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.

The roof was given a hand application of ClearKote RMG and then topped with 2 thin coats of the P21s 100% carbnauba.








RMG really was a great choice for the carbon black metallic paint on the roof



After seeing the results on the roof I said there is no way the finish can be enhanced much more...


Boy was I wrong, Signature Gloss took the depth and clarity to another level.

 

CRYSTAL CLEAR...



Unfortunatley I finished a bit late and the sun had gone away but was able to snap some decent shots.. I got the car back today and the owner asked me for some shots in sunlight





The reflections off the finish were the clearest I have seen, and this was a cloudy day.









The tires were dressed with CG extreme wet dressing and the wheels were sealed with 2 coats of Gloss Finish sealant





Flake!

 

 

The lower panels recieved full correction as well and were topped with Signature gloss too, I think it was worth lying on my back for all those hours.









The reflections on a cloudy day were very decent

 

Back in the garage after a gloss enhancer QD wipedown







The owner was kind enough to bring the car back this afternoon so we could take some shots in the sun...

 

 

The car may be 7 years old but it sure doesnt look it, I think this looks much classier than the new model

All plastic trim was treated with Black Wow. Glass was cleaned with Sprayway and sealed with Z-CS.





SUN makes everything better





My reflection again in the hood, after that grueling detail and 25hours sweating in my garage I decided to take some of the hair off my head this morning at the barber shop








I saved the best for last, if you cant tell this is a reflection off the hood. The wetness, depth and clairty that Gloss It produces on this finish is incredible. Im no photography expert, thesse photos were taken by hand with a simple Sony point and shoot yet you can see in extreme detail the brilliant colors of the trees in this reflection




In total the paint polishing process took nearly 26 hours and in the end the car was finished swirl free and hologram free. After the first day the owner called me to see how it was comming along and I said to him if you want this car perfect I can do it but its going to take another 2 days and cost quite a bit more than the original estimate. The owner is a neurotic oral surgeon who demands perfection and when I asked how far does he want me to go he replied take all the time you need and do whatever it takes. Its really great to have commited customers who appreciate the time and effort that goes into this job.

In total this job was the longest and most grueling I have ever done and after trying and failing to produce a swirl and hologram free finish time after time I was about to give up, I figured the paint was just to finicky to work with. But I just couldnt let it go back the way it came, it got to the point where I didnt want to finish it for the customer but just for myself becuase I had invested so much time and effort already that giving up would be a stupid move. As I said before, in the end, as always it was all worth it. Hope you enjoyed this one, I know I did.....well when it was over at least

 

great job!..and by the looks of the reflections we can now perfectly see, you got a good workout...i need to change professions to be a detailer..you're yoked!

 

Nice job on the M5, but I'm really surprised that it took you so long on such soft paint??

I did an identical M5, carbon black, a couple years newer though and the swirls were just as bad, maybe yours were deeper though?? and I cut them with M105 on a white LC pad with a rotary and achieved near perfect results with minimal efforts. There was a very slight haze left over which was easily corrected with the PC and some ZPC and the paint was show ready.

After reading your write up, it seems like maybe you were trying to get full correction with no holograms all in one shot, but that's not possible for most cases, typically you'll have to do the heavy cutting to remove defects which will leave holograms but fully polish out swirls, then go back and refine the finish 1-2 more times each time polishing out the holograms till it's perfect.

On super soft paints you just can't finish down with a rotary or flex, you have to use the PC with gentle pad/polish combos.

Josh

 

That is what I was thinking too. I will generally always finish a car down with the flex 3401 via white/blue pad and a AIO type product. It is simply the best way for me to assure that I have removed all traces of hologram's from the paint work. In particular the corners, creases, flare's and areas that you must work a bit more and heat up a bit more to get correction.

FWIW the carbon blacks I have done have been extremely soft.

 

That is amazing that it was possible to reivive that paint finish that much. It looks better than new and it is now 7 years old. Great work!

 

Fantastic work.

 

Awesome.. Awesome.. Awesome!! You never cease to amaze me!