[Bluemach1]

My 2001 M5 that I bought a few months ago has a lot of heavy contamination on the hood. This includes water spots, also what I think is sap and some haze. I spent many, many hours claying with Pinnacle XMT. While I can see that I am making progress, when I do the bag on hand test I can still feel all kinds of little nibs. My question is should I jump up to a really heavy clay bar like Chemical Guys Heavy Black or should I just jump in and start compounding with 105?

 

[Bluemach1]

I just went ahead and ordered the Chemical Guys grey (100g) and Black (100g) bars. I will start with the grey and see if that cuts through the nibs. If not, I'll step it up to black. I'll be following up with a full correction afterward so a little bit of scuff will be acceptable. As I don't know what this paint has had done to it in the past, I want to be less aggressive if possible though.

If the grey works, I will probably jump over to another brand that gets you more for your money. The chemical guys stuff is only 100 grams. I'm not sure what happened with them. I thought their bars used to be 200 grams. Oh well, I will go shopping.

 

[Bluemach1]

FWIW; I clayed with the CG Gray and still felt the little nibs. I went ahead and bumped up to the the CG black. After using the black over the entire hood, I could still feel some nibs. It must be in the paint. That is as good as it is going to get for me. After claying, I just cleaned the surface with an IPA dilution and then went to the M105. The paint looked immediately better. Finished off with M205. I applied some "midnight express" wax polymer made by Hi-Temp. I did not like this stuff. It left a haze. maybe because I applied with a PC or because I used a Chemical Guys Black Hex-Logic pad or maybe the combo but it did not look good. Went back over with the M205 then hit it with some Zaino Z-6. It looks really nice now.

 

[nynd]

Good info.