BMW paint hardness

[Tom Weed]

I have a question for those of you who have experience with BMW paint. I have someone who contacted me from reading my posts on here that has a new silver BMW and he said it has either some swirling or cobwebbing (I haven't seen the car) and the dealer had buffed it. I was just curious since I haven't worked on a Beamer before, is the paint typically harder than say domestic cars? I was just trying to think of a plan of attack.

Thanks,
Tom

[soonercivic]

Re: BMW paint hardness

I just did a 745 and the paint actually seemed pretty soft compared to some american cars I have worked on, especially vettes of course. Maybe not so much soft as it was easily workable. It was gray so I used ColorX because it makes it look great. The abrasive qualities of ColorX were enough to get out some minor swirls and some pretty bad etched water marks.

[Totoland Mach]

Re: BMW paint hardness

I have a question for those of you who have experience with BMW paint. I have someone who contacted me from reading my posts on here that has a new silver BMW and he said it has either some swirling or cobwebbing (I haven't seen the car) and the dealer had buffed it. I was just curious since I haven't worked on a Beamer before, is the paint typically harder than say domestic cars? I was just trying to think of a plan of attack.

Thanks,
Tom

Tom: I recondition 8-10 Bimmers each month for a dealer and find that silver is an easy paint to work with. I've had some black BMW's with very soft clear coat and it took several combo's to get them correct.

If you're using a porter-cable on the car, I'd recommend starting with #83 and an 8006 pad. Check the results to see if you need to be more aggressive, but I think that combo will work for cobwebbing. You can follow that with #21 or NXT for a very nice shine.

You can cruise my PhotoBucket albums to find some examples of silver BMW's: http://s121.photobucket.com/albums/o212/Totoland/

Totoland Mach

[Tom Weed]

Re: BMW paint hardness

Thanks for the quick replies guys.

I was thinking of going with a rotary and a polishing pad starting out with 80 at about 1000-1200 rpms, if that doesn't work, then try it with 83 at about the same speed with slow passes. I would then follow it up with either 80 or 82 on the PC and then to a sealant/wax.

Thanks again,
Tom

[Totoland Mach]

Re: BMW paint hardness

That might be a good combo too! I use a Metabo rotary at the dealer (my arms get too tired from the DeWalt) and that sounds good.

Post some results pics!

Totoland Mach

[Tom Weed]

Re: BMW paint hardness

Thanks Totoland Mach,
I feel a little more comfortable now with you saying the the silver isn't too bad. I worked on a white Honda Accord this weekend with water etching on the horizontal surfaces, that was some hard paint. I was making several passes with 83 and a polishing pad on the rotary and it wasn't making much of a difference, I switched to 84 and that was working. I had heard some stories about BMW paint and the last thing I want to do is use a cutting pad on someones new Beamer.

Tom

[Mike Phillips]

Re: BMW paint hardness

One thing for sure, anytime you're working on a car that you haven't worked on before and you are unfamiliar with the paint system, do two things,

"Use the least aggressive product to get the job done"

Perform a Test Spot - make sure your products and process enable you to make one small area look good before tackling the entire car


p.s.

M84 is a very aggressive product and in most cases will tackle the job and remove the majority of the defects while leaving a low swirl surface that will polish up in the next step. Remember to clean you pad often while using this or any machine applied product and you'll avoid a lot of buffing and wipe-off issues.

[Tom Weed]

Re: BMW paint hardness

Thanks Mike,
I've learned over the last couple of years from reading your advice about doing small sections and checking the results before making any necessary adjustments and using the least aggressive method. It's great being able to come here for advice!

Tom