New guy with an M3 that needs some help

[MTHREE]

Just signed up and have some questions regarding some paint correction detail on my M3. This might be kinda long, but bare with me.

Car is a 97 BMW M3 Boston Green. Its always been a Pac NW car so the paint is in good condition. The prior owner (I bought last fall) kept the car garaged and kept it waxed. However, he didnt do too good of a job in keeping it free from door dings and rock chips.

A few days ago I had a paint chip guy go over the entire car and fill in the paint chips and bigger scratches (there were a lot!). While it does look better, the paint chip blobs still look pretty obvious.

I am not too confident in wet sanding the chips, it could go south real fast. I would like to do something to kinda tone them down a bit so they arent so obvious. In addition, I am looking to go over the entire car with a fresh detail.

I was looking at the Hi-tech line and will be using a Porter Cable 7424 (for the first time)

Here are my questions:

Will a compound help to knock down the touch up paint some?

Should I go over the entire car with compound?

My process was going to be this:

Wash (with dawn?)

Attempt to remove old wax buildup around mouldings, et. What is recommended to do this?

Clay

Compound (which one; light, mediaum, heavy / Menzera Power Gloss was recommended and is a 1000-1500 grit, what is comparable in Meguirs / what pad for the PC 7424?)

Polish (which one / what pad for the PC 7424?)

Wax (which one / what pad by hand?)

Again, sorry for all the questions. I tried to get it all in one post. Thanks.

[Carfire]

Re: New guy with an M3 that needs some help

I would not Wash with Dish Soap. I would use Gold Class Shampoo and Conditioner
Watch this Video
I would clay just because it probably needs it.
Wax with NXT Generation Tech Wax
Maintain with Ultimate Quik Detailer and Ultimate Quik Wax

[Megafast13]

Re: New guy with an M3 that needs some help

Welcome to MOL!

Okay

1. Wash: 2 Buckets, 2 Grit Guards, Gold Class Shampoo or NXT Wash

2. Clay: Meguiar's Smooth Surface Clay Kit

3. Polish: M105 using a Polishing Pad by your PC

4. Polish: M205 using another Polishing Pad by your PC

5. Wax: NXT 2.0 Tech Wax

6. Maintain: Ultimate Quik Detailer

Click the link in my signature about car care!!!!

[Nappers]

Re: New guy with an M3 that needs some help

With compounding touchup paint, you are also compounding the surrounding area as well, thus not flattening the touch up, you may smooth it out but it will be there still. Wetsanding would be ideal in this situation. I have not done so, but I am not afraid to get some 3000 grit and knock down some touch up paint, long as you patient, use good paper, with good a lubricant.

You need to evaluate your finish, under sun or a good light source. Test spot and get your process dialed in is the best bet. It gets your process dialed in so you don't do the car step back and not like it.

Check this thread out:

List O' Links 2.0

Ryan L. put together some great threads for using products by hand, PC and rotary along with other great information.


A good five step (in the list o links) is a great start for your M3

Wash: Gold Class/NXT/Detailer Line/Mirror Glaze line - 2 buckets (rinse/soap)
Clay: remove the embedded particles from paint
Polish: use least aggressive product to start in your test spot typically a 12X12 area.
Protect: Wax of your choice. An easy wax to find is NXT 2.0 and it works great.
Maintain: UQD/UQW and proper washing to keep that M3 nice.

As far as pads go, the 8 series pads is good for polishing and the new black 9207 or tan 9006 pad is a good way to wax. I personally like to wax by hand.

Check the list o links out, there are a ton of different combo's for pads and products with new products this year to top it off. M105/M205 is proving to be a great combo, I have the M83/M80 and have tried M105 with great results.

Here's a thread for aggressiveness of new products compared to older:

Aggressiveness Order for new products

Hope that is clear as mud......

Just remember, least aggressive approach first, always easier to go up in power than worry about taking too much paint off .

Don't be afraid to cruise the wet sanding forum, I thought of trying to knock down the orange peel on our Neon this summer......If I can do it, anyone can.....

