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      09-10-2013, 11:13 PM   #1
Gray_Panther
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BMW X3 Correction + Opti-Coat

I think I should delete my original topic since I got carried away and forgot about the log hehe

This Black Sapphire Metallic X3 belongs to my father who is currently in Greece with my mama celebrating their 25th

anniversary. So while I am a little jealous that they get to be there and spend time with relatives I decided I would

finally have the time needed to tackle his car. The X3 has just over 70k miles on it and was bought by my father exactly

one year ago. We plan to keep the car for many years so I decided to Opti-Coat it after seeing how my BMW 128i and VW GTI

turned out.

The previous owner took it to a detailer who lathered the paint heavily with glaze to make it look good so after looking at

it I knew this car needed time...A lot of time. The paint looked as if it had been through swirl-o-matics its entire life.

The detailer didn't clay the car because last year it went through my 50g of new clay when I prepped it for winter. I

started working on this car at the end of August and finished it yesterday. And so I am happy to show you my surprise gift

to my father!

Products & Equipment used:
PC7424XP
Uber Yellow and Blue Polishing Pads
Meguiars Cutting Pad
Meguiars M105
Sonax Fine Abrasive Paste 5/4
Sonax Nano Polish 3/6
Meg's Clay Bar and ONR Lube
Gilmour's Foammaster II
Dawn Dish Soap Mixed with Dodo Juice Basics of Bling Shampooooooo

I started with a nice foam bath and then did a 2 bucket wash


I then brought the car inside to clay and then taped it up



Here is the damage, swirls and scratches and RIDS galore













Yeahhhh, it was even worse to see in person. My 1.2mp phone and 6mp camera couldn't capture the depth of the damage. So I

began my longest compounding process I have ever done. It took my about...actually I don't want to think about how long I

compounded. I used the Sonax fine abrasive paste for most of the car and the M105 only for the hood. The trunk was the

hardest part, I did my best to correct it but only achieved about 80% correction rate. Here is a 50/50 after two passes on

the door:


After 3 passes of compounding, which the car needed. There were deeper RIDS but it wasn't worth my time.








I asked my sister to take a few pictures of me polishing, since I don't have any.



At this point I was stuck for a long time. I posted a thread on the machine polishing section here and asked for helped

since the paint showed marring after each polishing pass. Thomas Dekany (tdekany.com) stepped up

and responded to my thread inviting me to give him a call. I left him a message from my house phone, which he returned but

I was not home and my sister accidentally gave him the wrong number for my mobile. Another person picked up the phone and

wasn't too pleased that Thomas called...Rochestarians can be so cold. He called back my sister and got the right number,

we had a laugh over it!
I had some great talks with him and learned a lot. I figured out the issue I was experiencing was after finding a rust

flake or two on my polishing pad which was causing the marring. I hate winters here. So I cleaned the pad meticulously

and polished the car.
Here are a few shots after going over the entire car with Sonax Nano Polish 3/6 paired with Uber Blue Final Polish pad.




And so the Opti-Coating was applied after seeing a satisfactory paint condition!
















Thank you for reading and thanks to Thomas for being there when I needed someone!
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      11-08-2013, 01:47 PM   #2
nyalpine90
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      12-31-2013, 08:09 PM   #3
bamboostk86
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Awsome lots of work ur a good son, that X3 is sweet too
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