I just my car back from the body shop earlier this week and the detailer today.
Remember my post on this ding where it broke paint down to the primer?
Emailed and talked to several dent repair guys and all didn't reply or refused to take the job. I didn't want them to repair the paint, just the dent, but no one wanted to deal with a new M5. I thought I could live with it, but every time I approach the car, I can't ignore the damage. So I decided to fix it right and talked to several highly rated body shops. It basically required a small amount of putty filler, sanding, priming, paint, and blending to the closest adjacent panel (front driver door). Got the car back and the color and blend looked really good, but in direct sunlight, the body shop didn't do a good job of polishing. The colors didn't quite pop and there were really minor swirls and thin hairline scratches on some sections. I could have taken it back, but body shops aren't necessarily the best detailers. This morning I decided to take it to the best detailer in town and had them polish the doors proper, matching it to the rear and front fenders. The car looks 98% perfect now. Not perfect because it is impossible to match the orange peel of factory paint vs. a human operated spray gun. If you put your face up against the car, you can see that the diameter of the peel is slightly off. This is due to the mixture ratio of the paint, temperature, humidity, etc, etc. I could have asked them to wet color sand it more, but I didn't want really shiny doors
Here are garage shots of the car after:
And an obligatory beauty angle shot - The detailer shop does flawless work. No nook and cranny missed. Looks like it just came out of the showroom.