To remove old wax from around mouldings, I use Quik Detailer and a soft brush, blast it with QD, let soak a moment and get it out with a toothbrush. If any is on plastic/rubber trim, M39/APC/M40 are good starts to remove the wax. I use M40 and have great luck removing wax. Taping your car when you wax is a good option, unless your careful I have taped in the past but it's not the funnest part of the job......

Keep us posted!

[MTHREE]

Re: New guy with an M3 that needs some help

Is it recommended to use the prfoessional line vs the standard line? Both are readily available around here.

I think pads will need to be ordrered on line, wheres a good place to get those?

Thanks again.

[Murr1525]

Re: New guy with an M3 that needs some help

autodetailingsolutions.com is a good start.

UC/#105 would be comparable, as far as removing the sanding marks. Hopefully that would be enough if you use a high grit paper, even if some spots need done by hand.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: New guy with an M3 that needs some help

Just to note, what you're trying to do is very difficult to do without making a mistake and in the end making it look good.

I've done this kind of thing so I know first hand.

Usually the problem is getting your sanding marks out of the original clear paint. The touch-up paint will be soft and it will be easy to remove sanding marks out of it. The factory clear coat will tend to be harder, at least harder than the touch-up paint so after you sand the area, next you'll want to try to compound the area using a foam pad on your PC with something like our M105.

As you work the compound over the area, either all the sanding marks will come out pretty easily and you're lucky, or the sanding marks will buff out of the touch-up paint first and then you'll struggle getting 100% of ALL the sanding marks out of the factory clear paint.

Note there's a difference between making the surface shiny again and removing 100% of ALL the sanding marks even when the area is viewed at acute angels in the right light.

Often times, if you buff to long you'll heat the area up including the touch-up paint and your buffing pad/process will actually pull your touch-up paint out of the scratch or rock chip divit and you'll be back to where you started from. For this reason it's a good idea to give the touch-up paint a week or two to fully dry, cure and harden.

Place some painter's tape all the way around the blob you're trying to flatten down this will help to keep you from putting sanding marks in perfectly good paint.

You can make touch-up paint/rock-chip repair as complicated as you want but usually more and more work won't equate to better and better results.

Here's some threads on this topic you might want to check out...

http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/tags.php?tag=Touch-up+Rock-chip

[MTHREE]

Re: New guy with an M3 that needs some help

Thanks Mike,

I dont think I am going to wet sand, just use some compound.

In this case what would you recommend to attempt to lessen the effects of the touch up? (Sounds like the M105) I know that I will not make it look perfect, just trying to make it look better.

Should I compound the entire vehicle while I am at it?

I will attempt to upload some photos of the more pronounced areas.

Thanks.

[Ivan Rajic]

Re: New guy with an M3 that needs some help

Good to see another E36 M3 owner...

I would re-read Mike's post word for word...

Touch up paint is a very sensitive issue and too many variables will make it looks worse than before...

As Mike said, the paint chips need to be filled in the right way from the start... not to doubt your guy who repaired the chips, but I doubt he took his time on each if he simply went around the car and finished everything... you need to fill the small chip with a very very small amount of paint, let it cure, then fill again, until you're almost even with the paint coat... then you add a couple drops of clear paint the same way... basically it's a month or more long process depending on how deep the chip is...

Considering it was done right, and the paint in the chips is simply sticking out a bit compared to the normal paint, you will have to wet sand in order to get it even, because compounding will take off paint around the chip and you're doing nothing but thinning out your paint...

I would suggest, again as Mike said, tape off a 6x6" section around the chip so you can use a nice flat object as backing for the sand paper, and sand it down until it's even... when you've taken care of all the chips/scratches in this sense, then you can go ahead with your process (which is good btw) of claying, compounding, polishing, etc.

Good luck and post some pics

[MTHREE]

Re: New guy with an M3 that needs some help

I called the customer service # and spoke to a Ben and inquired on what he recommended and heres what he came up with:

Wash

Wetsand touch-up with 3k - 4k grit sandpaper

Ultimate compund with a yellow pad

#7 show car glaze (did not discuss applicator)

NXT Tech Wax

Ben felt the M105 may be a little too abrassive. He did not think the car needed to be clayed.

What do you all think of the above process?

As far as the touch up goes, the guy only did one coat and was pretty careful to get it into the scratch so its not really bubbled up. Should I buy some touchup and go over it again?