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2010 2011 BMW 5 Series Forum F10 F10 Technical Topics Wash, Wax, Detailing and Cosmetic protection/repairs Clay bar for black paint
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      06-11-2013, 10:11 PM   #1
armanm
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Clay bar for black paint

I want to clay bar my jet black F30 using Meguiars smooth surface kit to hide some of the swirling and give it a nice finish.

Have any of you worked with this kit before or possibly the Turtle wax black box black car wax system?
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      06-11-2013, 10:14 PM   #2
armanm
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just realized im in the wrong section of forums.
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      06-11-2013, 11:35 PM   #3
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Stay far away from the autozone kits. Meguairs has some really great stuff in the pro line. Clay with the Pro Detailing Clay. To get rid of swirls I highly recommend a palm orbital with Ultra Finishing Polish #205 followed by Synthetic Sealant 2.0 #21. I like the Softbuff Polishing pad for the #205 and the Softbuff Finishing pad for the #21

Feel free to PM me if you want further detail but if you do this the right way your car will look way better than it did new and you will have zero swirling. The best part of this is its next to impossible to swirl your finish while doing this.

Plan on spending a few hundred dollars getting this stuff together but you will never look back to any other products after you go this route.

With your car being black you will get a mirror finish void of even fine scratches and the paint will look wet.

Last edited by 2k15f30; 06-12-2013 at 08:59 AM..
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      06-20-2013, 09:23 AM   #4
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i am looking to detail my jet black this weekend. do you think m205 with a lake shore orange pad is too aggressive? there are light scratches in the clear from the previous owner using an automatic carwash too much. Do you think a light cut pad is a better choice? I know the paint is hard on bmw's but being back i didnt want to do more harm. looking to follow it up with NXT2.0 (ive had good luck with that in the past)

Thoughts?
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      07-05-2013, 05:08 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wdeerfield View Post
i am looking to detail my jet black this weekend. do you think m205 with a lake shore orange pad is too aggressive? there are light scratches in the clear from the previous owner using an automatic carwash too much. Do you think a light cut pad is a better choice? I know the paint is hard on bmw's but being back i didnt want to do more harm. looking to follow it up with NXT2.0 (ive had good luck with that in the past)

Thoughts?
If your car has light scratches then go with the less aggressive solution first. If you think about it, polishing/compounding is removing thin layers of clear coat. If you remove more than you really have to, then you are lessening the life of your clear coat. I suggest going with Megs M205 with a LC white pad.
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      07-05-2013, 11:38 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ridonculous View Post
If your car has light scratches then go with the less aggressive solution first. If you think about it, polishing/compounding is removing thin layers of clear coat. If you remove more than you really have to, then you are lessening the life of your clear coat. I suggest going with Megs M205 with a LC white pad.
thanks for the recommendation. I found i have a LC pink pad (light cut for light swirl removal) going to give that a go with M205 this weekend.
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      03-03-2014, 09:35 PM   #7
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Clay bar will not remove swirl marks. Only thing to remove them is polishing. Wdeerfield is correct with his process and about taking your time.
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      03-04-2014, 10:29 PM   #8
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I have sophisto/graphite gray, so almost black. Had very faint swirls after the dealer ignored my request to not wash my car. Porter cable XP, Megs 205, and 5.5 flat lake country white pad. Had to do 2-3 passes with white, so I switched it up to orange... this worked the best with speed set to 4-4.5, 1-2 passes and your done, no finishing polish needed - I just wrap up by sealing with Zaino Z5
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      05-04-2014, 12:04 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jdmfrogg View Post
I have sophisto/graphite gray, so almost black. Had very faint swirls after the dealer ignored my request to not wash my car. Porter cable XP, Megs 205, and 5.5 flat lake country white pad. Had to do 2-3 passes with white, so I switched it up to orange... this worked the best with speed set to 4-4.5, 1-2 passes and your done, no finishing polish needed - I just wrap up by sealing with Zaino Z5
Had the same experience this week: dealer ignored request *not* to detail my car. Luckily, their detail department is quite good and they use good products. Still, I had a mental breakdown.
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      07-13-2014, 11:58 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tulsadetail View Post
Clay bar will not remove swirl marks. Only thing to remove them is polishing. Wdeerfield is correct with his process and about taking your time.
Bought a 2013 Black F10 with 12k on the clock, the black paint was covered with swirl marks and a small scratch here in there. I went with clay bar to to get the paint cleaned and went straight to cleaner wax, my order of polish and pads had not come in and I did not want to waste the free time I had over the past weekend. I used Zymol. The paint is about 95% swirl free and I was able to get rid of the scratches.

I do plan on using a very mild cutting polish/glaze to rid the paint of the remaining swirl marks ( I am almost positive with a little more effort the Zymol could take care of those as well but it will also help with cleaning the paint ). I use a porter cable orbital polisher and HIGHLY recommend it for price, ease of use and the fact it is almost impossible to damage your paint.

I am just under $200 invested into a polisher, pads ( I went with chemical guys ) polish, wax, spray detail-er.

http://www.autogeek.net/carwax.html great site
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      08-31-2014, 12:50 PM   #11
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If you just used clay and wax you haven't removed any swirls at all. You just covered them up with wax.
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