1997 BMW 5-Series BLACK

[synenergy52]

I just bought this car. It seems to have had paintwork done on numerous places of the car, namely the passenger side (both doors, fender, and hood) This is where I notice the paint isn't as glossy as the rest of the car, namely, the rear passenger quarter panel in this pic. I'm thinking I can get on a rotary with a foam polishing pad with #83 and polish the bejeezus out of it. Or would wet sanding work?

My last resort would be a re-clear or re-spray. Let me know what you guys think of this poor respray job. =/

Notice the depth and sharpness of the rear... then the two doors get blurry. The hood looks like this too =/

[Mike Phillips]

Re: 1997 BMW 5-Series BLACK

Welcome to Meguiar's Online!


Have you ever used a rotary buffer before to buff out an entire car with the goal AND end-results being a swirl free finish on black paint?

[synenergy52]

Re: 1997 BMW 5-Series BLACK

I'm not sure what your question is but I do have a tiny bit of experience with a rotary. Just wondering what the recommended approach would be.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: 1997 BMW 5-Series BLACK

I'm not sure what your question is but I do have a tiny bit of experience with a rotary.

Just wondering what the recommended approach would be.

Here's some threads that will bring you up to speed on what it means to buff out a car using a rotary buffer. It's not that you can't do it, but it is what most would consider an advanced procedure and to start out as a newbie and working on a black car and something that's important to you, versus a junker car you''re going to learn on means you need to get some "Head Knowledge" on the tool first.

You could just wash it, clay it and apply and work an easy to use paint cleaner like Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner and then wax it with a wax like NXT Tech Wax and get pretty awesome results while avoiding the multiple step process you're going to have to do to do a rotary buffer buff-out on this car. At least you could start with a simple approach and work up to the advanced approach.



Learning to use the Rotary Buffer

Can a Rotary Buffer like a Makita or DeWalt be as Idiot-proof as a PC?

Switching from 3M to Meguiar's - Rotary Buffer Questions?

How to avoid swirls and holograms?

Need HELP! - How to avoid holograms?

Rotary vs PC vs Regular Orbital Buffer



Do you currently own a rotary buffer?

If not you're going to need one plus some buffing pads and some chemicals, you're looking at over $200.00 in most cases to get into what you want to do.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: 1997 BMW 5-Series BLACK

I'm not sure what your question is but I do have a tiny bit of experience with a rotary. Just wondering what the recommended approach would be.

Added some links that go over the recommended approach, as for my question...

Using a rotary buffer to completely buff out a black car is a lot of work. There's a huge difference between a person that has buffed out hundreds of cars using a rotary buffer and a tiny bit of experience, that's all.

It's a lot more work than most people think. Check out the first two threads we added above and keep in mind that clear coat paints are usually not very fun to work on in the first place as compared to older single stage paints.

Been there, done that... a bunch of times...

Before



I compounded the entire finish before starting the below process to remove the shallow scratches and expose the deep scratches.


Process

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: 1997 BMW 5-Series BLACK

to mol.

[synenergy52]

Re: 1997 BMW 5-Series BLACK

I appreciate the responses and the welcome. Perhaps I should of introduced myself first. I have been browsing these forums for a few years now and have learned a lot. Yes I do own a rotary and have did some minor buffing work with great results. I'm pretty good with detailing cars and knowledgable about procedures and taking care of a car's finish in general. I have not done any serious work though such as wet sanding or multi-step polishing/buffing procedures. And I certainly never owned a car that had bad re-spray work on it like this one. My question is are these bad re-spray jobs typically repairable... and what causes the finish to be blurry like this?

Are the painters forgetting a step? Perhaps rushing the job and not colorsanding afterwards? What went wrong here? Perhaps I'll try a rotary with #83? Or maybe test spot a small area by hand with scratch-x.





I believe in Meguiars products as I am extremely picky when it comes to products. I can honestly say that Meguiars is my favorite detailing brand. Their products are not only excellent at doing what they're made to do, but they also smell good too! Especially the interior quick mist spray =) Thanks for the help.

[Derrick]

Re: 1997 BMW 5-Series BLACK

Welcome to Meguiar's Online. Well i do alot of paint correction but it will be very hard to tell you what has happened to cause this without seeing the vehicle up close and in different angles. The picture you provided shows a slight blurr but it would help if you can get some closer shots and maybe some in direct sunlight like the one Mike posted of the BMW hood with all the swirls real up close. This would help to see what is blurring the paint. It could be a real cheap repaint job or wet sanding that was not correctly removed ( someone using a DA to remove wetsanding marks can leave it looking a little off ). It could be a bad buff job on that one area and it left bad buffer swirls ect.. but like i said it is a little hard to tell with the angle provided. I would suggest doing a test area with some #80 Speed Glaze w/ W8006 pad because you do always want to start with the least aggressive method and just see how that turns out and go from there

[synenergy52]

Re: 1997 BMW 5-Series BLACK

Sounds good Derrick. I will post up more pics tonite when I get home from work. Some closeups/reflection shots. To me it looks like a bad re-spray (cheap job) I will most likely have it resprayed properly. I'll post pics anyway.

Is that a WS6 in your sig? Which ever F-body it is, I'm a sucker for American muscle! =)

[Derrick]

Re: 1997 BMW 5-Series BLACK

Sounds good Derrick. I will post up more pics tonite when I get home from work. Some closeups/reflection shots. To me it looks like a bad re-spray (cheap job) I will most likely have it resprayed properly. I'll post pics anyway.

Is that a WS6 in your sig? Which ever F-body it is, I'm a sucker for American muscle! =)

Yup it's a 2002 WS6. I actually just got rid of it but ill be getting another one soon and black is a must . On your reflections shots try and use the sun or a good halogen light in the pics. As you can see from Mike's first picture it really helps to bring out all the paint defects or sometimes even the flash from your camera can work.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: 1997 BMW 5-Series BLACK

Since you're in SoCal, maybe you can come to one of our Thursday Night "Open Garage" classes, we can take a look at your paint job and even try a few things to see if it can be saved.

June
Thursday, June 5th Sign-up Thread
Thursday, June 19th Sign-up Thread

Sounds good Derrick. I will post up more pics tonite when I get home from work. Some closeups/reflection shots. To me it looks like a bad re-spray (cheap job) I will most likely have it resprayed properly. I'll post pics anyway.

Sometimes this can help...

How to capture pictures of swirls in your car's paint

[synenergy52]

Re: 1997 BMW 5-Series BLACK

Cool definitely!! Thanks for the tips Mike and Derrick. I have always wanted to attend one of your detailing days but it's kind of far. I live in Studio City (818). I'll come out though, I'm sure it would be a blast. I'll go check out those dates and try to bring a couple of friends too--if they sign up themselves =). Does anyone know of any local places that sells the foam rotary pads? (w8006 or so) I know of a couple places online but I don't want to wait. Or maybe I'll just wait for your guys opinions on my pics. I'll post more tonite.

[synenergy52]

Re: 1997 BMW 5-Series BLACK

Oh yeah and I forgot to mention my car got egged this weekend, I managed to clean off the egg within 30 minutes of it happening. It happened at a restaurant while I was inside eating with friends. I wish I could of caught who did it. The whole rear of the car was practically covered in egg--huge brown egg. The egg left a permanent mark on the clear coat where it hit, and splashed onto the hood and I didn't see the splash til the next day. I removed the egg and underneath was permanently damaged clearcoat about the size of a quarter (where the splash was) =/ I quickly removed the egg with Meguiars mist detailer--that wasn't enough so I had to break out the scratch-X. It didn't help either that my friend thought he could help out by wiping the paint with napkin. Needless to say he scratched the heck out of the paint. Verticle up and down wiping marks on the trunk lid. Eggs are extremely dangerous, especially coupled with scorching hot black paint. it was over 100 degrees that day. Ill show pics of that too.

[Derrick]

Re: 1997 BMW 5-Series BLACK

Oh yeah and I forgot to mention my car got egged this weekend, I managed to clean off the egg within 30 minutes of it happening. It happened at a restaurant while I was inside eating with friends. I wish I could of caught who did it. The whole rear of the car was practically covered in egg--huge brown egg. The egg left a permanent mark on the clear coat where it hit, and splashed onto the hood and I didn't see the splash til the next day. I removed the egg and underneath was permanently damaged clearcoat about the size of a quarter (where the splash was) =/ Eggs are extremely dangerous, especially coupled with scorching hot black paint. it was over 100 degrees that day. Ill show pics of that too.

Well luckily when removing below surface paint defects you are in fact removing clear coat/ paint. Try and apply some ScratchX by hand. If you cant get it with a foam applicator you may need to step up to a terry cloth for a little more bite but you should be able to remove the stain. Remember when using scratchX by hand you will want to put some passion behind the pad because like i mentioned you will be removing and leveling the paint to the bottom of the below surface defect to properly remove it and it can take up 3 and sometimes even 4 applications to fully remove a defects.

[Ken_Allen]

Re: 1997 BMW 5-Series BLACK

Added some links that go over the recommended approach, as for my question...

Using a rotary buffer to completely buff out a black car is a lot of work. There's a huge difference between a person that has buffed out hundreds of cars using a rotary buffer and a tiny bit of experience, that's all.

It's a lot more work than most people think. Check out the first two threads we added above and keep in mind that clear coat paints are usually not very fun to work on in the first place as compared to older single stage paints.

Been there, done that... a bunch of times...

Before



I compounded the entire finish before starting the below process to remove the shallow scratches and expose the deep scratches.


Process

Beautiful M3!