335i Paint Correction Day 1 - You want DISO? I found DISO!

[zmcgovern45]

This is a BMW 335i that looked to be in fairly good shape when it was dropped of yesterday evening... until I took a closer look. I've spent about 6 hours on the car so far and will finish up tomorrow with another full day of work. I've taken care of the major defects today and am quite happy with how they turned out.

The trunk had some pretty deep scratches that were clearly visible, even from a distance. I lightly wet sanded that area and buffed it out, they are nearly invisible now except for 1 or 2 that were too deep for me to safely sand. Being that this is a daily driver, it is important to maintain as much clear coat as possible, and a "show car" finish is unreasonable, so sometimes you just have to accept that some defects will remain... especially the deep ones.

So after the trunk was taken care of, I turned my attention to the hood. I was blown away by what I had found upon my initial inspection under the halogen lights. A large portion of the hood had been destroyed by a previous buffer. The owner tells me that the last time this car was buffed was by the dealer. That just goes to show you that the dealer isn't the best way to keep your car clean. While they do possess the tools to do the job right, many times they are in a hurry and simply do not take the care and caution required to produce a high quality finish - or an inexperienced employee is put to the task of detailing these cars and he/she simply doesn't know any better. Check out the pictures, you'll be amazed at the work the dealer did on this car.



Process so far...

Interior:
-Vacuum
-Vinyl & Plastic Dressed with 303
-Leather Dressed with Meg's Leather Conditioner
-Glass with Stoner's IG

Exterior:
-Wheels: P21S Wheel Cleaner Gel
-Wash: CG Citrus Wash and Gloss
-Dry: DI Waffle Weave Towels
-Clay: DI Fine Clay with ONR as lube
-Wet sand (Scratches on trunk): 3M 2000 Grit
-Compound: M105 w/ Surbuf (hood and trunk) via PC 7424XP
-Polish: M205 w/ Orange Pad via PC7424XP
-Wiped down with 10% IPA solution

...Will finish polishing and apply sealant tomorrow, as well as some other finishing touches of course...


Exterior Before:


^looks fine from a distance in low light. Just needs a good wash, right?... wrong


^Dirty wheels


^Quick inspection with my xenon light... Looked like mostly typical scratches and swirls, found out I was wrong when I took a look at the car under the halogens the next day




^deep scratches on the trunk


^dirty


^Dirty


^Inspecting the hood under halogens


^You can see a good amount of water spots etched into the clear coat


^The area where the dealer "detailer" left his mark


^More pigtails found


^Roof


^Trunk

[zmcgovern45]

Interior Before: (Filled an entire 5 gallon bucket with trash while cleaning this car out!)












Interior During:


^50/50 shot of conditioned leather: Untreated on left vs. Treated on Right


^50/50 shot of protected vinyl: Untreated on left vs. Treated on Right


Exterior During:


^Was happy to see the car had a good coat of wax on it


^Wheel and Tire cleaner going to work


^Wheels all cleaned up, tires are dull and faded though


^After claying the hood


^All taped up and ready for polishing


^Wet sanding the deep scratches on the trunk


^All buffed out


^Trunk after


^Trunk after


^Hood test before


^Hood test after 3 polishing steps


^50/50 shot of hood


^Before


^After


^Hood after polishing


^Hood after polishing


^Trunk after polishing



...Too be continued tomorrow...

[J Z06]

Nice job!! those pigtails are scary looking!!

[smack]

Looks really good.

You mentioned polishing with the orange pad. Was this a tangerine hydrotech polishing pad or orange light gutting CCS pad?

[VP Mark]

Great job! Sometimes I had doing completely trashed vehicles but the end result it worth it.

[ihaveacamaro]

awesome! I'm very partial to that blue

[timaishu]

Nice work!

Im amazed every time I see a write up where the paint was trashed by a previous detailers. As autogeeks, we know that the purpose for pulling out our buffers is to remove swirls and other damage in the paint. These "detailers" end up installing more damage than they take out. Every single car that I see that has hollograms has swirls. What is the point of polishing if your not removing swirls or damage? I just dont get it..

[Vegas Transplant]

[dertoLearN.]

Good job! love the color!

[zmcgovern45]

Originally Posted by J Z06

Nice job!! those pigtails are scary looking!!

Agreed - it was a not so pleasant surprise!

Originally Posted by smack

Looks really good.

You mentioned polishing with the orange pad. Was this a tangerine hydrotech polishing pad or orange light gutting CCS pad?

Thanks! It was the Flat Foam, Orange Light Cutting Pad. The clear coat was rather hard, so after trying the white pad with not much effect, I decided on the orange pad for my one step process on the vertical surfaces of the car.

Originally Posted by VP Mark

Great job! Sometimes I had doing completely trashed vehicles but the end result it worth it.

Very worth it.

Originally Posted by ihaveacamaro

awesome! I'm very partial to that blue

I love this color as well. This is the second one I have done in the last couple of months.

Originally Posted by timaishu

Nice work!

Im amazed every time I see a write up where the paint was trashed by a previous detailers. As autogeeks, we know that the purpose for pulling out our buffers is to remove swirls and other damage in the paint. These "detailers" end up installing more damage than they take out. Every single car that I see that has hollograms has swirls. What is the point of polishing if your not removing swirls or damage? I just dont get it..

Very true.

Originally Posted by Vegas Transplant

Originally Posted by dertoLearN.

Good job! love the color!