BMW have recently been very keen to push paint technology, first with the revolutionary frozen paint finishes and also with their new Xirallic paint colours. The pigments within the paintwork have ultra high reflection properties which make it unbelievable in direct sunlight. In the shade, the car gains a very deep, dark colour as the flakes within the paint disappear.

The owner of this BMW had the car for a good few months before he decided to turn hisattention to the paintwork to see what could be done with it. Being a family car and a daily driver, the bodywork was suffering from many swirls and light scratches. The Xirallic paintwork didn’t appear to shine like it did the day it was collected and so our budget was focused solely on the bodywork to get it looking as best as possible.

The car was collected from the customer and driven to one of our workshops to begin a full bodywork detail. First off, the car was fully decontaminated to remove all the road grime, iron fallout, tar and birdlime. The car was then clayed. Smooth to the touch and feeling flat the car was then put under our specialist lighting to reveal the true condition of the paint.

A 2 step correction was carried out and as we progressed, the Xirallic paintowkr was really starting to show. In the galley you will see a picture of the rear bumper, with scratches. You can clearly see how intricate and tight the flakes are once the machining had been done. This car was such a joy to work on and the colour was truly amazing. With lights off, you can see the gorgeous wet look of the blue, then as the lights came on, the tiny flakes just popped to the surface and revealed a totally different side to it.

The car was finished with a ceramic sealant. This was chosen for 2 reasons. Firstly the car was a daily driver so needed the toughest protection we could offer. The second reason was due to the sealant hardly changing the optical clarity of the finish, unlike a wax which would have caused a muting of the tiny flakes.