Recently, I polished out the wood trim in my ’00 540i. It was marred from the previous owner using god-knows-what as a towel to clean the dirty interior of the car (unwashed terry cloth, who knows?). I popped off the trim and proceeded to select a combination to remove the defects with. I decided to go the compound->Polish->Wax route. I decided on these steps b/c BMW clearcoated the wood trim in their cars at the time. I say “at the time” bc I’m not sure if this is still the case w/trim in the newer models. I’m unaware of which of the other car manufacturers CC their trim so I recommend proceeding w/caution if you don’t know if your trim is clearcoated or if you DO know that it’s NOT clearcoated. Anyway, I settled on:
Compound Step: Optimum Compound II on a 3” LC HT Cyan
Polish Step: Optimum Polish II on a 3 “ LC HT Tangerine
Wax Step: S100 Carnauba Wax applied with my fingers.
For the first several pieces of trim, I did the compounding & polishing steps BY HAND. Spent about an hour on each piece, using about 3-4 applications of the compound and 3-4 applications of the polish. The swirls were coming out but it was taking waaaay too much time & effort. Time to switch to the GG 6" DA.
After correcting the longest piece of trim and then the center console trim, I had to refine my method w/the DA. Same steps, but with the DA as opposed to by hand. The cyan pad was catching the edges of the trim and was falling apart rather quickly. I had only one 3” cyan pad & one 3” tangerine pad on hand, & the cyan was finished. Would 3-4 applications (speed 5) using the tangerine HT w/Polish II suffice, while leaving out the Compound II and cyan pad from the process? It did, and it finished out to near perfection. The compound step was unnecessary. This whole project was about removing swirls from CC, so the principle of using the least aggressive method applies here as it does with exterior paint.
Here’s a tip that really streamlined things for me: lock your GG DA, inverted, in a workbench vice and with two hands work the trim over the inverted machine. You don’t necessarily even need the vice. You can put the inverted DA on any surface w/o locking it down, but you have to make sure the machine doesn’t move or fall on its side. If it does fall on its side, you run the chance of contaminating the pad, scratching the trim, etc. After initially holding the machine in one hand and the trim in the other, my arms were being taxed too much. The inverted machine method allowed me great maneuverability working with the trim (turning, angling, pressure control, etc.) and was far less fatiguing on the arms.
Finally I applied (w/my fingers) some s100 that I have collecting dust b/c hey what the hell, right? Next time I clean the interior of the car, I will probably apply a sealant for better protection.
I wasn’t aware of this thread before my project, so I wasn’t taking pictures of what I was doing. Trust me though, this process works and was well worth the time.
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