Grooming Black Beauty - Light Touch-up Work!

When Anna Sewell penned the final pages of her final novel, BLACK BEAUTY, she had not a notion of what influence it would have on pop-culture. Afterall, Black Beauty has become synonymous with romantic yet dark, subtle elegance. Needless to say, applying the age-old moniker to this 325ix might be an audacious claim, but we like to think of these old Bimmers in the same regards as Sewell's 1877 literary debut, as a CLASSIC.. a modern classic. That being said, maintaining the grandeur of such a modern classic is of great importance to us and a challenge we gladly accept!

Doing touch-up on these aged automobiles is a delicate process, especially on Diamond Schwarz Metallic! Getting the new paint to match the 20 year old vintage can be... well.. touchy. With the right tools and knowledge, however, it can be done in a relatively painless process.



We left last week, documenting the prep work, spraying the the basecoat, and starting the clear. The clear coat came out like most clear coats initially: glossy, but with a foggy edge from overspray. This is where the delicate process becomes even more precarious.. Wetsanding and Buffing.

Depending on the area, wetsanding takes a little finesse, as you want the amount of clear coat taken off to be even across that area, as well as blend with the current clear coat on the car. In some areas of the car, following the contour can be tricky. For this, we are using a fine 1500-grit sand paper. Same process as before, but with a finer sand paper for a smoother, finished surface.

The final buff, is a 2-stage process we like to use by 3M. We start with a cutting pad and rubbing compound. Part of the 3M Perfect-It Kit. Starting with a large cutting pad we attack the clear, gradually working our way to the smaller cutting pad. This helps to blend the clear coats together. Like most refinishing you start more aggressive and graduate to a softer touch. Finally, we move to a polishing pad, broadening our coverage, and subtly blending and smoothing the surface.

After a good polishing and washing, we took the car out for some photos in the sun.

Details of the touch-up:

As you can see in the above photo, we've had our hands full this week with general maintenance on customer cars. With 3 different 325ix sedans coming through, if we did have a ranch we'd be set on AWD transport! For some reason, keeping these hard-to-find 325ix on the road is a particularly favored pleasure.. We can't help but love these would-be-workhorses!

Upcoming projects include (but are not limited to):

RUST REPAIR!
M20 Engine (partial) Assembly!

Happy Motoring!