The owner wanted his 2001 M5 (carbon black) perfected. Its been daily driven since 2001 to yet it still looked in very good shape, or so I thought. After washing and claying I found the car had heavy swirls all over and some deeper RIDS. Remembering it was 7 years old I figured the defects had just accumulated over the years.
This car would have been an easy correction job if the paint wasnt the absolute most finicky I have ever worked with! It was super soft and very easily hologrammed. How easy? Lets just say Ultrafina at 1200rpm on a black LC finishing pad left holograms!
This picture shows the bigger RIDS outlined in a circle
In order to achieve a full correction I needed to use an agressive polish/compound with an agressive pad but in turn that would just do more damage than good as I found out on my test section of the hood. After experimenting for over 5 hours I found a combo that worked, but barley. I started using Gloss It's paint correction polishes but they left holograms along with SIP, 106FF, Z-PC, M105 and Ultrafina. Rich at Gloss It told me a mixture which would be agressive enough to remove defect yet gentle enough not to induce its own swirl marks.
The process ended up being this
-Gloss It extreme cut and Gloss finish 50/50 mix w. megs burgandy pad on the Flex
( I began at speed 4 and worked down to speed 1)
-Menzerna SIP at 1000rpm with a green CCS on the makita then refined at 600rpm for 7-8passes
-Menzerna SIP w. green ccs on speed 3 using the flex again to work out that last bit of defect, then refined at speed 1 slowly again
-Ultrafina w. blue LC finessing pad at 900rpm using no pressure to work out the holograms and again refined and finessed at 600rpm super cautiously
Working SIP w. flex, I used the flex with SIP after using SIP with the makita becuase that left nasty holograms and I couldnt really work it at a proper 1500rpm so I used the flex to further correct the finish and finesse out the majority of holograms
After finishing up with Ultrafina, no holorams finally! But the Infratech wasnt enough to see if there were holograms or marring left so The car was inspected in direct sunlight to ensure no holograms were left after the last use of UF.
Once the sun confirmed the finish was perfect I moved onto LSP prep.
I had to work UF an a snails pace of 900rpm, it took forever to breakdown but I wasnt going to risk more holograms. I used very little pressure with the LC blue finessing pad... a pad I normally reserve for applying glazes or sealants.
Post polishing shots in direct sun after IPA wipedown, no LSP
The trunk was the most heavily swirled part of the car but it came out defect free after hours of endless polishing using low speeds and very little pressure
These are some post polishing shots in the garage after a thourgh P21s TAW wash to prep the paint for LSP, the finish was back to life!
I was very careful in drying the car and made sure to be super gentle, the last thing I wanted was to induce any last swirls before LSP
The wheels were already pretty clean thanks to the owner, they just needed a quick once over so out with the P21s gel and EZ/Swissvax brush combo, my personal favorite
Exhaust were polished with Noxon using #0000 steel wool and then polished again using Megs NXT
Before
After
The LSP of choice for the roof was not the same as the rest of the body which was treated to 2 coats of Gloss It Signature Gloss.
This car would have been an easy correction job if the paint wasnt the absolute most finicky I have ever worked with! It was super soft and very easily hologrammed. How easy? Lets just say Ultrafina at 1200rpm on a black LC finishing pad left holograms!
This picture shows the bigger RIDS outlined in a circle
In order to achieve a full correction I needed to use an agressive polish/compound with an agressive pad but in turn that would just do more damage than good as I found out on my test section of the hood. After experimenting for over 5 hours I found a combo that worked, but barley. I started using Gloss It's paint correction polishes but they left holograms along with SIP, 106FF, Z-PC, M105 and Ultrafina. Rich at Gloss It told me a mixture which would be agressive enough to remove defect yet gentle enough not to induce its own swirl marks.
The process ended up being this
-Gloss It extreme cut and Gloss finish 50/50 mix w. megs burgandy pad on the Flex
( I began at speed 4 and worked down to speed 1)
-Menzerna SIP at 1000rpm with a green CCS on the makita then refined at 600rpm for 7-8passes
-Menzerna SIP w. green ccs on speed 3 using the flex again to work out that last bit of defect, then refined at speed 1 slowly again
-Ultrafina w. blue LC finessing pad at 900rpm using no pressure to work out the holograms and again refined and finessed at 600rpm super cautiously
Working SIP w. flex, I used the flex with SIP after using SIP with the makita becuase that left nasty holograms and I couldnt really work it at a proper 1500rpm so I used the flex to further correct the finish and finesse out the majority of holograms
After finishing up with Ultrafina, no holorams finally! But the Infratech wasnt enough to see if there were holograms or marring left so The car was inspected in direct sunlight to ensure no holograms were left after the last use of UF.
Once the sun confirmed the finish was perfect I moved onto LSP prep.
I had to work UF an a snails pace of 900rpm, it took forever to breakdown but I wasnt going to risk more holograms. I used very little pressure with the LC blue finessing pad... a pad I normally reserve for applying glazes or sealants.
Post polishing shots in direct sun after IPA wipedown, no LSP
The trunk was the most heavily swirled part of the car but it came out defect free after hours of endless polishing using low speeds and very little pressure
These are some post polishing shots in the garage after a thourgh P21s TAW wash to prep the paint for LSP, the finish was back to life!
I was very careful in drying the car and made sure to be super gentle, the last thing I wanted was to induce any last swirls before LSP
The wheels were already pretty clean thanks to the owner, they just needed a quick once over so out with the P21s gel and EZ/Swissvax brush combo, my personal favorite
Exhaust were polished with Noxon using #0000 steel wool and then polished again using Megs NXT
Before
After
The LSP of choice for the roof was not the same as the rest of the body which was treated to 2 coats of Gloss It Signature Gloss.
