2015 BMW X5 M Exterior - Pinnacle correction and Angelwax protection

I was able to do a full detail of my new-to-me 2015 X5 M, starting on Friday 8/9 and finishing up on Thursday 8/15. The paint is black sapphire metallic. It’s a nice mix of black look from > 10 feet away and greyish metallic when seen close.

The below thread gives some discussion about my questions and trials with the chosen Angelwax LSPs:
https://www.autopia.org/forums/car-d...periences.html

The interior was fully detailed in the first days I purchased the car and was discussed in this thread on the sister site (AG):
https://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...nterior+detail

Background/Starting point:
This car is my new baby and I tried my best to make it look new, but knowing that I’m a father of a 3 year old with a full time job. A lot of this work was done at night with me trying to manipulate lighting the best I could in my one car garage. The car was in normal condition (IMO) for a vehicle owned by a normal Earthling for 4 years. I didn’t spend a lot of time trying to capture the condition, I do apologize. Do to lighting and lack of experience and time, I was not able to get good pictures of the moderate swirls over all panels, so just trust me. There’s also a couple very small chips and scratches. The hood has numerous chip corrections most likely performed by the dealer. Most are noticeable but I suppose better than seeing down to white basecoat. There’s also bird poo etchings, some very large, on the hood and roof. These did not come out and I will live with them for now. I also had put a large dent into the top of the back door/tailgate with my garage door. I since got that fixed but it is not part of the below detail (will top n a month or two).

The car had a coating on the paint, wheels and glass when I purchased it. Windows were already done in July with PBL Coating on windshield and moonroof; Pinnacle Glasscoat sealant on side/back windows. The windows were excluded from this correction.

On to the detail details...

Decon:

• Paint and wheels: Blackfire Iron Remover on paint & wheels. Then rinse.
• Bottom side panels: Wolfgang Bug Remover and Mckees 37 Engine Degreaser (there was rough, tar and contamination behind wheel wells. I do not own a dedicated tar remover at this time).
• Paint and wheels Mckees Coating Prep Wash (2x).
• Paint only: Blackfire Clay Mitt on paint only.
• Pinnacle fine claybar on bottom side panels

Polish (paint only, not wheels):

• Pinnacle Advanced Compound w/ LC yellow heavy cutting pads. The paint was hard and I could have been less aggressive to remove the coating + swirls here (orange cutting pad for instance), but it would have added a lot of time to the job. I’m pretty sure I’m the first person to touch the cc and the paint should never get to this point again.
• Pinnacle Advanced Finishing Polish w/ LC white polishing pads. This made a very nice finish, obviously.
• CarPro Essence Extreme with CarPro Gloss pads.

The paint looked smooth and glossy after Essence Extreme. There was probably no correction done with it. It was applied very softly, trying for a very glossy finish. I wanted to go it this route (having used a finishing polish prior) rather than use Essence Extreme as my finishing polish which I got mediocre results doing before (poor user abilities). I allowed Essence to cure for 24+ hours.


Protection:

• Paint and Wheels: Two coats of Angelwax TI-22 (titanium spray sealant/primer), 30 hours apart.
  - Thoughts: This supposedly has good protection, durability and longevity on it’s own, but is really meant as a primer for Angelwax waxes. I found the shine to be fairly glassy/glossy, but not amazing. A bit sterile perhaps. Application was a breeze as long as it’s applied in small sections (2-4 sections per door for instance) and wiped immediately. The smell is of solvents (I originally thought it smelled coating-ish but I’m terrible at naming smells). I used 1/6 the 250ml bottle for 2 coats, paint and wheels.
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• Paint (excluding roof): Two coats of Angelwax Enigma 30 hours apart and 30 hours after 2^nd TI-22 coat.
  - Thoughts: The wax smells good, but a bit of a chemical smell. Applies pretty easy. Applied 1-2 panels at a time and then wiped off. Harder to wipe off if left on longer. Easy to wipe off if just hazed. There was significant oils left behind which I didn’t wipe off until 30 hours after the last coat. I used about 1/3 the 1.1oz jar for 2 coats.
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• Wheels: Polish Angel Supersport, 30 hours after 2^nd TI-22 coat.
• Roof (saved for testing):. I will do a follow up thread for those. Below is a terrible picture I drew to show what I applied on the roof after the two coats of TI-22.

