any dallas professionals? clear coat flakes, scratches

[imported_tuffluck]

i bought a CPO BMW yesterday and upon further inspection am catching a few flaws with the paint. probably you give me 6 months of ownership and i won`t care, heh. but when i first buy things i hate, hate, hate small defects or blemishes (should have seen me the first time i dropped my iphone, i almost had a heart attack).



i will take some pics later, but here are the issues:



1. rock chips on front bumper. appear to have chipped some clear coat off so there are clear coat flakes. about 1.5" in diameter of small clear coat flakes. i bet i could buy some clear coat for my car and then put it on, wet sand down, and buff and it`d be good to do.



2. a few "i can feel it with my fingernail" scratches. same story as above, touch-up paint and wet sand and buff. problem is i`m not a huge proponent of wet sanding myself. i`ve done it before but it scared me when the paint was all scarred (even though the buffing got rid of the sanding scars)



i`m wondering if anyone locally in dallas does this stuff that you guys recommend. i don`t know how much it costs, but i know there is an article on here about it taking about 30 minutes per scratch. well i have 3 areas with scratches, plus the clear coat rock thing. none of the scratches are that deep. in fact i bet just polishing some with my PC would reduce them in size.



any help is appreciated. like i said, once i`m home i will snap a couple of pics. i`m a little frustrated these got by me when i bought the car, but then again probably any used car you buy...BMW or Pinto, is going to more than likely have a paint defect here and there.

[imported_tuffluck]

here are the pics, the bottom one is where the clear coat is missing and the top is just one area with some scratches. some could be buffed out with my PC, some obviously not. please give me any advice you can. also would be curious about prices to get this touched up, wet sanded, and buffed. thanks!



http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii77/2tuffluck2/car009.jpg



http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii77/2tuffluck2/car001.jpg

[David Fermani]

Re-Clearing that panel won`t fix your problem and if you do it yourself, it will look even worse. Have a Professional Body Shop remove the bumper and all of its trim, sand down the complete bumper, fill, prime, apply color (basecoat) and then clearcoat.

[imported_tuffluck]

is there a cheaper solution?



what about the rear where the trunk is (scratches)?

[robertrinaustin]

For the chipped clear, you can get that fixed for relatively cheap, $150 or so and you shouldn`t be able to tell. You need to find someone that specializes in spot repair. I found a guy through one of my local dealers and he charged me $200 for some pretty heavy gouges on my bumper. It was an area about 4" x 6" and had gouges that were over 1/4" deep. I couldn`t tell the area he had repaired when he was done.

[imported_tuffluck]

oh great, thanks for the tip. does anyone know someone in dallas that could do this? i know scottwax does work, but i don`t know if he specializes in this type of stuff. any/all help is appreciated. thank you.

[Scottwax]

A WebsiteBuilder Website - Home (http://www.mistercollision.com)



They do phenomenal work. Based on the pictures you posted there isn`t a detailing solution to your problems and you need a good body shop. Mister Collision is one of the top ranked shops in DFW and they use Spies-Hecker paints.

[imported_tuffluck]

thanks for that. actually i took it back to the dealer and they said to give them 2 hours friday morning and they would sand it down and repaint it. the only thing is 2 hours seems awfully fast. should i be concerned about that timeframe or does it sound about right? i`m talking about the rock chips on the front bumper, not the scratches on the rear.

[lostdaytomorrow]

After my experiences, and reading and hearing many others.



I would never take any vehicle or a friend`s vehicle to a dealer for any type of body work.

[Scottwax]

thanks for that. actually i took it back to the dealer and they said to give them 2 hours friday morning and they would sand it down and repaint it. the only thing is 2 hours seems awfully fast. should i be concerned about that timeframe or does it sound about right? i`m talking about the rock chips on the front bumper, not the scratches on the rear.



I would absolutely NEVER, EVER allow a dealer to do any type of body work or repainting. Car dealers only do one thing somewhat well, and that is sell cars. And yes, two hours seems really fast and will most likely lead to substandard work...especially if the dealer is Moritz.