Mega Plush towels

All exterior trims treated with 303 Aerospace Protectant, applied using a microfibre pad and buffed after 5 mins with waffle weave towels

Exhaust tips polished with Autosol and protected with Meguiars NXT All Metal Polysh, both applied using Poorboy’s Work Towels

Tyres dressed with Blackfire Long Lasting Tyre Gel



And here’s the pics…

 

[WX51 TXR]

Total work time was 10 hours, of which 7 hours were spent machine polishing in a cramped garage. As I said, I was unhappy with the final results, although the customer was pleased, and commented that the car looked vastly better, even though ~25 % of the original defects were still visible under 3W Luxeon lighting (looked great in daylight though!). Live and learn. Any feedback on pad/product selection for BMW correction by PC only would be gratefully received!

 

[InTheAir]

It looks good in pictures. Good job at least improving it!

 

[Scottwax]

The main objective is to get the car to look its best and if the owner has neglected it to the point where the paint has scratches too deep to remove completetly there isn't much you can do. I feel for you though, not the best feeling when no matter what you do, you can't bring the finish to what you consider to be an acceptable level. I felt the same way about that Audi S4 I did a few weeks ago. Massive improvement, the owner was very happy, but under intense lighting I could still see some of the swirls.



On the postivie side, since our standards are way above most people's they don't see what we do and are very happy with the results anyway. Plus, some cars are just beyond returning to like new condition.



Overall, the car looks absolutely spectacular! The all Menzerna approach to the paint really paid off!

 

[MoneyPit]

I just did a 330i.. relatively well taken care of... IP with max. pressure and cutting pad removed some swirls, but didn't even scare some deeper scratches. On a side note, finish was lsp ready after this step.. no discernable micromarring. The clear is just too hard, harder than a zo6 I worked on last week.

 

[ZaneO]

All of your work looks fantastic!

 

[justvisiting]

yea.. i completely agree that BMW paint is hard to work with, I own one, and since its mine.. I learned to detail on it.. Due to the paranoia of overpolishing I went slow, took me over a year to learn it was hard paint, because I just got tired of it and went to my RSX and 350Z and those polished down on the first pass.. while the BMW Im on the 3rd pass and Ive still to remove all the scratches.. (I go slow, because I like something to do during school breaks).



You can always try ScratchX'ing the scratches. right?

 

[WX51 TXR]

Well I could, but Power Gloss on a 4" light cut spot pad and all of my weight on it didn't do diddly to some of the scratches. I'm very close to going down the rotary route, but if I can stick with the PC that would be my preference. Just wondering if switching to a cutting pad with something like Hyper Compound would have helped?

 

[eric77]

I do MANY bmw's and never get all the scratches out. I tell my customers before beginning that I will remove all hologramming and halo swirls, but isolated scratches will remain. IMO, it is not worth it to remove the isolated deeper scratches when in short time they will return, though the clear you remove will not.