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Final Thoughts: The paint looks great, very few swirls remain (97% correction?), and those that made it through are probably a result of working in terrible lighting on lower panels. I’m happywith the correction. Pinnacle polishes always do very well for me, so no huge surprises here.

The Angelwax LSPs were pleasant to work with. This was my first time using the brand. TI-22 by itself wasnt a show stopper but that`s not what its meant for from my understanding. Not bad, but not exciting. I would describe the Enigma look as having a glassy look, but rather than sharp tones, there is a smoothness to the car`s lines. More flowing, wavy reflections than SiO2 sprays that I`ve been using recently. I would compare to PA Rapidwaxx versus something like PA High Gloss. Definitely a soft, liquid changeup from my TSX and Q5 which currently have SiO2 spray toppers since early summer. It mutes the flakes a bit, but I`m interested if the car looks better or worse after the first wash, given all the oils that are left behind by Enigma. Not sure if it will help or hurt the look. I’m not sure if Enigma has carnauba or just ceramic and non-carnauba waxes/oils. Enigma is advertised as lasting up to 12 months when used on top of TI-22, take that for what it’s worth. Realistically I expect this to get me into the winter but probably not out of it.

Below are some pics from today, its’ first time out of the garage in a week. I will add more to this thread under different lighting or environments, including beading shots. Thanks for reading!

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And WOW again! Awesome work and write up and pictures!

Will be very interesting to see your experience with Ti-22/Enigma Wax. And also how your testing on the roof goes. The finish you got on your X5 M looks amazing on the pictures and proberly even better in real life. And use the Carpro Essence with their Gloss Pads I think you get the most out of it that way. Think you got me to decide to go with Essence before the Ti-22 and Desirable Wax combo I`ve decided to go with on the white Ford Focus I maintain. I like the Enigma look so when the show car wax Desirable wears off I think that I will be topping the Ti-22 with the Enigma QED and Enigma Ceramic Infused car soap once and a while.

Thanks for shareing your work and experience with your detailing on your new car!

/ Tony

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SWETM

And WOW again! Awesome work and write up and pictures!

Will be very interesting to see your experience with Ti-22/Enigma Wax. And also how your testing on the roof goes. The finish you got on your X5 M looks amazing on the pictures and proberly even better in real life. And use the Carpro Essence with their Gloss Pads I think you get the most out of it that way. Think you got me to decide to go with Essence before the Ti-22 and Desirable Wax combo I`ve decided to go with on the white Ford Focus I maintain. I like the Enigma look so when the show car wax Desirable wears off I think that I will be topping the Ti-22 with the Enigma QED and Enigma Ceramic Infused car soap once and a while.

Thanks for sharing your work and experience with your detailing on your new car!

/ Tony

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Tony, thank you for the gloss compliments. Coming from you, it`s an honor.

Feel free to share when you do the white Focus. Whether you use Essence Extreme or not I think it will come out great and be a good user experience. I used Essence Extreme only because I have a lot of it. I`ll be interested if your experiences w/ Desirable are similar to those of Enigma.

I will add roof info/testing to this page or a separate one as milestones occur. I haven`t exacted how I will tell the difference between TI-22/Souveran/TI-22 vs. TI-22 alone besides look for a period of time where beading worsens (to what TI-22/Souveran beads like right now) for a week or two and then goes back to looking the same again (i.e. TI-22 alone after middle Souveran wears off). Regardless what comes out of this, it will be fun for me though, and to quote Herm Edwards, "that`s why we play the GAME!".

I will definitely enjoy the TI-22/Enigma look I have right now, but won`t be doing any true longevity tests since I do have Enigma QED and will be using that down the road (not for awhile though). Anyways, I will only be tracking the longevity of this TI-22/Enigma combo as a base (which doesn`t add much value) with possibly some other toppers down the road too... its hard for me not to touch my main car. For wash, I could use only glossless washes but I will probably add in McKee`s SiO2 Auto Wash since I`m still working on a gallon of it. I don`t consider this cheating in the long run because Mckees SiO2 doesn`t add any measureable protection in my opinion.

Interesting note: Enigma QED directions are to use as a drying aid. No mention of dry application. This was a surprise to me.

Totaly understand that you want your car looking it`s best and always has it protected and topped up. When testing many let it go until the LSP has totaly failed. To be honest I don`t see the benefit with this as when you want your vehical looking and behave at it`s best. I think that it`s a higher value to hear about how long the LSP is looking great and behave great and when you notice these just to be degraded. And you are going to be either apply over it with the same LSP or you use a topper dedicated to the LSP or another topper. This IMO is what most do when takeing the extra step to maintain and protect the paint on your vehical. In your case it`s not a problem to apply a fresh coat of the Enigma Wax if you want to. Or top it up with the Enigma QED. Then it`s fun to use other toppers as you can get a slightly different look on your finish. So much personal preferences on how to do down the road. I`m really bad at topping up the protection and let`s it go too long before doing it. But has much to do with the physical disability I have that sometimes I don`t get to wash as regualar as I want to do. Then when I`m done with the wash I`m useally so exhausted that to be applying a topper. So I would benefit from a stronger base protection that I can be playing with topping it up.

Is that the description of the Enigma QED on the US sellers webshop?

Here I took a part of the description of the Enigma QED on the AW dot com owns product page.

Angelwax ENIGMA QED forms part of the unique ENIGMA range of ceramic detailing products which will rejuvenate surfaces protected with ENIGMA CERAMIC DETAILING WAX and other ceramic coatings. Angelwax ENIGMA QED will also extend the life of your wax and ceramic coating.

500ml Bottle
Direction For Use: Thoroughly wash and dry the vehicle. SprayAngelwax ENIGMA QED to one panel at a time and using a clean, dry, microfibre cloth, buff to a deep gloss finish.

Got me a good 3 months last summer with great behavior from it. Then topped it with my favorite still the Herrenfarth Sprühglanz SPR Limited Edition LOL. Think that Esoteric has taken in Herrenfarth know. It`s more like the Polish Angel in prices though. Angelwax Enigma is at a higher prices because SiO2 or ceramic infused products as they call it is expensive for the brands to buy the raw material to these products. Otherwise the maintance and cleaner products is reasonable priced and more so in the UK. But still very concentrated and the less use of products from them is what I have noticed so far with the products I have used. If you want to test out a pure car soap I have heard great things about Angelwax SUPERIOR AUTOMOTIVE SHAMPOO that leaves nothing behind and formulated to be gentle on both your own skin and the LSP and still effective. I have it on my shortlist to get.

Yeah it`s hard to get any scientific on the Ti-22/Souverän/Ti-22 combo. I would go with what you see how long you think that the Souverän Wax is showing. And compare it to the other test areas to see the difference if possible.

It was not meant to buy the Ti-22 bottle. I had ordered their glass cleaner Vision and the seller sent me accidental the Ti-22. Offered to send it back if they sended me the Vision again. They thanked me for my honesty and told me to keep the Ti-22 and sended the Vision glass cleaner so I had it the next day. It`s over the double of the price of the Ti-22 over Vision so I was happy LOL. Vision is still the best glass cleaner I have used on the exterior windows so far. It`s smells nasty and that`s why I don`t use it on the inside of the windows. But man do it clean any mess on the windshield really great. On the inside windows I like Sonax Glass Cleaner or Scholl ICE Glass Cleaner.

Looking really forward to hear your thoughts about the Ti-22/ Souverän/ Ti-22. And I will be doing my best when doing the white Focus to document it and share it here.

Very nice write up and pictures. Congrats on that beast of an SUV/Performance vehicle! I dig them...and those tires are huge! Very nicely done.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SWETM

Here I took a part of the description of the Enigma QED on the AW dot com owns product page.

Angelwax ENIGMA QED forms part of the unique ENIGMA range of ceramic detailing products which will rejuvenate surfaces protected with ENIGMA CERAMIC DETAILING WAX and other ceramic coatings. Angelwax ENIGMA QED will also extend the life of your wax and ceramic coating.

500ml Bottle
Direction For Use: Thoroughly wash and dry the vehicle. SprayAngelwax ENIGMA QED to one panel at a time and using a clean, dry, microfibre cloth, buff to a deep gloss finish.

Got me a good 3 months last summer with great behavior from it. Then topped it with my favorite still the Herrenfarth Sprühglanz SPR Limited Edition LOL. Think that Esoteric has taken in Herrenfarth know. It`s more like the Polish Angel in prices though. Angelwax Enigma is at a higher prices because SiO2 or ceramic infused products as they call it is expensive for the brands to buy the raw material to these products. Otherwise the maintance and cleaner products is reasonable priced and more so in the UK. But still very concentrated and the less use of products from them is what I have noticed so far with the products I have used. If you want to test out a pure car soap I have heard great things about Angelwax SUPERIOR AUTOMOTIVE SHAMPOO that leaves nothing behind and formulated to be gentle on both your own skin and the LSP and still effective. I have it on my shortlist to get.

