Black BMW 545i - Frustrating to Correct

I

imported_Totoland Mach

New member
This car kicked my butt! It had a lot of scratches and swirls, so I did a bunch of wetsanding. Time for compounding: wool + 3M Perfect-It 3000 was not working fast or well. Wool + 3M Extra Cut...same. Okay, switch to foam cutting pad and Perfect-It and thought I had it...it worked for the majority of the wet sanding "haze", but a power wash showed I missed some areas. So, I correct what I missed and power washed again. Now, hopefully, the car is ready for glazing. I start glazing away with 3M Dark Glaze (really a polish) and start seeing some more areas I missed on the other passes. By now, I'm into the 3rd day on the body of this car. So, I break out my friend System One X3 and a polish pad to remove the stray spots and power wash again....ask me if I'm frustrated at this point.



I finally get the car 100% in compounding and polishing, give it a final power wash for the upteenth time and put a coat of Meguiar's #26 on it. (after a coat of Ultrafina which the dealer requires for all dark colored BMW's)



This had to be the hardest clear coat I've experienced on a Bimmer of ANY color...especially black. Usually, the black cars have a softer clear, but nooooooooooo, not this one.



Here's some finished pics...I didn't even take the time for the process pics. It's so black now, body lines disappear in the pictures!



545iBlackFinishedDoorOpen.jpg




545iBlackFinishedSideView.jpg




545iBlackFinishedHoodOutside.jpg




545iBlackFinishedQtrPanelOutside.jpg




Next up is a Black BMW 550i (nice performance ride)...start tomorrow. And, I'm going to start with a test panel for Start-To-Finish process.



Toto
 
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!! Now that's black!!!!!



You sure had a tough time but man, the results are well worthit!

Amazing job! I'd sure love to get one of those scissor jacks!
 
Brian and I had this problem on an 07 3 Series in Jet Black. Being used to the super soft paint, we ran into one that was off the charts hard. I think we ended up doing 3-7 passes of Meg's 105 and a wool pad and only removed 90% of the defects. It was just so stupid hard...
 
TH0001 said:
Brian and I had this problem on an 07 3 Series in Jet Black. Being used to the super soft paint, we ran into one that was off the charts hard. I think we ended up doing 3-7 passes of Meg's 105 and a wool pad and only removed 90% of the defects. It was just so stupid hard...
Click to expand...



Well, that 545 is his brother in paint...



I've got to start on a 550i this morning...same year, same color. I'll see if it's got a super hard clear coat with some testing.



Toto
 
Great job Toto!



I know some of the ones that I do have extremely hard clear. It makes Corvettes look like they have soft clear.



It's funny though, the ones that look like they are going to be the easy ones ALWAYS turn out to be the toughest ones and get stuck working on them 20 hours. Then the ones that look bad turn out to be easier then expected.
 
[Insert usual :bow regarding Totoland Mach's work here]



Totoland Mach- Now when *you* describe something as "frustrating to correct" it gets my attention :D



Interesting about the BMWs going from stupid-soft to stupid-hard :think:
 
Way2SSlow said:
Toto,



I cant say enough how lucky that dealer is to have you on his staff! Thanks for posting!
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:werd:



I too am a fan of your work. Being a little younger than you I am inspired by the beautiful details you turn out. Great job.
 
Totoland Mach said:
I've got to start on a 550i this morning...same year, same color. I'll see if it's got a super hard clear coat with some testing.
Click to expand...





Nice job Toto. Every time I see your details, it makes me more and more jealous of your lift.



I believe as of late 06/early 07 all BMW 5,6 & 7 series have PPG Power Clear Coats. It's basically BMW's version of CeramiClear®. Very hard I'm told by the local BMW dealer painter. They say they have a very small window of time to wet sand and buff on it before it gets really hard after it's applied.
 
Isn't that wierd? Jet black bmw's especially the e90's are supposed to be a breeze. They're one of the softer clears on the BMW's I've dealt with. I wonder how would HTEC or M105 would've held up to it. On the other hand, dealer only wants you to use 3m...
 
artikxscout said:
Isn't that wierd? Jet black bmw's especially the e90's are supposed to be a breeze. They're one of the softer clears on the BMW's I've dealt with. I wonder how would HTEC or M105 would've held up to it. On the other hand, dealer only wants you to use 3m...
Click to expand...



What's funny is I started on a fender of the black 550i very late today and found that the best combo is: System One Polish with wool + System One Polish with foam + a coat of Ultrafina SE. Good thing because he has a potential customer coming tomorrow afternoon and he wants the car exterior done.



He even tried 3M Extra Cut (wool and foam), 3M Perfect-It 3000 (wool and foam) and neither worked well.



So, I'm going to start at 5:00am on the car tomorrow.



Good Night folks!
 
Accumulator said:
[Insert usual :bow regarding Totoland Mach's work here]

Totoland Mach- Now when *you* describe something as "frustrating to correct" it gets my attention :D

Interesting about the BMWs going from stupid-soft to stupid-hard :think:
Click to expand...



+1



And some more characters.
 
David Fermani said:
Nice job Toto. Every time I see your details, it makes me more and more jealous of your lift.
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+1! I'd love that lift.



Not to knock it, but this picture shows something that resembles a wetsanding mark on above the side signal light.



545iBlackFinishedSideView.jpg
 
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