[justus4]

Hi all, we just took delivery of my wife's X6 a few weeks ago and I'd like to share my experience polishing and coating the car. I've done some paint corrections as a hobby before, but this is my first time coating a car.

Here's the spec
- 2020 X6 40i
- Black Sapphire Metallic
- Tacora Red/Black Perforated Vernasca
- Premium Enhanced Package
- M Sport Brakes
- High-Gloss Black Kidney Grille
- Sky Lounge Panoramic Glass Sunroof
- 22inch M Lt/Aly Wheels, Double-Spoke 742 M

A huge shout out to my awesome sales associate Ben Hui from BMW Newmarket (Dilawri) for going above and beyond to make this happen during COVID. I highly recommend him to anyone from Ontario looking to buy a car. Feel free to PM him for his info.

Delivery day

I told the dealer beforehand to skip all exterior prep to avoid putting on swirls so the car was a bit dirty on delivery.







A quick photoshoot









Arrived at home
Upon close inspection, there were definitely still some swirls around the car. It wasn't terrible but it was definitely noticeable enough to warrant a full polish. This was a bit puzzling to me since my sales associate triple ensured that no work was done on the exterior by the dealer. I can only assume that this happened at factory.





Two bucket wash



Yes, I had a helper







Decontamination
Applied iron/tar remover



Clayed the whole car. In retrospect, it was a huge mistake to buy the Chemical Guys clay bar because it's black which makes it impossible to tell how dirty it is. I probably put on a bit more marring than necessary. Another lesson learned is that don't clay areas you don't plan on polishing.



IPA wipe as a final prep before polishing.





One stage polish
I used Menzerna Super Finish 3500 on Lake Country CCS 5.5" white polishing pad with Meguiar's MT300 DA polisher. This system worked flawlessly for me. It removed all the swirls on the car in one pass.

Primed the pad first with polish (only needed once per pad).



After rubbing in the polish, put three pea-sized drops for each section to be polished.



Three slow and steady overlapping, crosshatch passes with light pressure at 4500 RPM. Worked in small 2x2 sections.



Buff off polish residue with one towel and IPA wipe with another towel. IPA wipe is important in helping you accurately gauge the result of your work. I didn't do this on my previous attempts to polish other cars and it often led me to doing the same area twice or three times because I couldn't judge the first pass properly



Another key step is to brush the pad to prevent any residue from working against you.



Before:


After:


Before:


After:


Switched to 3" pad for smaller areas



Before:


After:


Before:


After:


Repeated the process until the whole car was done. At this point I was exhausted so I decided to call it a day.

Ceramic Coating

On the next day, I did a final IPA wipe and the car was ready for ceramic coating. I used CQuartz UK 3.0. I haven't used other products before so I can't really say how this compares to others. Application was a bit more difficult than I thought as it took a lot of effort to buff off the coating residue. I mean a LOT. I had to buff really hard to get rid of the oily haze.





FINAL RESULT









First wash (about 2 weeks) after coating. It's pretty hydrophobic as expected and water beads off nicely.



Love the mirror-like finish of clean black cars



After about 20 hours of labor, I'm pretty happy with the overall result. The only imperfections are some high spots here and there caused by me being a noob at coating. For paint correction, I'm used to working in a dark garage and relying on a bright flash light to check results. Ceramic coating requires the opposite. You need to work in a well lit area with consistent lighting to look for high spots. Once it's cured, high spots can only be removed by polishing.

Sorry about the long post and I hope it's useful to someone. Any feedback on paint correction and coating technique is welcomed

[130FeetDeep]

Exceptional work on the correction! The truck looks absolutely beautiful!

One note, I used CQ UK on my truck. It sounds like you may have let the solution sit on your truck too long before removing. Once you see any note of flash (rainbow) then you should be immediately buffing to remove it. Use one side of the cf towel to go over the panel, then use a second cf towel to buff. I use different colors so I know what is the product removal towel and what is the buffing towel. Once you determine flash time, it is super easy to remove. I throw away the towel after I can tell it has picked up a lot of product.

You are absolutely correct that lighting is critical. For dark colors, I use higher temp lights (6k - 6.5k) to draw out high spots better. You need more of a flood versus spot and I like a higher angle on the lights so I can see them. I also use the Astro-Pneumatic 50SLMAX to inspect panels before moving on to the next. It is cheap and makes all the difference.