Yeah it`s hard to get any scientific on the Ti-22/Souverän/Ti-22 combo. I would go with what you see how long you think that the Souverän Wax is showing. And compare it to the other test areas to see the difference if possible.

It was not meant to buy the Ti-22 bottle. I had ordered their glass cleaner Vision and the seller sent me accidental the Ti-22. Offered to send it back if they sended me the Vision again. They thanked me for my honesty and told me to keep the Ti-22 and sended the Vision glass cleaner so I had it the next day. It`s over the double of the price of the Ti-22 over Vision so I was happy LOL. Vision is still the best glass cleaner I have used on the exterior windows so far. It`s smells nasty and that`s why I don`t use it on the inside of the windows. But man do it clean any mess on the windshield really great. On the inside windows I like Sonax Glass Cleaner or Scholl ICE Glass Cleaner.

Looking really forward to hear your thoughts about the Ti-22/ Souverän/ Ti-22. And I will be doing my best when doing the white Focus to document it and share it here.

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The drying aid directions are straight from the bottle, which I got from a US distributor in the northwest:
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Assuming QED is the same stuff worldwide, it’s good to know that it has alternative directions for dry application. I generally apply durable SiO2 toppers dry to get the most out of the bottles.

Some mistakes end up very positive. Receiving TI-22 by accident sounds like a blessing. Enjoy it, it’s really good stuff.

As mentioned, I will definitely keep updates as time passes. Below are a few flake pictures I got today:

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Great job. Looks great. Never really read or heard much about angel wax. This should becimteresting


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

One week update:
X5 M has only been driven about 30 miles since the last coat of Enigma. Lots of beauty rest in my garage.

There was sweating on my hood. Did a N-914 RW after the first drive. Sweating went away. Sweating came back the next day but a little less. N-914 RW again yesterday. No new hood sweating I can see yet. Here’s some nice cloud pictures from yesterday after final N-914 wash:
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and some dusk shots from tonight:
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Beads are very attractive on Enigma this morning. This is the first rain that the Enigma LSP has seen. The rain is only a sprinkle now, but rained decent last night and more to come today.

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A few roof shots, but I’m not going to get into the different sections with different LSPs just yet (although I shared a layout earlier in this thread), but here it is as a whole:

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And finally, here’s the self-cleaning after a 7 minute ride to my doctor’s, speed limit 35mph, average speed 40mph, top speed for a few seconds 49mph. very good self-cleaning... maybe not as good as PA Cosmic/High Gloss, but as good or better than most SiO2 sprays I’ve used.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Coatings=crack

Great job. Looks great. Never really read or heard much about angel wax. This should becimteresting


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Thought of an Angelwax product when you mentioned over at AGO that you wanted to wax the ceramic coating you have. Angelwax The Fifth Element is made for being used on coatings. Have not used it myself and only heard from those that have been applying it on it`s own and not a coating. But just that it`s thought to be made for being used on coatings is interesting LOL


Beading great and sheeting off nicely!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SWETM

Thought of an Angelwax product when you mentioned over at AGO that you wanted to wax the ceramic coating you have. Angelwax The Fifth Element is made for being used on coatings. Have not used it myself and only heard from those that have been applying it on it`s own and not a coating. But just that it`s thought to be made for being used on coatings is interesting LOL


Beading great and sheeting off nicely!

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Fifth Element seems very interesting and I almost considered it over Enigma... but went with Enigma due to the supplemental QED and car wash that exist for it. Might be purchasing a 1oz of Fifth Element soon and decide which of the two I like more and go full 250ml tin of the favorite... since I’m a wax hoarder.

watching the setting on the way home again, it really is nice, and there’s so many lines on the X5 M hood that it’s really fun to watch while in action. Sheeting is really nice with Enigma.

Congrats on the new ride. I’ve been trying to talk the wife into the X5 M. I am avoiding telling her about the engine, lol. Did it come with run flats? I just bought new tires for my BMW and skipped the run flats after I saw they were twice the price of regular tires. Now I have to find a spare and a jack.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rlmccarty2000

Congrats on the new ride. I’ve been trying to talk the wife into the X5 M. I am avoiding telling her about the engine, lol. Did it come with run flats? I just bought new tires for my BMW and skipped the run flats after I saw they were twice the price of regular tires. Now I have to find a spare and a jack.

