Detailing my 850 (Huge pictures !!)

I was aske on Facebook to do a writeup after I posted some work-in-progress pictures on the Norwegian Facebook group.

I just did my 850 using professional level detailer equipment and products, and I have spent 8-10 effective hours on this job over the past three days.

Step one is to thorrougly wash the car, dont have pictures of this, but use a good de-greaser, let that sit, then snowfoam the car, followed by a rinse, new foam and handwash.
I pulled my car into the garage, dried it and left it over night to compektely dry with the help of my garage dehumidifyer.

This is my starting point, and it actually dont look to bad, on the pictures that is, all taken with my phone so not the best quality I'm afraid, all are unedited in any way.

Now that the car is dry, I tape up all the rubber and trim that is not to be polished using masking tape.

So on with the work then.
I start by using my Flex XC 3401 machine and a medium Scholl polishing pad, and P2 hologram remover polish/rubbing compound.

Here are some results from using the above.
Can't see very well here, but there is a difference.

On my headlamp pod though the difference is spectacular, I thought I had a black car when I started, but it may have been a dark shade of charcoal.

Now I'm quite happy and the paint looks much better.

After this, I change to a fine Scholl pad, and use Swissvax pre vaw cleaner fluid.

Now it is finally time for the wax, and I use Swissvax Concorso for that extra deep shine, this is appiled by hand with a small pad, in a barely visible coat, the advantage to this wax is that it will not leave any trim white, nor will the wax dry on the car, but I leave it on for about an hour.

Yes, there is wax on the car.

And this is the end result, sadly it's raining today so I will have to come back with more pictures later.

No I did not do any measurements, dont have the tool either, the technique used is not very hard on the paint, i.e not very abrasive, will remove the oxydation layer on the paint and some of the washing scratches, but when looking at my paint you still see some scratches here and there, but it is much much better than before.
My car was repainted at some stage and they did a poor job and has to be done again, so the thikness should be good.

Took a few hours, and now it's raining so I will keep it in the garage

Nope, BMW Schwarz (not Schwarz II), so flat black, no metallic or any paint effects, just plain simple black.

A few more pictures of the end result. (the wheels are not yet done)

the reflection on my roof, like a mirror

Some pictures of my M3 in the sun that got the same treatment last week

Zitat von 8Harry8;111610

...carbonschwarz afaik

Yes the M3 is that... or carbonblue is a more fitting name.

Zitat von steveirl;111701

The car looks excellent after the polish.
Is the Flex machine a standard rotary polisher??

The one I have (XC3401) is an oscillating polisher, but they come as rotory too. but I'm not good enough to get a good result with a rotory polisher, it's much easier to get machine marks, oveheat the paint, and simply grind away the paint in corners ect with a rotory maschine.
An oscillating maschine is very forgiving, easy to get a good result and wont overheat the paint that easy. the downside is that it's much noisier so you need ear muffs.