Deep Gloss Auto Salon: 2010 Jet Black BMW M3

Deep Gloss Auto Salon
2010 BMW M3 in Jet Black
Saved From the Hackers

The owner of this beautiful M3 knew all to well the difficulty in getting a Jet Black bimmer with perfect paint let alone keeping it that way. For this reason he factory ordered this beauty as well as instructed the dealership to not wash his vehicle.

When he went to pick up his vehicle I am sure you can imagine his horror when he was greeted with a swirled up mess. Unfortunately the dealership took it upon themselves to be so kind as to treat his new machine to a “Hand Wash” as they so proudly touted.

When the owner expressed his dissatisfaction the dealership reassured that their “Hand Wash” could not have been the culprit but, they would send this out to a detail shop and have the problem rectified.

Want to guess how that turned out?

Fast forward to when the owner picks up the car after being “detailed”. The vehicle looked no better that before (worst actually), as the dealer explained it the detail shop “was not able to remove the swirls”, they also informed the owner that this is “how all cars look, swirls are just inherent to paint”…..

As you will see, not only was the detail shop not able to remove the heavy wash induced swirls but they were also kind enough to leave evidence of their shoddy work in the form of holograms throughout and left over compound/wax etc.

So, as they say… On with the show!

As always the cleansing process started with the wheel areas. Products used were

Chemicals:
AutoGlym Custom Wheel Cleaner: Used on rims and tires
Meg’s Super Degreaser: Used on arches

Tools:
Raceglaze XL Brush: Used for barrels on rims and to get into small clearance to scrub arches
Black Magic Tire Brush: used to scrub tires
Wash Mitt: Used to clean face of rims
Megs Wheel Brush: Used to clean face of rims

AG CWC hard at work.

After the wheels/arches/tires were sorted out it was time to clean the paint.
Wash process is below:

Entire exterior generously pressure washed
Entire exterior generously showered with foam cannon (Chemical Guys Citrus Clear) and left to dwell for 5 minutes
Entire exterior generously pressure washed
Entire exterior generously showered with foam cannon (Chemical Guys Citrus Clear) and left to dwell for 5 minutes
While foam was dwelling the emblems and crevices were cleaned with Megs slide lock brush and bucket of diluted Chemical Guys Citrus Clear
Entire exterior generously pressure washed
Exterior was clayed with Riccardo yellow clay and ONR as lube
Entire exterior generously pressure washed
Exterior was blown dry and then dried with waffle weave micro fiber towels

Thick layer of foam working its magic

After dwell time

Condition of “freshly detailed” car by bimmer approved detail shop? Huh?

As can be seen there was a consistent level of scratches/marring/swirls/holograms throughout the entire paintwork of this vehicle.

Hood Before:

Rear Deck Lid Before:

Drivers Side C Pillar Before:

Drivers Door Before:

Drivers ¼ panel before:

Nice holograms even on the side lip of hood before:

Drivers Rear ¼ Panel Before:

Passenger C Pillar Before:

Passenger Door Before:

Mirror Housing Before:

Roof Before:

Paint Correction:

As always, a test section was isolated in order to identify the best method for correcting the paint while removing as little clear coat as possible.

MANY different polish/pad combos were used. This paint was different than the soft Jet Black bimmer paint of yesteryear which is not necessarily a bad thing considering how ridiculously soft it used to be but, this paint presented its own set of obstacles such as:

I used several different combos with my Makita 9227 and I was not getting the results I wanted… Medium pad/polish combo did not correct the paint so I decided to try wool.. The wool just tore the paint up and created more work just to clean up after the wool. Anything I tried with my Makita delivered sub standard results

What I realized was that this paint responded better to a DA machine so, out came my new Megs V2 DA… Viola, we are in the money

The process I dialed in was as follows:

Megs 105 with orange LC pad (two times)
Menzerna SIP with white LC pad
Menzerna 106ff with black LC pad
Menzerna 85rd with red LC pad
91% IPA wipedowns (multiple) to ensure true correction

Some in process shots

Test Spot Before:

Sun validation of my process on the test spot (prior to 106/85rd):

Half and Half shot after all compounding / polishing steps (please excuse polish residue at bottom of panel):

After all paint correction was completed the vehicle was given a final wash to ensure all polishing oils/dust etc was removed.

Exhaust Tips: Never Dull & Surf City metal polish

Used 303 wipes for the 1st time

Tires/Wheels/Arches
Tires: Surf City Beyond Black Dressing
Have to get the full tire dressed right…OCD much?

Rims: Optiseal

Arches: Chemical Guys Bare Bones
Rubber Seals: 1Z Gummi Pfledge
Windows: Surf City Clearly Better
Engine: ONR wipe down/ dressed with CD2 engine dressing
Chrome bagding, appliqués, trim: Duragloss 501
Exterior plastic trim: Ultima or Duragloss 253

LSP was Rubbish Boys OE.

Sun Shots:

This is a fun sun shot…

From this:

To this:

Beauty Shots:

Indoor gloss shot

HDR beauty shots courtesy of forum member "Milan".. Thanks Buddy!:

Always Leave a Card (or two)

Thanks for looking!