Clark and I took a road trip down to Glasgow last Thursday to detail these two BMW’s. Some of you may recall that the 330Ci shown below nearly beat me back in March – it had the worst case of bad dealer preparation I’ve ever seen, and I only managed ~75% correction, even with Power Gloss and spot pads. Because I was disappointed with the end result (even though the finish was great), I had promised the owner a free rematch… and he had kindly said we would do his wife’s 1-Series as well, in order to make the trip more worthwhile. So, while Clark flexed the rotary’s muscle on the 330Ci, I took the 1-Series to task with the Blackfire SRC twins, just to see for myself how well they fair on BMW paint. The defects on the 1-Series weren’t too bad – lots of random scratches and some swirls. Here’s the process…
Wash
Whole car rinsed with hose
Alloys treated with Meguiars Wheel Brightener cut 4:1, left 60 secs and rinsed with hose
Whole car washed with Poorboy’s Slick n Suds using lambswool (bodywork) and microfibre (wheels and inside arches) mitts, and the two bucket method
Whole car rinsed with open-ended hose
Clay
All panels clayed using Meguiars Detailing Clay (Mild) and Optimum No Rinse cut 16:1
Whole car then dried off with waffle weave towels
Polish
Small areas taped with 3434, then machine polished with PC, using Blackfire SRC twins and Lake Country 7.5” pads (orange and green). The SRC Compound removed all of the swirls and about 95% of the randon scratches – those that weren’t fully removed were significantly improved, to the point where no further work was really warranted. To bring out the beautiful flake in the Carbon Black paint and add more protection against birds crap I then applied Jeffs Werkstatt Prime to all of the horizontal panles using a white 7.5” pad, and using Acrylic Glos to help shift the residue quickly and easily. All residues were buffed with Poorboy’s Super Thick n Plush towels.
Protect
All bodywork protected with Menzerna FMJ, buffed using Poorboy's’ Mega Plush towels
All exterior trims treated with 303 Aerospace Protectant, applied using a microfibre pad and buffed after 5 mins with work towels
Tyres dressed with Blackfire Long Lasting Tyre Gel
And here’s the pics…
General before shot…
Bonnet before…
Bonnet after…
Roof before…
Roof after…
Wing before…
Wing after…
Rear quarter panel before…
Rear quarter panel after…
General after shots…
You’ve gotta love what Werkstatt does to metallic paint…
And what an amazing finish the SRC twins leave in terms of clarity…
As you may have guessed, I was really happy with this one, and the SRC twins really do enable a high level of correction on BMW paint, even by PC. An even higher level of correction is on offer if you use them in conjunction with the rotary, but I’ve got a way to go before I start using the rotary on customer cars.
Polished Bliss vs pair of swirly BMW's
Linear Mode
