H2NO Car Wash
- Oct 14, 2020
- 2 min read

Paint Enhancement on BMW SUV

Updated: Apr 4, 2022

Another amazing Bavarian Motor Works vehicle!

Bavarian Motor Works

The owner of this vehicle has been through the drive-through carwashes many times and he was getting tired of all the spiderwebbing and minor imperfections. The previous owner also had the car regularly "detailed". In this case, the previous detailer was not well versed in paint correction so the vehicle was covered in buffer trails. Buffer trails can be an indicator of poor tools, poor skills, poor preparation, or all the above.

So naturally, he called us to do some Paint Enhancement, also known as a 1 step paint correction, to fix all these issues. This process usually takes half a day and really makes the paint pop without breaking the bank.

After dropoff, we got straight to work with a hoseless wash and paint decontamination. The wash was a breeze but the decontamination took a while as there were a large number of bugs, tree sap, and bird droppings. With some elbow grease, our favorite clay bar, and clay lubricant, the car was as smooth as glass all around.

Now that the car is ready for some paint correction, we need to determine the hardness of the paint. Typically BMW vehicles are somewhere in between medium to soft paint. After doing a test spot, we find that this vehicle fits the norm. A finishing pad would not remove enough defects for a 1 step and a normal polishing pad might leave too much of a haze or buffer trails if using rotary. The ideal pad for this specific job and car is a light polishing pad. With our light polishing pad and favorite polishing compound, we began to correct the entire vehicle.

Luckily for us, there were no trouble spots or areas that needed extra attention. In a 1 step correction, or paint enhancement, there will still be many flaws left in the paint but you can expect between 25-50% flaw removal depending on the paint and types of flaws in there. In this case, there was about 45% defect removal since the pad cut and finished very well. After correcting the entire vehicle, deeper scratches were still prevalent but they were lessened. Buffer trails and car wash swirls are completely gone, which were the customer's main concerns. Almost a mirror finish as shown below. The paint came in almost a gray color and left black again!

Mirror Finish

The last thing to do was dress the wheels, clean the glass and apply a sealant to the vehicle to lock in the correction for as long as possible. We dressed the wheels with our favorite water-based dressing and shined the rims with our favorite spray wax. With our favorite glass cleaner we got the glass clear and shiny. Finishing the job, we applied our favorite sealant to protect the entire vehicle from further scratches, rain, UV rays, and makes it much easier to clean.

Finished product!