Well some of you may remember this vehicle, I gave it a quick wash and wax in the summer, and this time around it was time for a paint correction and winter protection. The vehicle: 2007 BMW 328Xi This vehicle belongs to a co-worker and I picked up the vehicle early in the morning, well not that early but at about 8:30ish and I had to have it done before 4PM so I had a time restriction on this one. Since I had a time restriction my wife was kind enough to come along and help me out, so most of the pictures were taken from my wife and some by me. Well the vehicle and what I was up against: Now from this picture you can see how easy the paint correction will be :roll: mmm..the lovely rims that most BMW’s come with A yes and here is the lovely brake dust :thumb: The wheel wells looked like they were in need of a good scrub. Well nothing out of the extraordinary just some regular city driving and nothing that some good elbow grease can’t take care off. Well first up were the rims, tires and wheel wells. First up the wheel well, for the wheel wells I used P21S Total Auto Wash: I sprayed some P21S Wheel Gel all over the rims, making sure to get all the way inside the rirms: For the tires I used ARO: Got my long reach brush out and gave the wheel wells a good scrub: For the front inner rims I used the EZ brush: Then with my Swissvax wheel brush I agitated the P21S Wheel Gel on the face of the rims: With the help of my Meg’s tire brush I gave the tires a good scrub: This is how all that scrubbing looks like at the end: All that was left was to rinse it all off: Making sure to get inside the wheel wells: Now this is how all that effort looked like after it was all rinsed off: Still needed some extra scrubbing as it seemed that the brake dust had started to bond with the rims. Luckily I had a spare peace of Red Clay magic with me and clayed the rims and it removed all those stubborn break dust spots :thumb: Now this process was done to all the rims, for the back rims I couldn’t use my EZ brush because of the rotors. So I got my 2inch wool brush out and made quick work of the inside of the rims: Once all the rims, tires and wheel wells were taken care off it was time for the rest of the vehicle. For the rest of the vehicle I got my CR System ready to go: TDS readings are good and we are set for spot free washing :woo: To wash the vehicle I decided to go with the two bucket system and Zymol Auto Bathe: This time I used the Zymol Sponge Here is me washing the vehicle: Once the entire vehicle was washed it was time to clay the vehicle, to clay the vehicle I used one of my favorite clay bars, Ricardo clay bar with Pinnacle Clay Lube and went to work: I clayed the entire vehicle and it actually wasn’t to bad, it had a bit of contamination but not to bad, here is the clay bar when I was all done: Now that I had clayed the entire vehicle it was time to dry it, with the help of the air compressor I was able to remove as much water as possible: To completely dry the vehicle I used my Dehydrator Drying Towel: Now that I had the vehicle completely dry it was time to gauge the paint: As you can see plenty of paint/clear for me to play with. Now to see what corrections I was up against: Now the entire vehicle was covered with water spots and they didn’t look as though they wanted to go away with out a fight. Sorry for the blurry picture and not sure if you’ll be able to see this but it looked like some scuff marks on the front of the bumper Well now that I new what I was up against it was time to choose the appropriate tools, I wanted to put these Scholl products to the test and started off with: I used a SONUS SFX-2 Polishing Pad (white), my Makita at about 1800RPM and for starters Scholl Concepts S40. Now the S40 is the mildest and rule of thumb is always start mild. Well a few passes of S40, worked it in till it was broken down and it was doing nothing to the paint. That didn’t shock me as I new the vehicle had some wicked water spots and some minor swirls. So since S40 wasn’t up for the job (I was happy, because this meant I could use more Scholl products to test out) I stepped up to S17: (Sorry for the blurry picture) Now this S17 is some wicked stuff, now the vehicle is white and it made it really difficult to capture the difference in a pictures but I managed to get at least one before and after: Here is the only before: After: I tried as hard as I could to get some before and after’s but my camera skills are limited and I couldn’t get the camera to focus properly Any who, this Scholl Concepts are quite the interesting products. Not exactly the same as menzerna products, less dust…oh speaking of dust this is how much it dusted, hopefully you can see it: Hardly any dust but for the small amount of dust that was left over I used my Zymol duster to remove: Once I had polished the entire vehicle it was time to protect all the hard work, the owner wanted a winter protection so I first applied a nice coat of: Duragloss 601 followed with a very generous coat of Duragloss 105 I applied 105 with the help of a Meg’s foam pad applicator: I also applied a good coat of 105 on the rims: (Look to the bottom right of the pictures) Well wile I let 105 cure I finished off the tires with a