This 2006 328i BMW was about to be delivered to its new owner and was in serious need of paint correction. This particular year and color (jet black) is known for being easy to marr and difficult to finish without swirls or micro-marring when machine polished. To make matters worse, the car had obviously been neglected; the wheels had months (maybe years) worth of baked-on brake dust, plus the paint was heavily contaminated and covered in heavy marring and etched-in water spots. Additionally, the hood, fenders and a few other areas had been polished incorrectly with a rotary polisher, and judging by the severity of the swirls it was obvious that the paint wasn’t even cleaned before the buffing had taken place. The goal for this detail was to achieve an 80%+ correction rate, leaving the deeper defects to preserve clearcoat thickness (and stay on budget) while still completely transforming the appearance of the car.
Before:
Note how the paint looks gray rather than black in these before pics. The color discrepancy is due to the heavy marring and swirls in the paint causing light to diffract from a million different micro-scratches, rather than reflecting from a single point as it would in corrected paint.
This brake dust buildup had begun etching into the finish of the wheels:
Etching/staining on the corner panel:
Below are pictures of the test area I performed on the hood. The test spot was used to try various pad and polish combinations and determine the best method for correcting the paint. These pictures also clearly demonstrate the dramatic effect that paint correction had on this car’s paint:
After photos, note the change in the color of the car & how all but the deepest defects have been removed:
Staining/etching removed from the quarter panel:
Wheels cleaned up nicely:
