Projects: BMW 1M l Multi-Stage Correction l 22ple VX Pro2 Coating
by James MelfiThe BMW 1M, only 740 cars were sold in the US making it a highly sought after car in the enthusiast world. With a 335 horsepower engine and a journey through BMWs performance parts bin, together you have one cool driving machine.
The car had been taken to the racetrack on a few occasions and was showing some signs of wear on the front bumper and rocker panels. We decided with its track history in mind that a complete front end paint protection film install would keep the dreaded paint chips at bay and preserve this future classic. The paint had some other issues aside from the chips. The paintwork had become dull due to swirl marks and scratches, and required some polishing to bring the luster back. We agreed on doing a single stage paint correction to eliminate the swirl marks and start to bite into the deeper scratches on the Sapphire Black Metallic finish. We also decided to apply 22ple VX Pro2 Glass Coat to the entire vehicle after the film installation to ensure the finish stays immaculate for years to come.
We started with our standard decontamination process by foaming the paint down with Iron-X Snow Foam.
We also cleaned up the engine bay with Sonax Multi-Star APC at 10-1 using various brushes.
On the hood we found that HD Adapt polishing compound, paired with a Rupes 6″ UHS Pad on the Rupes 21LHR did just the trick. We proceeded to the side panels and quickly realized that a one step wasn’t going to eliminate some of the deeper defects. We fine tuned our process and found that using a Meguiar’s 5.5″ Microfiber Cutting Disc with Meguiar’s M100 compound cut out most of the defects while leaving a decent finish. We then refined the finish with Sonax EX 04-06.
After the polishing process was finished, we re-washed the vehicle with a Citrus Wash and Dawn mix to remove the polishing oils and dust build up. We coated the vehicle with 22ple VX Pro 2 Glass Coat for 3-4 years of jaw-dropping gloss and protection. Once the coating had cured we finished it off with two coats of 22ple VS1 Final Coat for added gloss and slickness. 22ple Final Coat, if used often, will protect the coating layer and provide even greater scratch resistance.
We sealed the wheels with 22ple VS1 Final Coat and applied 22ple Perfect Vision Window Coat to all the glass.
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Sick little M machine… great work, James!
Thanks Zach, this was a fun one!
Tires look awesome.
What did you apply to them?
Hey David,
We applied two coats of CarPro Perl thirty minutes apart
Great work as always by AutoNuvo.
Thanks Nick
Great job, I have yet to try this coating, but I hear great things. I’m a firm believer in opti coat pro. How does it stack up? Thank you fellow detailers
Victor,
22ple Pro 2 glass coat still blows my mind, unbelievable gloss and durability and insane ease of use. Definitely comparable to opti-coat pro but a step up in the gloss department. Pro 2 is also great value, we normally get 4-5 cars out of a 50ml bottle.
Hope this helps
Gorgeous job all around. The wheels look brand new. Did you coat them as well?
Hey Bob, we finished off the wheels with 22ple VS1 Final Coat after an extremely thorough decontamination
Any specific reason why you chose VX Pro 2 over VX Pro 3?
I’m trying to decide on one or the other.
Hey Zach, VX Pro 2 and VX3 are both great coatings that we use regularly in the shop. They are separated by durability, looks, and application process. For me VX3 is the best bang for your buck coating on the market. VX3 gives unbelievable gloss and super easy application for a 2-3 yr coating. For us VX3 is our go-to entry level coating that never disappoints. VX Pro2 is another option if you are looking to take gloss to a different level. Pro2 is very similar to the Pro-Only 22ple Mistico Elemento glass coat made up of next generation slice technology. I was extremely impressed with the looks after we applied it to the 1M. I know I probably made your decision harder but hopefully I clarified the two a little more. If it was my car I would probably go for VX Pro2 based on looks alone. Thanks again for the reply.
Hi James,
Could you please let us know what the ratios are for the following which you used in the detail on the M1:
Iron-X Snow Foam and the CG Citrus Wash and dawn mixture.
Thank you,
BB
Thanks for the reply Billy
On this detail I used CarPro Ironx Snow Foam diluted 1-8 in a foam lance to pretreat the paint prior to a two bucket wash. On almost every car he use a combination of dawn dish soap + chemical guys citrus wash in a foam lance. I used about 1 once of each shampoo and filled the rest with water. The combination results in a great pre wash cleansing shampoo.
Cheers,
James
James first I would like to say beautiful job on the1M…. I’m fairly new to detailing and have a couple questions for you. I have a 135i with black sapphire paint i recently purchased and it’s needs a paint correction. It’s not real bad but you can tell it was never washed properly. I’m wondering what steps and product I should use without breaking the bank. I have a PC 7424. What ever info you can give would be greatly appreciated. Thank You