Removing light swirls on jet black BMW.

[Thomas Dekany]

Sure, I'll take that as a challenge. Removing swirls on black car is not a big deal IMO

Now there is something we do agree on. That was never the issue on my part. What worries me with the new jb paint is how easily you can marr that paint. Even using a brand new soft MF towel.



Of course you can marr any paint easily. But how easily do they correct?



BTW, are you from FL? Do you have any pictures of your car in the sun or under halogen?

 

[WhiteStripes]

Wow, I'm pretty sure that if anyone ever asks me to Detail a JB BMW now I'll definitely refuse. If clay can cause that kind of damage.

 

[eyezack87]

Take the challenge WhiteStripes. I learned a lot on my first black car...it was a JB BMW too



Now I have to do another one to learn my new Makita properly...

 

[deznium]

Now there is something we do agree on. That was never the issue on my part. What worries me with the new jb paint is how easily you can marr that paint. Even using a brand new soft MF towel.



Of course you can marr any paint easily. But how easily do they correct?



BTW, are you from FL? Do you have any pictures of your car in the sun or under halogen?

I'm from San Diego, CA..... the land of bimmers :up

 

[Accumulator]

Much of this thread has gotten, uhm...well, never mind. But the "what's hard/soft?" isn't always as cut-and-dried as one would expect; Audis are *hard*, have been since forever whether they have the Glasurit paint or the Spiess-Hecker, two or more stage paint (from solid colors to pearls)...doesn't matter, they have hard clear. But *some* S4 models in Nagarro (?sp?) blue have *VERY* soft clearcoats. Only those models, only that (basecoat) color. Doesn't seem to make any sense does it? All S4s are built on the same production line and oughta have the exact same clear...but (only) a few of the blue ones are incredibly soft. And no, it's not something as obvious as a single production run either. IF that seems illogical it's only because we lack some piece of the puzzle that would explain why it's so.



Deznium- Note that hard/soft paint will always be a *relative* judgment. And *any* automotive paint will scratch if you rub it with your fingernail, just look behind the doorhandles of an Audi or a new Benz some time. I wouldn't put much stock in the opinions of people who think a paint's being susceptible to fingernail scratches indicates that it's soft. [Insert extremely derogatory remark regarding [individuals] who touch an automobile's paint with their nails here.]



I *would*, however, put stock in the opinions of people like tdekany. He has a great deal of first-hand experience with this stuff and there's a lot to be learned from guys like him. Starting off an exchange with him by saying he "obviously doesn't know..." seems unnecessarily contentious, especially when your source info is not first-hand experience involving comparisons of the paints in question. What *I* consider obvious is that professionals like him have a lot of experience with this sort of thing.

It's hard to define "soft paint", but..[on] ...some Subaru's... a soft, dry, clean mf will sometimes leave "rainbow marring.....

Thanks for mentioning that, I've never heard of/encountered it on any Subies. Any specific years/models come to mind?



OH, BTW Picus, your earlier post (explaining how many cars you've worked on recently) was eye-opening...that's one broad range of experiences you have there! I sometimes forget how many cars you pros correct over the course of a year.

 

[imported_Picus]

The Subaru's I was referring to are the metallic black WRX/STi's, the last gen and current gen. The last gen had a gold flake, current has a more green gold I think. In any event, I have a few customers with those cars and they are all very soft. I've only worked on one or two non-black wrx/stis, one white and a few that sti blue; they were soft too, but didn't seem as prone to marring as the black ones.



RE: the amount of cars I work on; BMWs are far and away the most common for me. I often joke to my wife that it doesn't feel like I've worked unless I've compounded a BMW. I have some contacts at local dealerships and am very active in the local BMW community since I own one, so it just turns out I work on a ton of 3/5 series BMWs.

 

[WhiteStripes]

So I'll be doing my mom's Black 750iL here pretty soon, but it's a 95, I'm guessing that it's not going to be the same as these new cars with the butter clear coat is it? Any tips you can give me specific to BMW's Picus?



Was planning on doing Menz IP/Orange for the first step followed by ZPC/White to burnish the paint some. Top it off with a few coats of Z5 and call her good.



Sound like a decent plan?

