This is why you don't let the dealer wash your car.

[BlackjackMulligan]

This is how my paint appears pre-prep (no wax yet). The little spots are just salt from the roads. Sorry for the crappy phone pic, but you get the idea. All I let the dealer do is wash the car prior to delivery. I wanted it to be clean so I could see if there were any blemishes in the paint or dings, etc. But you can see how quickly paint can be swirled. This isn't a big deal and they will come out easily with polish and a buffer, and I'd much rather deal with light swirling than buffer burn. But I thought I'd show what one wash could do:

[mugennosora]

my came home with me shiny and nice, with simonize on it, no swirling marks. plan to 6 layer of wax that baby when the sun comes out

[boxerdog]

Yea, I got that crap in mine also after a dealer wash but all I had to do is hand wash it and wax it. It's all gone. I hate it when anyone else does you the favor of %&^# with it.

[BlackjackMulligan]

Originally Posted by squeak

DAM did you yell at them?

No, because that's exactly what I expected. You'd be surprised how many cars are delivered with these swirls in the paint but just hidden by wax. But guess what, once the wax wears off the swirls are still there.

The only way to deal with them is to actually REMOVE them with polish. The dealer just hides them.

[jotapeh]

Such a sad, sad sight

I can't wait for summer to polish the crap out of my Sedona...

[JohnL135I]

Welcome to the world of Jet Black. That is exactly how my paint looked. I still have some scratches on my passenger door (only noticeable under halogen lights). It is amazing how easily Jet Black will swirl. I just polished my paint again and re-sealed with Zaino.

The dealers will use a glaze to help hide swils on the new cars, however, after a couple washes the glaze is gone.

Enjoy your new car and post up pics after your detail........

[AchtungF80]

I am lucky in the fact that the one of two qualities my dealer has is they have a detailer that isn't some car porter with a bucket and sponge.

[AtomiK]

It doesn't look like a huge issue since you have to get up that close in order to see it. I guess I am just not that anal when it comes to the paint.

[pit1]

Exactly why I stayed away from Jet Black. My E46 JB was a royal nightmare. Looked like crap 75% of the time, I tried and tried...it's a continuous uphill battle.

[BlackjackMulligan]

Originally Posted by achtungE30

I am lucky in the fact that the one of two qualities my dealer has is they have a detailer that isn't some car porter with a bucket and sponge.

lol, what is the other quality? My CA admitted that they farm out the prep work and he "couldn't guarantee" that an experienced person would prep my car.

Originally Posted by AtomiK

It doesn't look like a huge issue since you have to get up that close in order to see it. I guess I am just not that anal when it comes to the paint.

It's not a huge issue, I will polish them out and whatever doesn't should be 99% hidden

Originally Posted by pit1

Exactly why I stayed away from Jet Black. My E46 JB was a royal nightmare. Looked like crap 75% of the time, I tried and tried...it's a continuous uphill battle.

Hopefully I can keep it to looking like crap only about 25% of the time

[bigmicj]

This is my second Jet Black bimmer and eventually I had to learn to "let go" and accept that the swirls will come and go. However, I wouldn't have a bimmer in any other color. I think all BMWs should be black.

Kepp in mind, all the other colors have swirls too, it's just that black acts like a mirror when it comes to the clear coat.

[BlackjackMulligan]

Originally Posted by bigmicj

Keep in mind, all the other colors have swirls too, it's just that black acts like a mirror when it comes to the clear coat.

True. Most cars have swirls from prep either hidden in a light color or hidden under a coat of glaze. But they're there!

[AchtungF80]

Originally Posted by BlackjackMulligan

lol, what is the other quality? My CA admitted that they farm out the prep work and he "couldn't guarantee" that an experienced person would prep my car.

The other quality is a body shop that rivals BMW Port Newark. Hopefully I'll never have to test this.

[HeyMoe53]

I have heard about Jet Black being so easy to swirl, even when one is somewhat careful. I'm not a detailing expert, so what is it that makes Jet Black paint so soft? Is Black Sapphire Metallic just as soft?