Last note, consider Reload if you want to add to the slickness but not pull back the durability of the CQ UK. I didn't want to use Gliss because of its shorter life and Carpro seems to actually discourage it. I add Reload as a maintenance step every couple of months to keep the coating looking nice.

It works exceptionally well on wheels too if you have some left over.

Again, great work and the truck looks beautiful!

[psuibmw]

Great truck and nice DIY

[justus4]

Originally Posted by 130FeetDeep

Exceptional work on the correction! The truck looks absolutely beautiful!

One note, I used CQ UK on my truck. It sounds like you may have let the solution sit on your truck too long before removing. Once you see any note of flash (rainbow) then you should be immediately buffing to remove it. Use one side of the cf towel to go over the panel, then use a second cf towel to buff. I use different colors so I know what is the product removal towel and what is the buffing towel. Once you determine flash time, it is super easy to remove. I throw away the towel after I can tell it has picked up a lot of product.

You are absolutely correct that lighting is critical. For dark colors, I use higher temp lights (6k - 6.5k) to draw out high spots better. You need more of a flood versus spot and I like a higher angle on the lights so I can see them. I also use the Astro-Pneumatic 50SLMAX to inspect panels before moving on to the next. It is cheap and makes all the difference.

Last note, consider Reload if you want to add to the slickness but not pull back the durability of the CQ UK. I didn't want to use Gliss because of its shorter life and Carpro seems to actually discourage it. I add Reload as a maintenance step every couple of months to keep the coating looking nice.

It works exceptionally well on wheels too if you have some left over.

Again, great work and the truck looks beautiful!

Thanks for the tips on coating. I definitely have a lot more to learn. I should also invest in some flood light next time.

You are absolute right that I had trouble with deciding when to buff off. It was quite cold and my garage was dark so I couldn't tell very well whether it flashed. I left it there a bit longer than the recommended 1-2 mins just to be sure that the coating has bonded.

I did two coats and finished off with Reload. My arm was sore as hell after all the buffing

I had some leftover but instead of coating the rims, I decided to do a little bit of A|B experiment by coating half a hood of my M4 with Cquarts and the other half with Meguiars hybrid liquid wax. I wanted to see in real life how ceramic coating compares to wax. Anyway, that's another story for another time.

[MystroX5]

Absolutely fantastic in every way. Beautiful build. I did a similar approach as my dealer is to never touch any of my new cars. I went over my carbon black X5 50i M-Sport in a long detailed process. Got the paint perfect for my products I am sponsored and chose to use. Black is a fickle color with certain products. Nothing like going over a new car to inspect any manufacturing issue.
You don’t mess around or take short cuts with black. Ended results were very rewarding. I got the 30 foot reflection that only comes with hard work and ocd.

Funny enough, I just came in from my garage and ceramic coated my wheels just now. Touch-ups I found Griots 3 in 1 wax works wonders and is significantly easier to work with considering it is a ceramic. I believe this might be the most effective for wheels considering application and end gloss results. Probably going to use it on my Power Wagon tomorrow as a test.
I use a detailing carnauba/beeswax for my paint work.

What bothers me with ceramic is killing my microfiber towels. Most recommend not reusing these ceramic impregnated microfiber towels. That gets expensive.

[130FeetDeep]

Originally Posted by justus4

Thanks for the tips on coating. I definitely have a lot more to learn. I should also invest in some flood light next time.

You are absolute right that I had trouble with deciding when to buff off. It was quite cold and my garage was dark so I couldn't tell very well whether it flashed. I left it there a bit longer than the recommended 1-2 mins just to be sure that the coating has bonded.

I did two coats and finished off with Reload. My arm was sore as hell after all the buffing

I had some leftover but instead of coating the rims, I decided to do a little bit of A|B experiment by coating half a hood of my M4 with Cquarts and the other half with Meguiars hybrid liquid wax. I wanted to see in real life how ceramic coating compares to wax. Anyway, that's another story for another time.

LOL! Interested to see the results in like 9 months.

You can get cheap flood lights on a stand for $100 and be super happy. Just go with 6k - 6.5k if you are doing dark and 4k if lighter. They have switchable which is what I use.

I can't believe you did that well without lightning. Amazing.

[130FeetDeep]

Originally Posted by MystroX5

Absolutely fantastic in every way. Beautiful build. I did a similar approach as my dealer is to never touch any of my new cars. I went over my carbon black X5 50i M-Sport in a long detailed process. Got the paint perfect for my products I am sponsored and chose to use. Black is a fickle color with certain products. Nothing like going over a new car to inspect any manufacturing issue.
You don’t mess around or take short cuts with black. Ended results were very rewarding. I got the 30 foot reflection that only comes with hard work and ocd.

