# BMW paint- which compound/ polish/ pads for DA? Carpro Fixer?



## Stevoraith (Mar 15, 2008)

I've recently bought an F31 335d in Melbourne red.
It's 3 years old and paint is in pretty average condition. Plenty of automatic car wash swirls which make the paint duller than it should be, but no particularly bad or deep scratches.
Bonnet was painted by the dealership before I picked it up.

Now, it's been many years since I've done a full correction on a car (probably 8 or 9 years I reckon!). 
I still have some Menzerna polishes and what are I think Sonus pads but to be honest the polishes are probably past their best and I have no idea which colour pad is what anymore so I'm looking to buy new polish and pads.

Being short on time I'd prefer to use a single stage polish if possible.
I've been impressed with every product I've tried in the Carpro range so was thinking of using Carpro Fixer.
Does anyone have experience of this with modern BMW paint?

What pads do people recommend for this or any other polish you may recommend?

I'll be correcting using a DAS-6 Pro DA and am not aiming for perfection, just a good improvement.

Hit me with your recommendations please guys!:thumb:


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## greymda (Feb 16, 2014)

i would use something like Meguiars Micrfibre/Yellow polishing pad and their Ultimate Compound as a One-Step combo. 
or, if paint needs just a bit of refresh 3D Speed AIO if i go waxing router afterwards. 
or CarPro Essense if ceramic coating.


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## bellguy (Feb 4, 2021)

On my BMW F32 440i and other BMWs I use Sonax Cutmax with hex logic orange pad, then Gyeon primer and hex logic black pad, you COULD get away with just the Cut max and for second passes change just the pads it's that good.

Then the wax or sealant of your choice etc


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## Stevoraith (Mar 15, 2008)

Thanks for the replies so far- should have said that I plan to wax as an LSP rather than ceramic coat and also I’m happy to buy two or three pads so that I can experiment and get the right level of cut.


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## bellguy (Feb 4, 2021)

The beauty of Sonax Cutmax is its fine finish it leaves, no dust and a long working time, i have used Orang, Yellow, Green and Black pads on my BMW paint and have found the Orange or yellow to be perfect for the mid to hard clear on it, obviously less pressure on your DA will result in less cut, but you would have to be very heavy handed with those pads to have issues.
I have used it without the Black finishing pad and added my LSP and it LOOKS terrific, Black pad I used to just squeeze the last bit out of the paint but it certainly isn't necessary.


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## macmaw (Mar 5, 2007)

For single stage correction on the BMW paint which will be hard, Rupes DA Fine (Yellow) would serve you well, and you could even finish down in one step using that with their yellow wool pad. Try the yellow foam pad first and step up to the DA Coarse (Blue) if needs be. Again, you could also step up to the blue foam with the yellow polish, and the yellow wool with the blue polish, but I would say if you were to use blue polish with a blue foam or blue wool pad you would likely need to refine after that. 
But from what you describe, yellow should do it in one hit.


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## Rappy (Oct 2, 2020)

macmaw said:


> For single stage correction on the BMW paint which will be hard, Rupes DA Fine (Yellow) would serve you well, and you could even finish down in one step using that with their yellow wool pad. Try the yellow foam pad first and step up to the DA Coarse (Blue) if needs be. Again, you could also step up to the blue foam with the yellow polish, and the yellow wool with the blue polish, but I would say if you were to use blue polish with a blue foam or blue wool pad you would likely need to refine after that.
> But from what you describe, yellow should do it in one hit.


x2 Rupes are my go to pads & products combo :thumb:


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## straight6hatch (Jul 17, 2020)

Having done exactly what you are planning on doing, I can offer some advice.

Ill be honest, I woefully underestimated how hard BMW paint can be so I spent hours trying to correct with the wrong combo :lol:

Heres what I settled on (but have recently found a better combo) -

Meguiars Ultimate Compound
Chemical Guys Hex Logic Orange Pad

This combo, imo, gave a decent correction but also improved gloss which was great. My paint was in poor shape for a 4 year old car when I got it but its looking good now.

I have recently been pointed in the direction of a lake county microfibre cutting pad and some koch chemie H9 (Heavy cutting compound). Having done a very quick test last night (in the sunlight which isnt advisable) I got some really good results in a much shorter time!

