Black BMW 550i System One and Silver 540i 3M

I

imported_Totoland Mach

New member
After my previous frustrating Black 545i, I knew this same year 550i was going to be hard in clear coat. And, most of all, I was on a time limit because a buyer was coming to see the car. So, I started at 6:00am with System One Polish and wool, then used System One with foam. I power washed at the end and put a coat of Meg's #26 followed by a coat of Pinnacle Souveran for added depth...



Finished the car at 2:30pm the same day (exterior only...the dealer did a quick wipe down of the interior to show the buyer)...the buyer showed up 45 minutes after completion.



Before representative appearance:



550iBlackDoorSwirls.jpg




In-process with wool on the lift. System One does a very good finish job with wool IMO.



550iInProcessX3Wool.jpg




Done!...I was one tired old man, but the buyer was impressed!



550iOutsideFinished.jpg




550iOutsideFullShotFinished.jpg




550iOutsideQuarterViewFinished.jpg




550iOutsideHoodFinished.jpg




Next up was a very nice 540i in Silver. Back to the shop standard: 3M stuff. Used 3M Perfect-It 3000 compound with an Edge Yellow wool pad for most of this car. When I came upon some scratching, I switched to 3M Extra Cut for fast removal. After a power wash to remove 3M dust, I used Adams Revive (love that stuff for producing a very high gloss after compounding), followed by a coat of 3M Performance Finish burnished with a finish pad on the rotary. Liquid Silver!



Silver540iInProgress.jpg




Silver540iFinishedRevive2.jpg




Silver540iFinishedRevive.jpg




Silver540iInProgress2.jpg




Next up is a beautiful 6 Series converible...start tomorrow.



Toto
 
Great results! How was using System One, I have been interested in buying it since it seems to have some good results.
 
LukesInn said:
Great results! How was using System One, I have been interested in buying it since it seems to have some good results.
Click to expand...



System One works great, especially on the hard clear coats of newer BMW's. The previous 545i I did took 3 days to complete on the paint. Although, in all fairness, we did a lot of wetsanding on the 545. That process was: 3M Extra Cut with foam cutting (started with wool, but was not working), 3M Dark Glaze, 3M Ultrafina SE, and finally Meguiar's #26.



Here's the 2 cars: 550i done with System One and 545i done with 3M. In person, you can see a little better depth to the 545 (probably because of the Ultrafina)...but not much. The time comparison was huge! 22+ hours on 3M versus 9 for System One.



545iand550iOutside.jpg




545iand550iOutside2.jpg




Toto
 
Escalarado said:
all those cars look great! How did you apply the Revive polish?
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I use a rotary @ 1200 rpm with a 3M glaze pad. I've also used the Meg's #8006 polish pad.



I work the Revive completely: no haze left, no wiping, then go right to my lsp.



Corey: You are right about the old body style being timeless...BMW design hit that mark correct. BUT, I personally like the new body style myself (the dealer has the same opinion as you do BTW). We get enough of both styles to keep us going.



Toto
 
joyriiide1113 said:
Love your work.



What camera do you use? Any particular setting? Tripod? I can never capture defects as well as you.
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Thanks but I'm really a Hack at camera work! I use a Nikon Coolpix L1 (3+ years old) and will either use a tripod or rest it on the halogen light stand. One of the tricks the dealer's son taught me (this kid is a photo master IMO) is to use the self timer in low light to avoid camera shake from pressing the button. But the key is resting the camera in a stable place in the shop.



Toto
 
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