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Those on mine are not run flats. I still need to buy 20” wheels with winter tires before winter. Not sure if I’ll do those as run flats or not?

Good luck convincing the wife. For whatever it’s worth, my wife was a bit resentful when I got this... wasn’t convinced all this money was spent on something useful and functional for the family (one 3 year old). I kept telling her to ignore the growl of the engine, this thing is a grocery getting machine, baby! And it’ll get you to our son’s swimming lessons real fast since you’re always running late.

Anyways, she finally got the courage to drive it two days ago. She took it real easy for 10 mins on back roads. By that night she was asking me to finally put the spare keys on her keychain and is ready to drive again. :rockon

I’ve been on vacation in Syracuse for the last 5 days. Yesterday (Tuesday) there was a big bird bomb on the hood. I saw it in the morning when it was the overcast, and begrudgingly decided to leave it while I did family activities. Unfortunately there are many etchings on the hood from the previous owner that did not come out during my polish, so I figured it’s OK to use this as a testing opportunity.

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The poo sat on the hood for about 7 hours in 74-80 degree heat with intense sun for the last 5 hours until I was able to go to a touchless wash. It was my first wand wash in my life (crazy, huh?), and the bird poop came 98% off with initial high pressure rinse. Good job, Enigma! I didn’t snap a picture as my wife was giving me a dirty look for enjoying this too much.

I then did the spray on soap wash to the whole car, not sparing any detergent. The water beaded as it should during soap and rinse, everything looks good other than the tons of dirt that didn’t come off. Maybe I didn’t do the wand wash good enough but results were underwhelming to me.

Once I get home today (Wednesday) I’ll snap a closeup to prove theres no bird bomb damage.

My baby deserves a gentle wash with good shampoo... and I have a new bottle of Enigma Shampoo waiting at home.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by acuRAS82

I’ve been on vacation in Syracuse for the last 5 days. Yesterday (Tuesday) there was a big bird bomb on the hood. I saw it in the morning when it was the overcast, and begrudgingly decided to leave it while I did family activities. Unfortunately there are many etchings on the hood from the previous owner that did not come out during my polish, so I figured it’s OK to use this as a testing opportunity.

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The poo sat on the hood for about 7 hours in 74-80 degree heat with intense sun for the last 5 hours until I was able to go to a touchless wash. It was my first wand wash in my life (crazy, huh?), and the bird poop came 98% off with initial high pressure rinse. Good job, Enigma! I didn’t snap a picture as my wife was giving me a dirty look for enjoying this too much.

I then did the spray on soap wash to the whole car, not sparing any detergent. The water beaded as it should during soap and rinse, everything looks good other than the tons of dirt that didn’t come off. Maybe I didn’t do the wand wash good enough but results were underwhelming to me.

Once I get home today (Wednesday) I’ll snap a closeup to prove theres no bird bomb damage.

My baby deserves a gentle wash with good shampoo... and I have a new bottle of Enigma Shampoo waiting at home.

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At least here in Sweden those soaps is very diluted down and don`t do much of helping the PW to clean with. I`m very methodical to hit all parts of the car with the water pressure from the PW. Then it`s just what distance you can get away from the vehical without loosing the cleaning ability from the PW. But with a lot of road film dirt it`s mostly needed to be doing a touching wash to get it all off. There are a few prewash foams and pretreatment that is really great at desolving the road film. And would be surprised if the coin-op wash bays has any near as effective ones. Also since it`s not a controlled application and rinse off as in a touchless wash tunnel. They would take a big risk to use a harsh cheaper cleaner if the user would have it on the paint for too long. In the coin-op wash bays here in Sweden there is a brush attachement you push forward on the wand and aggitate with and pull back when you use the PW. If you where the only one to use and take care of it. It would not be so bad. But with many that just don`t care of things these is very dirty. It`s not something that you would want to be touching your paint with LOL

Awesome that it holds up to bird bombs. It happened that I applyied Sonax Spray and Seal on the Kia. So will test the Sonax Wash and Seal on the next wash. Have used the Enigma car soap less than hoped for. It`s a really great car soap that leaves protection and glossenhancers behind. Like the Enigma glow look you get from it. And holds up some weeks too.