nice coat of Optimum Tire Shine: Well all that was left was to remove the sealant, this was done with some of my Tornady Buffing Towels and followed up with a final wipe down with some of my Cookie Monster Buffing Towels. Now keeping in mind I was under a time restriction it was now 2:00PM and the vehicle was done, the sun was out and since I had to drive the vehicle back to the owner I thought that it would be best to take pictures outside. Now for the end result: Oh yes the exhaust I used P21S Polishing Soap, turned out quite nice if I do say so my self A yes the lovely rims looking like new, as they should be :thumb: mmm…love the BMW stance Well I was very pleased with the end results of this vehicle, I managed to finish the vehicle a head of schedule and I was quite impressed with Scholl Concepts products. I look forward on using these products more in the future so I can get a better feel for them and can give better feed back. One thing I’ll say about this polish line is that once your pad becomes saturated it seems to work much better and no to mention a little goes a long way, when the pad is totally saturated that is. This polish line has potential, I’m really curious to see if it’s weather/temperature dependent as Menzerna. If it’s not weather/temperature dependent this could be as good if not better then Menzerna…but it’s to early for me to say such a thing. A few more vehicles and I should be able to get a feel for it, not to mention I need to try out the more aggressive products to see how well they perform. As always your feed back is greatly appreciated, hope you enjoyed the detail. Oh I was fooling around with Scholl Concepts and my wife cought it on video :hug: just thought i'd share with you guys :hippie:
Thanks sneek, I'm very pleased with the Optimum Tire Shine give a nice look to the tires :thumb: Thank you buddy, glad you enjoyed it. As for the video I was fooling around with the speed and seeing how it affected the Scholl products and it behaved quite well and corrected really good. Thanks for the feed back my friend :hippie: Glad you enjoyed it Pats and the video was done thanks to the wife :applause: hope the detail was helpfull and glad you enjoyed it :thumb:
Very nice work Carlos. Hate to say it, but the new bmw looks good. The paint looks like spilled milk, love it Loved the outside pics to
great work! It's never easy to capture paint defects on a white car, but there is definatly a great turn around!!!
Carlos..I'm interested in reading more about their compounds/polishes..if I don't use Menzerna (to compound), I use Presta. I never venture from the 106 or 85rd however. I am curious to see how these products compare price wise to Presta. Where did they come from..to be honest, I had never heard of them prior to your post?
Great work as always Nica. Man that white just looks amazing after you finished with it. Man I was a little disappointed that I didn't get to see another one of your incredible interiors! I look forward to hearing more of your feedback on the Scholl products as they seem very interesting. I do have a question for you though. I see you using the paint gauges and was wondering what number would it take for you to say you couldn't do the polishing? Just trying to get an idea as to what the workable range would be and where you would just have to say "no go".
Thank you pirex for the kind words, very much appreciated :hug:. Glad you enjoyed the detail but one thing I noticed that the vehicle had more of a reflective aperance compared to a nice nauba look well that's just me but again it was a sealant that I protected through the winter....oh one thing I noticed that the DG bottle says, something about one application should last for one year :what: that's impresive but I need to test it out and see it for my self. Luckely I'll be able to see this vehicle quite often so I'll be able to tell. Thanks for the feed back buddy :thumb: Thank you joe for the kind words means a lo to me buddy :hippie: as for the rims, yea they sure look great but they take a bit of extra work to ge them looking great, but like everything in life nothing comes easy :chest: it's all good though, the end results is what it's all about :headbang: Thank you for the kind words crossroad :thumb: but yea I'm hoping that my camera skills improve over the holidays I just made a purchase that should help me out eace: But I was glad that I could at least get one good before and after..well reasonably good lol Yea it was a fun detail, I surprised my self on this one...got it done in the same day hahahahaha :rollinglaugh: :rollinglaugh: I laugh because most of the time you know how I detail in about 3 days I get the vehicles done ahahahaha...well it was good to see that I coudl get it done within a limited time frame :thumb: Glad my wife came along though becuase thanks to her I was able to get as many pictures as I did :thumb: Next time you guys are going to have to come over and share the fun, I know sneek can't wait to get his hands on the Scholl products :whistle: Well to be honest richy I don't even know how much these things cost me, I haven't received the bill just yet :gasp: I'll let you know though. I have a good friend in Europe that sent me a big