[AchtungF80]

Originally Posted by HeyMoe53

I have heard about Jet Black being so easy to swirl, even when one is somewhat careful. I'm not a detailing expert, so what is it that makes Jet Black paint so soft? Is Black Sapphire Metallic just as soft?

Its not the paint, the metallic flake in BSM just hides the swirls and dust a little better, jet black is a very glossy deep black that when sun hits it, you see EVERY imperfection. If you take good care of it, it becomes a deep black mirror.

I once had a JB E36 coupe and cleaned it every other day to maintain its lustre.

[jotapeh]

I won't lie, I'm starting to despair with the Sedona Red. It seems like it's almost as hard as the Jet Black to keep shiny. Have easily spent more than double my gas money on washes

[vanbmw]

I am happy to report that my jet black came from the dealer looking great. No swirls and a nice coat of wax. I don't know about other dealers but my BMW dealer has a "BMW car Spa" as they call it. They will do full detailing of cars (not cheap though!). They wash the cars after a service or you can pay extra and go for one of their detailing packages. I am thinking they do a beter job washing cars then most dealers.

[J312]

My Black Saphire 128 looked good out of the dealer. After the 2nd free wash, it had a couple of brush swirls near the trunk. I usually wash/wax my car myself, but its hard to do it in the winter. I have a silver car too (non-BMW) and love the fact it always looks "clean". But I sure do love my black 128 when it has a fresh wash and wax.

[N54tt]

ugh!!! dealers wash cars with 80grit sandpaper!!

[Innovative Detailing]

I always tell my clients that when they take their vehicle to the dealer to do the following and avoid that courtesy wash and nightmare......

Using a grease pencil on the drivers side upper window write the word "wash" then circle it and put a cross thru it. By doing this the dealer should realize that you do not want a free wash

Otherwise that courtesy wash job they give you ends up being a nasty paint correction job. Their methods of washing are to aggressive, inferior products, abrasive towels are used and inproper training. All this adds up to PAINT DAMAGE resulting in cobwebbing, fine hairline scratches and a dull finish.



Here is a write up on some of the newer paint technology..............


The return of harder clears!


So now, many manufacturers have gone back to a harder version of clear coat to gain more scratch resistance. The term of these new generation of clears is simply called "scratch resistant clears" One common name for them is a brand called Cerami-Clear which simply uses nanno, or very tiny particles of ceramic that migrate to the very top portion of the clear coat and give it more scratch resistance against car washing and normal everyday abrasions. It's a better version of the old Melamine clear coats which are also very hard. But...some of these hard clear coats are very hard and very difficult to remove imperfections. You will need to be fairly aggressive to get anywhere with some of these newer, harder clears. I have also seen scratch resistant clears that once you buff through the very thin nanno section of ceramic particles that are at the very top of the clear, it turns into a softer clear underneath and can still swirl and mar very badly, even though technically it's a scratch resistant clear. So this can be very confusing and demoralizing for a the detailer as well.

In addition, not all vehicles are using these newer, harder clears. Some car manufacturers are using the scratch resistant clears on ALL their vehicles such as Mercedes. Some manufacturers are using these clears on some of their cars but not all of them. For example, BMW uses scratch resistant clear coat on all vehicles made in Germany. However, on their vehicles made in the US such as the Z4, X3 and X5, they are still using the softer powder clear coats at the plant in South Carolina. And a couple of years ago, before all the German made BMW's made the change to scratch resistant clear, some plants would still use a soft clear while some plants had already switched to a harder version. So it was not inconceivable to see the same year and same model vehicle, in the same color with one having a soft clear and one having a hard clear. That will make buffing rather interesting, wont it?

Some other car lines are still exclusively using soft clears. So, it's not so easy being a detailer these days as you can see. There are many different types of clear coats still in use with almost all of them having their own buffing characteristics


So you can understand how even for the professonals out there, paint technology is always changing.




Dave @ Innovative Detailing