Today's detail for Bryan and I was a Le Mans Blue (lovely colour) BMW 320d, on an 06 plate. It was clear that this car had been well cared for, but the swirls on the paint were bugging the owner, so today's challenge was to remove them and refine the finish of the car so that the owner could maintain it and not have to see scratches and swirls every time the sun came out! The detail kicked off last night for Bryan as he washed and clayed the car, sorted out the wheels with APC and Chemical Guys Premium Blue, and the arches with Meguiars APC and ASD... Bryan always tries to get through these stages the evening before a detail to allow up both to get off to a flying start with the machine polishing from the start of play on the main detail day My day today kicked off very early... Last night, Diane and I were out at a ball, got home around 2am... which would have been fine, had we not had to get up a 4am so I could drive her to Edinburgh airport (an hour away)!! When I started the car at 4am, it hadn't even fully cooled down from when it was parked before we went to bed! ... So an early blast down to the airport and back through the dawn mist for me, back home by 630am and a chance to grab another hours sleep before the detail - my car didn't exactly arrive in the most respectable of states, a little bug squash from the early morning drive: Strangely though, I was wide awake and raring to go for this detail despite a complete lack of sleep... I'll sort my car out tomorrow But for now, on with the show. The BMW was rolled into the garage and while Bryan taped up the car, I assessed the paintwork using the 3M Sun Gun, pictures taken with my new Fuji FinePix S5700 camera... Some general light to medium swirls across the board and hidden in amongst them were a fair share of RDS. After playing around with a few combos on a test spot, I decided to settle on 3M Extra Fine Compound (80349) applied using a Meguiars W8006 yellow polishing pad as follows: Spread at 600rpm, 1 pass Begin working at 1200rpm, 2 passes Work at 1500rpm, around 10 passes until polish just started to dust slightly No attempt was made to finish down here as I was intending to go for a finishing polish any way to burnish the finish, but despite this the compound still finished LSP ready. The reason I chose this was that I needed a little mote cut than Menzerna Final Finish had to offer, but not the cut required by Intensive Polish... For me, this 3M polish seems to fall right between the two of these products offering a handy middle ground on this detail to get the desired correction with the minimum removal of paint - the ideal of machine polishing Finishing polish was 3M Ultrafina SE (50383) - a change from my favourite finishing polish (Menzerna PO85RD) but I knew Ultrafina was highly capable, so decided to make this a 3M polish detail. (Though, I did also check to compare against 85RD to see if if would deliver a better finish and thus see Ultrafina back in its box... but it didn't, so Ultrafina it was ). The Ultrafina SE was applied using a 3M Ultrafina SE Finishing Pad (50388) as follows: Spread at 600rpm, 1 pass Begin working at 1200rpm, 2 passes Work at 1500rpm, around 10 - 15 passes Refine at 1200rpm, 2 - 3 passes Burnish at 900rpm, 2 - 3 passes In comparison to the dryer feeling Extra Fine Compound, the Ultrafina was very oily and made for a very long work time and this made the polish a real joy to use for finishing purposes where I like a long work time to burnish the finish to a clarity and gloss I am happy with. Results of this process on the bonnet: Happy with correction and finish achieved here, so this was the process adopted for the rest of the car by rotary, while Bryan cut in small areas by PC using Menzerna Intensive Polish, and very tight areas by hand using Intensive Polish. The 3M performance: Before on the driver's side wing: After: Before on driver's door: After: (Note light aimed at crease here, as the dimmer spread of light above and below handy for highlighting faint holograms - we can see here the above finish is hologram free and LSP ready ) Roof before: After: Passenger front door before: After: Bryan spent some time on a small area below the badge on the boot where either a key, or sharp nails or rings had scratches the paint: One hit with Menzerna Intensive Polish on a 4" SFX-2 polishing pad saw all but the deeper gouges (through to base coat) removed: When the machine work was completed, a few pictures of the finish pre cleasning and LSP: Now, a few loose ends to tie up before the paint was cleansed and waxed. Bryan waxed the wheels with Smart Wax Rim Wax: And then Bryan polished the headlights using Menzerna PO106FF Final Finish on a 4" SFX-2 spot pad by PC to remove a light hazing from the lights... After: Tyres, black plastics and door rubbers were treated by Bryan with Swissvax Pneu. LSP of choice today was Swissvax Mystery. First of all, the paint was cleansed using Swissvax Cleaner Fluid. Applied by hand using a Meguiars Foam applicator, this was worked for a few passes with light to medium pressure to work the oils in the cleanser, before the residue was buffed off. Swissvax Mystery was then applied, using a Meguiars yellow foam applicator (which I find works just as well as applying by bare hands, yet also used less wax and allows for an easier to remove, more even coat of product). The was applied, and left around quarter of an hour before being buffed away with ease using a microfibre cloth. No problems buffing off the Mystery, it removed nearly as easily as the crazily easy to use Chemical Guys 50/50! Results inside now with LSP: Glass was polished with Autoglym Glass Polish and all dust removed from crevices using a soft bristle brush. The end results with the Swissvax Mystery on the paint... Then, just before the owner came to collect his car, the paintwork was treated to a final wipedown using Zaino Z8. Now, I know this is meant to be used with the Zaino system, but recent experimenting and playing around shows just how good this is over other LSP systems, and over the Swissvax waxes was no difference... Indeed, this is for me now the ultimate finish to a detail as it enhanced the finish with an extra glassy, glossy nuance and added extra slickness to the finish, the perfect icing on the cake and a nuance that in my eyes I am yet to see beaten A couple of spritzes per panel (dont fully pull trigger, just tap it and enough comes out ), wiped over the panel with one side of a microfibre and then the mf was turned to a dry side for the final buff. Now, the real finished pics, and although its hard to make out a difference added by the Z8 in photographs, the difference in the flesh was clear to see - and that is something you rarely see with any LSP, let alone a spray sealent! And finally, some artistic shots to round off an enjoyable day. Great to meet the owner of the car too, a very nice chap who is keen to keep his car looking like this now :thumb:
Stunning work Dave, that is one of my favorite BMW colors. Looks perfect, that Z8 is indeed a great product.
Nice turn around there Dave and company :applause: :applause: Always enjoy reading your posts Dave :thumb: The colour looks great, I love blue and that blue looks great :thumb: Thank you for sharing and as always great detail...oh by the way I enjoyed the pictures :thumb:
:worship2::applause2::worship2::applause2:wow.. awesome work.. after that z8, that looks like a glass was put over the paint..
