This writeup has been a long time in coming for which I apologise! The detail was actually carried out in February and it was an exterior paint correction detail on a Carbon Black BMW 520d. This was one of these details that, owing to the condition of the paintwork, took longer than expected to complete to the standard we desired – the car was dropped off Saturday morning to be picked up on Sunday morning, and I imagine most sane people would have slept on the Saturday night – but not us on this detail, as Gordon and I worked through the night to ensure the car was ready on time for the owner and completed to the standard we wanted. I think it was worth the night shift… as the car arrived like this: And left like this… The full story After our traditional wet-wash procedure, the car was ready for claying. Following a rise in the price of Last Touch, we decided to give 3D Final Touch a go as a clay lubricant – spray onto panel and clay as usual… And then light sweeping motion with the clay to remove the bonded contamination, seen here on the surface of the clay to show the effects of the claying, The Final Touch was just as slick as Last Touch (and importantly did not leave anything on the paint which later made it sticky for polishing), and made for us an effective clay lube. Good value compared to Last Touch now as well, and while you use more of it than Born Slippy for example, I find its use more rewarding in terms of I prefer a “wetter” panel when claying. Smell is superb too and of course that counts for everything! :lol: Onto the machine polishing stages after the claying, and I started off on the bonnet of the car while Gordon set to down to passenger side. The bonnet was looking in good condition under the unit lighting from a distance… Get the Sun Gun out and the case still does not look too bad – what looks like light swirls and hazing… But do not be deceived as underneath that light looking hazing lay a lot of deeper marks (RDS, or Random Deep Scratch to make clear the abbreviation )… On the face of it, the car lokoed very well cared for and clearly a good wash routine from the small level of swirling but the deeper marks were present in the paintwork. To give you a better idea of these marks, this is the bonnet after polishing with Menzerna PO85RD3.02 Intensive Polish. Looks good under the Sun Gun… But note the two deep “tram lines” to the left… under the unit lights and using manual focus to get in close to the condition of the paintwork we see the true condition… look at the deeper RDS highlighted by the dimmer strip lighting: The correction and refinement process went as follows. Correction: 3M Fast Cut Plus, Chemical Guys Hexlogic Yellow Cutting Pad applied as follows: 1) Spread compound at 600rpm 2) Begin working at 1200rpm, light to moderate pressure building heat and evenly spreading the compound 3) Work at 2000rpm, moderate pressure until residue clear (couple of minutes of steady passes) The FC+ stage was repeated as required to a maximum of three “hits” where the paint removal rate was circa 10um which was deemed to be the safe limit on a car which is a daily driver and may require future paint correction. First Stage Refinement: Menzerna PO85RD3.02 Intensive Polish, 3M Yellow Polishing Pad, applied as follows: 1) Spread polish at 600rpm 2) Begin working at 1200rpm, light pressure to built a little heat and get the wax lubricant nicely spread and working 3) Work at 1500 – 1800rpm with light to moderate pressure, slow to steady passes with the machine until the residue goes clear This stage was used to enhance the gloss after compounding and also the abrasive type in Intensive Polish is ideally suited to “rounding” of deep defects that are not possible to fully remove for paint thickness reasons – the rounding of the edge of a mark diffuses the reflected light making the defect a lot less obvious. Final Refinement and Jewelling: Meguiars #205 Ultra Finishing Polish, 3M Blue Finishing pad, applied as follows (“Double Zenith” technique): 1) Spread polish at 600rpm 2) Begin working at 1200rpm, light pressure to begin working the polish. 3) Work at 1500rpm, moderate pressure getting lighter towards the end of the set, steady machine movements 4) Burnish at 1200rpm, light to moderate pressure, slower machine passes 5) Jewel at 900rpm, light pressure (supporting weight of the rotary), four or five slow moving passes This stage delivers the clarity and sharpness to the finish ensuring no machine marring left behind, as the SMAT abrasives with light pressure and slow movements act as very fine refining abrasives. The end results of the correction and refinement on the bonnet: Deep marks removed (checked by striplight) Finish quality assessed by Sun Gun The bonnet looked good before, but the overall finish after the machine polishing shows an increased depth in the unit lighting… Moving onto the side where Gordon was starting, we can see the deeper marks even more clearly as the damage here is yet more severe… What’s this under the mirror…? That’ll be a machine hologram, looks like the car has been machine polished at some point in the past – this must make you think about the paint thciknesses and the possibility of already high removal rates before we have seen the car… The above 3M FC+ correction and two stage refinement was used around the car. On occasional sections, we found that stepping up to a Green Hexlogic Heavy Polishing pad with Intensive Polish with a regenerating technique with Intensive Polish was enough to remove the less severe defects where there were no deep RDS. This is becoming a specialty of Gordon’s where the longer IP set is favoured over a faster FC+ set – although IP takes longer in these cases, it gives more controlled paint removal which is better for the overall finish of the car in the long run. After machine polishing on the door… You can still see the odd deeper RDS (more “rounded”) remaining – full correction on a car is sometimes just not possible without drastically sacrificing a lot of paint and on a daily driver this is something we are not prepared to do unless specifically asked by the owner. You can quite happily remove a lot of paint, but I always believe the “sensible” correction is the key where the finish is restored and as many defects as possible removed but still leaving a good amount of paint for potential future correction to be carried out. Onto the driver’s side where I went after the bonnet: befores: Deeper marring showing up under the strip lights: After correction, removal of the deeper marring: And after refining: Onto the rear door and three quarter… Showing up on the rear door, what looks like sanding pigtails! These were very deep! Two hits of FC+ required to fully remove them which shows the damage sanding can do if not done correctly! After results on the door and rear three quarter… Gordon was working away on the passenger side – rear three quarter before: And after… The roof showed some deep defects… After correction… Headlights before: After correction with Intensive Polish and refinement with #205, restoring a little more clarity to the plastic… Not sure what had been going on with the front bumper, some severe marring here before: After correction and refining: The wheels on the car also displayed a lot of what appeared to be little tar spots but later turned out to be quite severe pitting which the initial wet-wash using Diablo and then Tardis failed to remove… (note also the old wheel weight gluey sticker mess…) Gordon used Espuma Revolution and a lot of time and patience… one “hit” of Espuma using a small detailing brush delivered the following… Much better… a good two hours was then spent on these sections of the wheels (this is why detailing can take longer than expected), using a small detailing brush to help get in behind the spokes as well following the good results of the initial test above. After machine polishing, the paintwork on the car was protected using Collinite 476S wax, chosen for its durability. Tyres dressed with Espuma RD-50 and wheels with FK1000P. Glass cleaned with Stoner Invisible Glass. Trim treated to Chemical Guys New Look Trim Gel, arches with Meguiars All Seasons Dressing. On completion, the car in the unit… (no wax hologramming ) And as the car was picked up the following morning, a good chance for daylight afters outside too Thank you for viewing – I hope the writeup was enjoyable and useful
Great job, Dave. Thanks for the write up. It's very detailed and helps a lot someone who is starting like me.
