740i paint frustrations

[AudiOn19s]

Detailed a 2004 BMW 740i last night that has 30K+ miles on it (business driver) and has never been touched. The paint didn`t really have any swirling in it BUT had a pretty good case of spiderwebbing. I was disappointed to find that even SSR2.5 and a Orange pad at speed 6 on the PC wasn`t really doing much to knock down the Spierwebbing. I never have this problem on my `02 M3 but it`s white and was previously owned by a detailer so the paint was never let to get to that point.



Seeing as though I was only being paid for a single stage job I ended up using SSR2.5 and a polishing pad for the whole car topped with UPP. The car glossed up well and looked great but the spiderwebbing was still present.



Can anyone tell me their experiences with correcting black BMW paint...is the 7 series different paint like the newer Mercedes stuff?



Thanks.

Andy

[boywonder]

Did you try something like DACP or Menzerna Intensive/Final Polish?

[AudiOn19s]

I did try IP...didn`t seem to knock down the edges of the spiderwebbing any better than SSR2.5. Don`t have any DACP but they all pretty well fall in the same place on the cut scale.



The only thing I didn`t try was a Yello cut pad because I knew it would cause hazing and again...with only being paid for a single stage job I was just wasting time at that point...but I had really hoped that esp on such a new car that the damage would be much easier to repair.



Heck I did a 911 last week that was 2 years old and swirled like the dickens and was amazed that it came perfectly clean with SSR1 and a polishing pad (yes I did the alcohol wipe to confirm)...all paints are just different I suppose but this was particularly frustrating.



Cars like this make me want to break out the DeWalt Rotary and do more practicing to be able to use it on something other than my own personal vehicles.

[l33]

Originally posted by AudiOn19s

Cars like this make me want to break out the DeWalt Rotary and do more practicing to be able to use it on something other than my own personal vehicles.



thats probably your best bet.

[92MX83]

I did a black 2001 740iL a few weeks back. After washing, considerable scratching from the car`s history of auto-washes became evident after the fillers (cleaner wax) were removed. The scratches were numerous enough to create a hazy appearance.



Process:

- #83 on trunklid with a Meg`s yellow pad on speed 6 and #80 with PC on 6. Result: considerable hazing, but fine scratches reduced by perhaps 80%.

- #83 entire car with Meg`s yellow pad on 5, 2 passes. Less hazing than speed 6, similar reduction in fine scratches.

- #80, 2 passes on 5, took out the hazing, reduced the appearance of scratches a bit further.

- Finished with EX and Souveran.



This car had also a fair amount of spiderwebbing due to the owner`s waxing technique/equipment. I was able to get about 75-80% of the spiderwebbing out, but this polishing process was going deep into overtime already. As was mentioned in another recent post, some flaws are uncorrectable (well, first time around anyway), and this was a car that would certainly benefit from repeated polishing over time. The rotary undoubtedly would have accomplished a greater degree of correction in less time.



The 740`s paint proved to be a bit tougher than that of other cars I have worked on, though I haven`t done very many European cars to begin with.



The owner was really happy, by the way. Main thing is he perceived a noticeable improvement.