Funny enough, I just came in from my garage and ceramic coated my wheels just now. Touch-ups I found Griots 3 in 1 wax works wonders and is significantly easier to work with considering it is a ceramic. I believe this might be the most effective for wheels considering application and end gloss results. Probably going to use it on my Power Wagon tomorrow as a test.
I use a detailing carnauba/beeswax for my paint work.

What bothers me with ceramic is killing my microfiber towels. Most recommend not reusing these ceramic impregnated microfiber towels. That gets expensive.

Carpro has some nice microfiber towels for a reasonable price. I got the 20 pack of orange and blue then tossed the used towels. The price was like $32 with a coupon code I had. Not bad.

[Bilajio]

Originally Posted by justus4

Hi all, we just took delivery of my wife's X6 a few weeks ago and I'd like to share my experience polishing and coating the car. I've done some paint corrections as a hobby before, but this is my first time coating a car.

Here's the spec
- 2020 X6 40i
- Black Sapphire Metallic
- Tacora Red/Black Perforated Vernasca
- Premium Enhanced Package
- M Sport Brakes
- High-Gloss Black Kidney Grille
- Sky Lounge Panoramic Glass Sunroof
- 22inch M Lt/Aly Wheels, Double-Spoke 742 M

A huge shout out to my awesome sales associate Ben Hui from BMW Newmarket (Dilawri) for going above and beyond to make this happen during COVID. I highly recommend him to anyone from Ontario looking to buy a car. Feel free to PM him for his info.

Delivery day

I told the dealer beforehand to skip all exterior prep to avoid putting on swirls so the car was a bit dirty on delivery.







A quick photoshoot









Arrived at home
Upon close inspection, there were definitely still some swirls around the car. It wasn't terrible but it was definitely noticeable enough to warrant a full polish. This was a bit puzzling to me since my sales associate triple ensured that no work was done on the exterior by the dealer. I can only assume that this happened at factory.





Two bucket wash



Yes, I had a helper







Decontamination
Applied iron/tar remover



Clayed the whole car. In retrospect, it was a huge mistake to buy the Chemical Guys clay bar because it's black which makes it impossible to tell how dirty it is. I probably put on a bit more marring than necessary. Another lesson learned is that don't clay areas you don't plan on polishing.



IPA wipe as a final prep before polishing.





One stage polish
I used Menzerna Super Finish 3500 on Lake Country CCS 5.5" white polishing pad with Meguiar's MT300 DA polisher. This system worked flawlessly for me. It removed all the swirls on the car in one pass.

Primed the pad first with polish (only needed once per pad).



After rubbing in the polish, put three pea-sized drops for each section to be polished.



Three slow and steady overlapping, crosshatch passes with light pressure at 4500 RPM. Worked in small 2x2 sections.



Buff off polish residue with one towel and IPA wipe with another towel. IPA wipe is important in helping you accurately gauge the result of your work. I didn't do this on my previous attempts to polish other cars and it often led me to doing the same area twice or three times because I couldn't judge the first pass properly



Another key step is to brush the pad to prevent any residue from working against you.



Before:


After:


Before:


After:


Switched to 3" pad for smaller areas



Before:


After:


Before:


After:


Repeated the process until the whole car was done. At this point I was exhausted so I decided to call it a day.

Ceramic Coating

On the next day, I did a final IPA wipe and the car was ready for ceramic coating. I used CQuartz UK 3.0. I haven't used other products before so I can't really say how this compares to others. Application was a bit more difficult than I thought as it took a lot of effort to buff off the coating residue. I mean a LOT. I had to buff really hard to get rid of the oily haze.





FINAL RESULT









First wash (about 2 weeks) after coating. It's pretty hydrophobic as expected and water beads off nicely.



Love the mirror-like finish of clean black cars



After about 20 hours of labor, I'm pretty happy with the overall result. The only imperfections are some high spots here and there caused by me being a noob at coating. For paint correction, I'm used to working in a dark garage and relying on a bright flash light to check results. Ceramic coating requires the opposite. You need to work in a well lit area with consistent lighting to look for high spots. Once it's cured, high spots can only be removed by polishing.

Sorry about the long post and I hope it's useful to someone. Any feedback on paint correction and coating technique is welcomed

Originally Posted by justus4

Hi all, we just took delivery of my wife's X6 a few weeks ago and I'd like to share my experience polishing and coating the car. I've done some paint corrections as a hobby before, but this is my first time coating a car.