 

[imported_Picus]

How bad is the marring? If it isn't too bad that should work. Mid 90s BMW have decently tough paint in my experience. Even if you have to compound a little more heavily you shouldn't have trouble finishing clean. That's the real issue with the new ones.

 

[WhiteStripes]

Worst part on the car is where my little brother dragged my father's tool box across the hood and it left some pretty bad scratches. I ordered a yellow pad for that just in case, but it may need wet sanding in which case I'll wait a little longer to tackle that project.



Otherwise it's just RIDS and lots and lots of swirls and some spider webbing.

 

[Envious Eric]

I think a wool pad would suit the scratches better than a yellow pad

 

[Accumulator]

So I'll be doing my mom's Black 750iL here pretty soon, but it's a 95, I'm guessing that it's not going to be the same as these new cars with the butter clear coat is it?

-AND-

..Mid 90s BMW have decently tough paint in my experience..

The clear on my '97 e36 is really hard, much more so it seems than my Audis. Took some pretty harsh stuff and high speeds to correct. FWIW, I did best with a Meg's 7006(burgundy) pad, for some reason it worked better than my yellow Edge wool (didn't have any more aggressive wool pads to try, and this was before I latched onto M105) or any of my other cutting pads. I ended up wetsanding quite a bit, just seemed like a safer way to do some of the really aggressive correction.



Oh, and thanks for the info on which Subarus have soft clear. Not that I expect to own one, but you never know and I avoid soft paint like the plague.

 

[Accumulator]

WhiteStripes- If that 7-series ends up being like my M3, I really encourage you to try M105 on it. I resisted for the longest time (hey, I have a zillion compounds already, etc. etc.) but *MAN* do I wish I'd just bought a bottle in the first place instead of waiting until I'd done most of the initial correction via other products. Yeah, it was *that* much better...just astounded me.

 

[imported_Picus]

I do agree that you may need a foamed wool or twisted wool pad. I don't do much cutting with orange pads anymore. Of course having 105 would be nice if SIP doesn't cut it (har).

 

[WhiteStripes]

Cool thanks for the input guys, I'll probably order some 105 from ADS then and look into the PFW.

 

[M3_POWER]

Hello everyone.....



I'm done with the first phase of flight school in the Navy and now have a little time to detail the M.



I'm a long time lurker on these forums and was wondering if you can help me create a plan to tackle my 06 Carbon black M? Carbon black is a dark blue metallic paint. I'm thinking about buying a bunch of new products to try out.... I use to polish with PBs SSR 2.0 and 1.0 and optimumim but I didn't really like those. I was thinking about getting some Menzerna polish. Since I've been out of the loop for a while, I'm not sure which ones to get. My car has light to light/moderate swirls, so it isn't bad.... I also need new pads but not sure what to get. I used optiseal and nattys blue for my sealant and lsp but I also want to try soemthing else.... I was thinking about going with jetseal but not sure about the LSP (looking for someting around 30-40 bucks). Any info and tips would be greatly appreciate. I promise I will update with pics...



BTW I use a PC

 

[07328xi]

metallics are a bit harder, but still pretty soft on BMW..



jet black = nightmare to perfect. I would not try and maintain it perfect unless you have perfected a wash technique, and its only a showcar. For a DD, you are going to drive yourself insane trying to keep it perfected.



WIWD is get some optimum poliseal and use that every other month or so with a PC and a finishing pad. Its going to do very little correction, and fill in whatever is left, and leave behind a sealant wax as well.



The thing with Jet Black paint, is most microfiber towels, no matter how soft will mar the paint if there is ANY sort of polish dust, debris, etc on the paint while removing polish/wax

+1 on being driven crazy by BMW Jet Black. It mars (fine scratches) if you look at it. There is absolutely no margin for error if you mess it up, and it requires superhuman effort to correct by a professional like Brad or Thomas. I could never do it myself, and I don't mind spending the time to keep my car looking good.



In my experinece, the best course of action as far as maintenance on BMW JB is concerned is ONR and microfiber. If you deviate from that (Tried a sea sponge once) forget about it.



The jet black car Thomas references in this thread is mine (well, no longer mine). I got rid of it yesterday. I came to my senses (Well some might question my sanity in taking on more debt in this economy) and bought a silver BMW!! I am hoping I will be more at peace now :lol Time will tell I guess. Can't be any worse, right?