package...actually its the one I posted with a bunch of Menzerna pads and wool pads...well first impression of this Scholl product is that it's quite easy to use and produces good results, I wouldn't say they behave the same way as Menzerna though...what I mean is that you know how Menzerna seems to clump up once in a wile? Well what I do is that I use the same pad to polish the vehicle and I don't like cleaning the pad unless I really have too, so I've noticed that Menzerna seems to spit out some small little balls of products that seem to cling together well just a few things I noticed about Menzerna, it could be due to temperature or climate but this Scholl porduct didn't give me aproblem through out the entire vehicle, I used the same pad and actually noticed that as the Sonus Polishing pad become saturated with polish it started performing better, heck even at really high rpm's it was correcting wicked water spots on the car...:thinking:...like I said it was quite interesting..but I need to test it out some more before I can due a good review on this new product..as for price I'll let you know, I'll ask my friend for the bill :what: Yea tell me about it I would have loved to take care of the interior it actually needed a bit of work, but maybe come spring time I'll be able to give it a full detail :itsok: As for the paint gauges and the readings, well to be honest I had the same question s you and what I did I asked my friend Gerry (owner of that body shop I posted pictures off) and what he told me is that if you see readings of less then 80microns...(I can't remember how many mills that is though)..well he told me that if you see readings lower then 80microns you can still polish it but you wont even be able to use a Polishing pad, it would have to be a Finishing pad and don't you dare think of using a wool pad. Wool on thin paint/clear is a big :no: Since I got the gauges the lowest readings I've seen was about 92microns which apperently is normal, I'm more used to seeing 110 to 120 now 120 being on the high side but 90 to 110microns is about normal according to Gerry...oh but Hondas have really scary paint, not only do they have soft clear coat (well most of the time, but not all the time) but extremely thin paint/clear not sure why though. Gerry said that every Honda he has ever worked on he tackles with extreme caution and recomended I do the same. Oh now since I have the other gauge (200) wich can take readings on plastic, I've notice the readings really, really low about in the 45 to 60microns...now that is low but Gerry sais that's quite normal just becuase they are plastic peces...he said that you can still polish them at high rpm's but to have more movement, more then normal. Actually one thing I noticed about bumpers and side view mirrors they are much easier to correct compared to regular metal panels but makes sence becuase it's easier to build up heat and the heat corrects faster and better...but one thing I've started to do depending on the readings I get from the paint gauge for the plastic peases is lowe either the pad or the polishing product...but like I said only depends on reading and also depending how bad the swirls/scratches are. Well again these are just some of the things that I've learned along the way and some tips my friend Gerry has provided me, hope they help eace:
Thanks Nica that answers a lot of my questions. You made it very easy to understand. You know I have a couple of the white Sonus pads that I got from Chris at eShine and I really like them. I noticed that they do really seem to get saturated with product too. They have worked great for me and I think I'm going to order some more.
Well glad I could help Wolf, I can go off and :blahblah: but glad it made sense. I'm quite pleaed with the Sonus pads...mind you I've only used the Sonus polishing pad haven't used the finishing pad nor the cutting pad...but I don't think I'll use the cutting pad that often...ever since I steped up to the rotary I hardly ever use the cutting pads that's just me though :2cents: Oh and yes I agree with you about the Sonus pads they really seem to absorbe the product and it could be a bad thing or a good thing, so far I've only seen it as a possitive..but to be honest I prefer saturation...just seems to work well during high speeds :thumb: but again that's just me :2cents:
Yep cuttings pads are useful on hard paint...but sometimes I want to go wool instead. The sonus pads are pretty good. I have beat the hell out of mine on rotary and DA and the are still holding up fine. I did burn a section out of one though. I was putting my full body weight on the polisher, and it was maxxed out.
Man I still haven't detailed an Audi but I cant wait till I get to do one :thumb: come on buddy send me your Audi :hug: I promise I'll take good care of it :joint: Yea I'm with you on this one if I get a really tough clear I'm not beating around the bush just going straight to wool, nice thing is that I got those 6inch Menzerna wool pads that I'm just itching to use :gidiup: :gidiup: Oh and yea I've now used the Sonus pad twice and it really can take a :spank: and keep on going :thumb: I'm glad I got a case of them :rollinglaugh: :rollinglaugh: :rollinglaugh:
