Update:
I wanted to touch base on the detail that took place for the shoot. My friend Shea, who owns Shea's Luxury Detail here in Hawaii, did the detail. I consider him the best on the island so if any of you locals are considering a detail I highly recommend him.
The goal was to do a wet sand to get rid of the orange peel. So the paint was measured to see how much could be sanded and what was found was surprising but not unexpected.
The paint was thin, like 80 microns thin in some areas. For example behind the front wheel on the lower fender. The thickest it measured was only a 110, which was the center of the hood and roof. It seems the paint got thinner as it went down the car, which is interesting to see. He was able to recreate how the robot sprayed the car lol.
For comparison, he measured a Camry that was on property and that read from 150-200. My e46 M3 had paint around the 130-160 range so it appears BMW is going thinner and thinner with their paint for cost savings I would assume. I wonder how much they save by going this thin and how thick are their high end models....
Anyways a wet sand was out of the question. So the plan than became to even out the paint as much as possible. A bit of a bummer but there was nothing we could do. The end result was still fantastic with the finish giving off a much more even shine. He even found a clear run off spot and was able to correct that as well. For finishing he used two coats of Wolf Chemicals' Hard Body Paint Seal and one coat of Dodo Juices' Bouncers 22. He also applied these to the wheels since they are clear coated. Here are two pics right before we left to the shoot. The pics are unedited taken from a phone. The paint was mesmerizing to say the least...
