[Rick @ Unique Car Care]

This Jet Black BMW 328i was brought in for an extensive paint correction this past winter. The owner had just purchased it from a dealership and was not pleased with the condition of the car because of the heavy swirling, scratches, severe marring, etc…


Needless to say, the car was just a little dirty when it arrived due to the drive down all the way from Maine. It was covered in road salt and loaded with sand and grime, so I knew it was going to be a very long and extensive wash. In order to prep the car for polishing, it was crucial to remove every little bit of sand and salt from every crack and crevice. The last thing you want is to have dirt falling out of the cracks while polishing and contaminate your buffing pad, creating damage to the paint.


This is what the car looked like when it arrived at the shop.

As you can see, it was absolutely covered with salt and sand, so the first step was to give the entire car a thorough rinse.

Dirt was just pouring out of the wheel wells…

This is the huge mud puddle it created!

After the rinse, I cleaned all door, hood and trunk jambs with degreaser using a variety of brushes to ensure every bit of sand and salt were removed, as well as the engine bay. I used a Swissvax brush saturated with degreaser to get all the little nooks and crannies as clean as possible.

I soaked down the car down with suds using my foam gun and let it dwell for several minutes before rinsing it using high pressure to remove any additional contaminants from the paint to reduce the chance of marring the paint. The owner had told me that the paint was pretty rough underneath, but I didn’t want to make any more work for myself by marring the paint. I was very careful while washing and rinsed my wash media constantly to keep it as clean as possible. Once the paint was free of salt and sand, I gave it a claybar treatment to remove any bonded contaminants.

After almost 4 hours of washing, I dried the exterior, wiped all jambs clean and blew out all cracks and crevices with purged air to remove any additional dirt that might have been hiding.


This is what the paint looked like….OUCH!!!!!!!!!!! :tsk:

 

[Rick @ Unique Car Care]

As you can see, the paint was severely damaged and needed some serious attention to get it looking like it should. In addition to being heavily scratched and swirled, it was the dreaded super-soft BMW Jet Black paint that is always a pleasure to deal with (being sarcastic).



Normally, I would have reached for Meguiars 105 and a Surbuf pad, but since the paint was in such bad condition, I reached for my rotary. I decided to do a ***8216;test panel***8217; first to see what worked the best.


This is what the door looked like after a pass of M105 using an orange foam pad via rotary. As you can see in the picture below, it removed all the major defects, but still needs some refining.

 

[Rick @ Unique Car Care]

I ended up compounding the complete exterior with M105/orange foam pad/rotary, which took some time to remove all defects. After the compounding stage, I gave the exterior an intensive wash to remove all compound spatter from the cracks and crevices before moving on to the next polishing step.


For the second polishing step, I used Menzerna Power Finish using an orange pad via Griots DA polisher. This really brought the paint back to life and removed all the compounding haze left from the previous step. Because the paint was so soft, I performed a third polishing step using Menzerna 85rd paired with a crimson hydro-tech pad via DA, which produced an ultra deep, swirl-free shine. Once all polishing was complete, I sealed it with Blackfire Wet Diamond sealant and topped with Collinite 915.


Here are the final results!!

Thanks for looking!

 

[hokiebimmer]

Wow! Great work!

I'm considering getting my Jet Black ZHP professionally done if I can find a place near me.

 

[Rick @ Unique Car Care]

Wow! Great work!

I'm considering getting my Jet Black ZHP professionally done if I can find a place near me.

Thanks!

Check out Autopia.org to find a reputable detailer in your area.

 

[SLVR JDM]

Stunning results!
Considering you started with the picture below where it looks like someone cleaned it with a brillo pad.

 

[Rick @ Unique Car Care]

Stunning results!
Considering you started with the picture below where it looks like someone cleaned it with a brillo pad.

Haha, seriously...

Thanks!

 

[[email protected]]

Huge improvement...outstanding work!!!! That before pic is what cars look like in March in the NE with salt and sand on the road never seen that look in July/Aug before. Again very nice work restoring the paint!

Greg @ DI

 

[Rick @ Unique Car Care]

Thanks guys!

 

[kylekruchok]

Damn, killer work. But do you think this'll buff out? <br>

 

[warrior2005]

So didn't the car have to make the drive through all that crap back to Maine?

 

[gueste46]

Man,

Fantastic work. I am truly impressed. Can I ask could you have achieved the same result by using all the same products but only a random orbital Polisher? If so, how much longer would it have taken?

I am also interested to know a break down in the time it took you for the major steps and the total time spent on this car.

 

[Bimmer4Lyfe]

That is fantastic!

+1 on the drive back though :hmm:

 

[Topazine]

Very impressive turnaround!

Could you please elaborate a bit about the degreasing/brushing step?

I feel like it's an important step that i've overlooked.

What products you use, technique, etc

Thanks

 

[HyeWarrior]

I wish there was a place like you guys somewhere out here... My car needs a proper detail

 

[Spinmaniac]

Someone track down the original RO and smack beat him! That is one of the worst cases of car abuse Ive seen in a long time! Great recovery job! Im sure the new owner is ecstatic about what his car looks like now!

 

[datssoled]

That is what my car looked like as well.... I tried to detail my car by myself but the results are merely as good as yours! Great job! I'm sure the owners loved your work!