Repair paint chips before or after detailing?

[lex89]

I`ve looked around and have seen about a hundred posts telling me how to go about repairing a paint chip, but I haven`t found the answer to this question. I have a black 99 bmw 528i that has only seen drive-through washes and crappy details. There`s a ton of swirls, a deep scratch or two from wear and tear, and a nasty keyed scratch across the passenger side of the car from right above the door handle (goes inside it a little) almost to the mirror.



I plan on doing `the whole shebang` once it gets warmer out. Wash, clay, polish, seal, interior, engine compartment, wheels/tires. I got some touch-up paint from paintscratch.com to repair the keyed mark and anything else that needs it. I`m going to have to do some heavy duty polishing (getting a PC).



Should I wash, clay, touch-up, then polish the rest (swirls, oxidation) or polish then touch-up?



I figured it`d be smarter to touch-up first because then I`ll be able to polish the whole car at once and it should blend better (and I can seal it all at once). I don`t know if it`s smarter to touch-up after you polish the rest of the car though.. for whatever reasons.



I appreciate the help guys! I`m learning a ton from this site :2thumbs:

[eddieg]

I hope you have langka!

[lex89]

No I planned on just wetsanding it with 3000, then using paintscratch`s rubbing compound, and then polishing it with SSR1/Green pad to blend it.

[Accumulator]

lex89- Small world, I`m in a similar boat: my new beater-Bimmer (`87 M3 sedan) is in similar condition (*lots* of chips and deep scratches) and I too am gonna use some touch-up paint from Paintscratch (which I`ll apply with a small multi-o size brush).



I`m gonna do the touch-ups first after cleaning the paint. First I`ll wash/degrease/etc. and then I`ll clay. I`ll inspect any areas I`m gonna touch up and sand/rust convert/prime/prep the involved areas as needed. Then I`ll apply the paint. Then I`ll wetsand, compound, then polish. I doubt I`ll bother letting the touch-up paint cure properly I`ll proably just wax the whole car and say "good enough".



Oh, and I`m gonna use the Langka to remove some previous-owner touch-ups that I`d rather do over from scratch. But I too plan to use the abrasive route for smoothing the touch-ups. And I`m not gonna lose any sleep if I end up with imperfect repairs; I`m being realistic and just shooting for "much better than it is now".



Oh#2 I`m not gonna use the Paintscratch compound, but rather stuff that I have some experience with. The old 3M PI-III RC has always worked well on 3K scratches so I`ll be using that. Be careful with the Paintscratch compound, it might not be all that great (but OTOH, it might be wonderful, so let us know).



Now if my mechanic will just get the thing back to me so I can start on the whole process...

Hope things go well on your 528i.