Hope this helps


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## Boothy (Aug 19, 2010)

Try the Koch Chemie P6. 01 on its matching pad. I've used this on a few cars with rock hard paint, including my F30 and it's the best I've used. Cuts well, finishes well and leaves a good sealant behind. By far the best AIO I've used. 

Sent from my SM-G998B using Tapatalk


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## Stevoraith (Mar 15, 2008)

You see, what I wanted was a dozen folk to come on and say the same thing- I’m even more confused now 
Thanks for the advice though guys, will check all your recommendations out and choose one to try.


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## GSVHammer (Feb 7, 2009)

Stevoraith said:


> You see, what I wanted was a dozen folk to come on and say the same thing- I'm even more confused now
> Thanks for the advice though guys, will check all your recommendations out and choose one to try.


Basically most products work. It's just finding the right compound, polish and pad combination.

You could always look at a compound, polish that is pad dependant for it's cut. So you use one product and vary the cut with the pads you have.

Scholl S20 Black
Turtlewax One and Done
3D One

Or 3d HD Speed which is a polish and wax. I used this product on a friends VW Transporter. Check out the results here

We are spoilt for choice these days.


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## Imprezaworks (May 20, 2013)

Great work


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## ALANSHR (Jun 29, 2007)

as GSVHammer above but could also add for Megs Ultimate compound, all of them finish well with minimal dust.


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## darreni (Nov 4, 2007)

I tried the new Rupes DA fine (yellow) pads & compound today on my silver grey M3.

Easy work to remove a few light scratches & leaves a great finish.


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## Sheep (Mar 20, 2009)

Megs UC is a great one stepper in my experience. Pair it with a MF pad and it'll remove water spots and fairly heavy swirls, switch it to a white pad (I use Lake Country CCS) and it'll finish well too. If you're after 100% perfection you might need to follow up with a finishing polish, but on harder paints UC can finish just fine.


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## Ennoch (Jan 31, 2006)

I've not used UC on the BMW yet as I'm waiting to get the paint situation sorted but having used it on my Honda, Subaru and an Evoque I really rate it, it's just so easy to work with but gives such a good finish. UP improves the gloss but UC leaves a perfectly decent finish without it, and I suspect on the harder BMW paint this would be even better.


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## Stevoraith (Mar 15, 2008)

Sounds like Megs Ultimate Compound is getting a lot of love so I'm edging towards that.

Will buy a couple of new pads too so I can vary the cut- I still have some old Sonus pads and other pads that I can't remember what they are, along with some Menzerna PO85RE if I do find it needs a final finishing pass after the Megs UC.


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## sidewalkdances (Apr 19, 2007)

I used Megs D300 on the Lake Country One Step Microfibre for the last BMW I did. It finished down reasonably well. At 3" you might have picked out a minor amount of hazing, but not much.

Here's how she finished down.


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## Sheep (Mar 20, 2009)

Stevoraith said:


> Sounds like Megs Ultimate Compound is getting a lot of love so I'm edging towards that.
> 
> Will buy a couple of new pads too so I can vary the cut- I still have some old Sonus pads and other pads that I can't remember what they are, along with some Menzerna PO85RE if I do find it needs a final finishing pass after the Megs UC.


it's really popular in North America as it's quite reasonably priced. Combine that with the SMAT abrasives and it's very flexible for cut, with a long working time. Ultimate polish is also very good, but without a MF pad it doesn't do much correction unless the paint is extremely soft. Super lubricated though and does finish down perfectly.


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## Stevoraith (Mar 15, 2008)

Managed to get a couple of quick pics of the paint in the sun today. 

















Does anyone's advice change now that they've seen the condition of the paint?

It doesn't look that bad day-to-day but when the right light catches it the swirls are definitely there!


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## greymda (Feb 16, 2014)

depending on what’s your experience and where you’d do it: indoors or outside. 

if outdoors and no experience with DA: i would go for 3D speed/rupes uno aio as it’s a breeze to use and no problems under the sun. yes, less cut but it will do well. 

if indoors and experience: meguairs ultimate compound and full detail process.


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## bellguy (Feb 4, 2021)

Did a BMW 140 in black recently and it was about the same in the right light.

I used Sonax cut max and an orange hex logic pad, finished very nicely and followed it with another pass with a white pad then lsp 
All swirls and holograms gone, an odd one or two deeper marks left but you needed to be only inches away to see them, 
Looking at your photograph you should be able to get excellent results, just take your time, it's not a race, red really pops when polished.