Here's the spec
- 2020 X6 40i
- Black Sapphire Metallic
- Tacora Red/Black Perforated Vernasca
- Premium Enhanced Package
- M Sport Brakes
- High-Gloss Black Kidney Grille
- Sky Lounge Panoramic Glass Sunroof
- 22inch M Lt/Aly Wheels, Double-Spoke 742 M

A huge shout out to my awesome sales associate Ben Hui from BMW Newmarket (Dilawri) for going above and beyond to make this happen during COVID. I highly recommend him to anyone from Ontario looking to buy a car. Feel free to PM him for his info.

Delivery day

I told the dealer beforehand to skip all exterior prep to avoid putting on swirls so the car was a bit dirty on delivery.

[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0[/IMG]

[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0[/IMG]



A quick photoshoot

[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0[/IMG]

[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0[/IMG]

[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0[/IMG]



Arrived at home
Upon close inspection, there were definitely still some swirls around the car. It wasn't terrible but it was definitely noticeable enough to warrant a full polish. This was a bit puzzling to me since my sales associate triple ensured that no work was done on the exterior by the dealer. I can only assume that this happened at factory.

[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0[/IMG]



Two bucket wash

[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0[/IMG]

Yes, I had a helper

[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0[/IMG]

[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0[/IMG]



Decontamination
Applied iron/tar remover

[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0[/IMG]

Clayed the whole car. In retrospect, it was a huge mistake to buy the Chemical Guys clay bar because it's black which makes it impossible to tell how dirty it is. I probably put on a bit more marring than necessary. Another lesson learned is that don't clay areas you don't plan on polishing.

[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0[/IMG]

IPA wipe as a final prep before polishing.

[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0[/IMG]



One stage polish
I used Menzerna Super Finish 3500 on Lake Country CCS 5.5" white polishing pad with Meguiar's MT300 DA polisher. This system worked flawlessly for me. It removed all the swirls on the car in one pass.

Primed the pad first with polish (only needed once per pad).

[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0[/IMG]

After rubbing in the polish, put three pea-sized drops for each section to be polished.

[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0[/IMG]

Three slow and steady overlapping, crosshatch passes with light pressure at 4500 RPM. Worked in small 2x2 sections.

[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0[/IMG]

Buff off polish residue with one towel and IPA wipe with another towel. IPA wipe is important in helping you accurately gauge the result of your work. I didn't do this on my previous attempts to polish other cars and it often led me to doing the same area twice or three times because I couldn't judge the first pass properly

[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0[/IMG]

Another key step is to brush the pad to prevent any residue from working against you.

[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0[/IMG]

Before:
[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0[/IMG]

After:
[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0[/IMG]

Before:
[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0[/IMG]

After:
[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0[/IMG]

Switched to 3" pad for smaller areas

[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0[/IMG]

Before:
[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0[/IMG]

After:
[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0[/IMG]

Before:
[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0[/IMG]

After:
[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0[/IMG]

Repeated the process until the whole car was done. At this point I was exhausted so I decided to call it a day.

Ceramic Coating

On the next day, I did a final IPA wipe and the car was ready for ceramic coating. I used CQuartz UK 3.0. I haven't used other products before so I can't really say how this compares to others. Application was a bit more difficult than I thought as it took a lot of effort to buff off the coating residue. I mean a LOT. I had to buff really hard to get rid of the oily haze.

[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0[/IMG]

[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0[/IMG]

FINAL RESULT

[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0[/IMG]

[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0[/IMG]

[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0[/IMG]

[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0[/IMG]

First wash (about 2 weeks) after coating. It's pretty hydrophobic as expected and water beads off nicely.

[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0[/IMG]

Love the mirror-like finish of clean black cars

[IMG]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0[/IMG]

After about 20 hours of labor, I'm pretty happy with the overall result. The only imperfections are some high spots here and there caused by me being a noob at coating. For paint correction, I'm used to working in a dark garage and relying on a bright flash light to check results. Ceramic coating requires the opposite. You need to work in a well lit area with consistent lighting to look for high spots. Once it's cured, high spots can only be removed by polishing.

Sorry about the long post and I hope it's useful to someone. Any feedback on paint correction and coating technique is welcomed

Absolutely stunning result!

I did something similar but used a temporary coating 4-6 months as I'm in the process of moving and new place has a garage so will go through whole hog there.