Problem is everyone has their own favourite products and methods so you will always get multiple choices out of these kind of threads.
Best advice anyone can give is start with the least aggressive pad/Polish and adjust if required, you can polish a bit more off but you can never put it back


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## Stevoraith (Mar 15, 2008)

greymda said:


> depending on what's your experience and where you'd do it: indoors or outside.
> 
> if outdoors and no experience with DA: i would go for 3D speed/rupes uno aio as it's a breeze to use and no problems under the sun. yes, less cut but it will do well.
> 
> if indoors and experience: meguairs ultimate compound and full detail process.


I'll do it indoors over the course of a couple of days. 
I've machined probably eight or ten cars in my time but it's been four or five years since I've done one.

I'll take my time and definitely plan on doing a full decon process etc before I start.


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## noorth (Jul 10, 2019)

Stevoraith said:


> Managed to get a couple of quick pics of the paint in the sun today.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


If you like something that has been made popular but some of the big detailers in the USA. They don't all agree. But sonax cutmax with a wool or microfiber pad followed by sonax perfect finish and rupes yellow foam pad are a good bet.

Has would a number of polishes. I'm sure Koch's H9 and M3, i think it is, will work just has well. But i have the sonax stuff, joy to work with. Easy wipeoff. For my 2 to 3 passes of 50cmx50cm sections in about 45-60 seconds. Before wipeoff. Much like the rupes system with there standard test spot.

I would do a 2 step with that paint personally.

Enjoy! It will be fun getting all those swirls out!!

Whats your LSP?

Edit: Maybe i should read your post. lol I've been told a lot of good things about Menzerna fast gloss 400 for heavy 1 step correction. Scholls s2 black is another heavier 1 step compound that is new to the market. Jescar correcting compound on hard clears is another that comes up often. All german stuff haha.

3D one too. You can cut with a microfiber and swap out to a foam polishing pad to finish out using the same polish on the panel. I never used 3D one like that though before.


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## Stevoraith (Mar 15, 2008)

Thought I'd update this to let everyone know what products I ended up using and show the results I achieved.

In all honesty there was so much advice on this thread that I couldn't make up my mind which advice to take.

So I played it safe and went with what I know and bought another bottle of Menzerna PO203S medium polish.

I found that on a chemical guys hex logic orange pad it gave a good amount of correction while leaving a decent finish. 
I tried on a white hex logic pad first and found that it didn't give enough cut.

There are still some deeper RDSs left and the finish isn't perfect. 
If I had more time (and a paint depth gauge) I'd have used a polish with more cut and then refined with a finishing polish but as it was this took around 20hours (including prep and waxing) so that was quite long enough!

I'd say I've achieved 90% correction and left a nice glossy finish that I'm happy with.

I topped with two coats of Collinite 476s.

I'll let the pics do the talking.

Thanks for all the advice you guys gave, it was much appreciated (even if I ignored it all )


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## Ennoch (Jan 31, 2006)

Looks awesome, I'd have much preferred Melbourne Red than Estoril Blue but such is life. It's amazing how much bigger those wheels look than the 403M's too, despite being the same 19"!


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## Citromark (Oct 29, 2013)

Very nice turnaround :thumb:

Mark


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## sidewalkdances (Apr 19, 2007)

Looking very good - and for a daily driver - do you really need '100%' correction? 

Stunning car mate - health to enjoy!


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## Stevoraith (Mar 15, 2008)

Ennoch said:


> Looks awesome, I'd have much preferred Melbourne Red than Estoril Blue but such is life. It's amazing how much bigger those wheels look than the 403M's too, despite being the same 19"!


I'm glad I have one of the more unusual colours, although I actually think Estoril is a nicer colour but my last two BMWs were Estoril blue so couldn't have another! 
Searched for about 4 months for one that had a decent spec but wasn't a dull colour with black leather.

And I agree about the amount of correction needed for a daily driver, no point in striving for perfection on a daily.


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## macmaw (Mar 5, 2007)

Looks absolutely lovely


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## noorth (Jul 10, 2019)

Nice work! 

Can't wait to continue polishing my car when i get home!


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## scousefly (Jul 30, 2008)

Excellent results compared to original starting position


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