Clay
IPA wipe down
Polish
IPA wipe down
TLC2 the last coat lasts for around 6 months.

I did my sapphire black x5 and the wife's blue c class.

Pics aren't great, black cars looks amazing clean.

Needed something short term to stop bird poop from killing our paintwork

[bmwx3805]

Possible reason for swirl marks is the plant has an automatic brush car wash. If your car was dirty they'll run them through it sometimes .

[Auricom]

Forum courtesy tip, please don't quote an OP's original post when it's a lengthy article with images.

Either just reply or quote AND do the tedious job of removing the original post to the intro or specific paragraph. Nothing worse than having to re-scroll through the original post to read your reply. In this example, a reply quote repeated the OP's post twice.

Yes it's as simple as swiping and flicking quickly on a mobile device or desktop, but you're doing yourself a disservice by getting your reply lost with the original post.

Apologies for the morning /rant.

[Aimster82]

Nice! What make/model power washer is that? I never used a power wash because I am afraid to mess up the paint.

[justus4]

Originally Posted by Aimster82

Nice! What make/model power washer is that? I never used a power wash because I am afraid to mess up the paint.

It's a Sunjoe SPX3000. Overall it works fine for me. It occasionally produces uneven pressure like it's choking on water lol. I don't think pressure washer would damage paint unless it's used improperly. Just don't hold it too close to the car and use the widest angle nozzle (40 degrees).

[justus4]

Originally Posted by bmwx3805

Possible reason for swirl marks is the plant has an automatic brush car wash. If your car was dirty they'll run them through it sometimes .

What would be a reason the car would be that dirty? It hasn't left the factory. Or is it from the test drive they do when it rolls off the assembly line? In any case, going through a automatic cloth wash is unthinkable for me and also unnecessary since the car will be exposed to elements during transport anyway. I wish there's a way to instruct the plant to not wash the car.

[MystroX5]

Originally Posted by justus4

It's a Sunjoe SPX3000. Overall it works fine for me. It occasionally produces uneven pressure like it's choking on water lol. I don't think pressure washer would damage paint unless it's used improperly. Just don't hold it too close to the car and use the widest angle nozzle (40 degrees).

Just be careful of pressure washers and any sensors on the vehicle. I have seen them get toasted with water intrusion in a matter of seconds. I have also seen some nightmares that didn’t show up until later with the use of pressure washers.

[130FeetDeep]

Originally Posted by MystroX5

Just be careful of pressure washers and any sensors on the vehicle. I have seen them get toasted with water intrusion in a matter of seconds. I have also seen some nightmares that didn’t show up until later with the use of pressure washers.

I have been using a pressure washer on my vehicle for over 20 years. Virtually every single detailer in the world does. I am not sure what you are doing with that pressure washer, but in my time extensively detailing and showing cars, I have never once seen that in my life. Are you putting the pressure washer against the sensor? Like an inch away?

[130FeetDeep]

Originally Posted by justus4

What would be a reason the car would be that dirty? It hasn't left the factory. Or is it from the test drive they do when it rolls off the assembly line? In any case, going through a automatic cloth wash is unthinkable for me and also unnecessary since the car will be exposed to elements during transport anyway. I wish there's a way to instruct the plant to not wash the car.

Welcome to the life of owning a new car. There is absolutely no way you will ever get a car brand new and fully corrected. Like 0%. With all the things and people that touch / prep the car before it makes it to you, there is going to be at minimum marring and micro-marring. Every - single - time. You just have to accept it and correct when you get it in your hands. From that point, do not ever allow the dealer to wash your car.

[Bilajio]

The guy at the dealership admitted he went over the car after it had rained as he didn't want to present me a wet car.

In doing so, he put a butt loads of swirl marks in the car at handover.

Dealership rectified it with a full machine polish

[130FeetDeep]

Originally Posted by Bilajio

The guy at the dealership admitted he went over the car after it had rained as he didn't want to present me a wet car.

In doing so, he put a butt loads of swirl marks in the car at handover.

Dealership rectified it with a full machine polish

Nice! I don’t think they ever have bad intentions, but the results are what the are.

[OSCORP]

Awesome X6!! Great job!!
Cant wait for mine!!

[MystroX5]

Most of the paint damage comes from the dealer right after removing the white plastic shipping film. The white film will leave a slight amount of residue and the dealer scrubs too hard with a dirty wash mitt and now we have paint correction work to do right off the dealers lot.