HELP! Can someone diagnose this nightmare?

A

ah3000

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Flickr: arthoom's Photostream



I just got my 840ci last week and decided to give her a go this weekend. Please see the horrible results!



I started with 3M Rubbing Compound and then Klasse High Gloss Sealant. I did that on Sunday, today walking back to the car from work I notice this....
 
In order to diagnose the nightmare.. one would need to know what you did to begin with.
 
^^ Yes, indeed. It is obvious, though, that you went straight from compounding to LSP. Not a good idea (unless, of course, you used 105/KBM) The compound has left damage of it's own that needs to be polished out. You need a third step, in the middle of your process. Also, did you use a machine? Which one? What was your working time? What was your process?
 
First - I used a UDM at setting 1-2 with the 3M rubbign compound. Probably two passes. Then I went straight to the sealer.



Car was left for about two days, and I noticed that.



Second, I re-did the process. 3M rubbing compound at setting 5, a good two passes. then Megs Swirl-X.



End result is still the same. It just looks like the paint is faded. Any suggestions?
 
I don't know if this analogy will help you, but if you are sanding a block of wood, and you wanted to shape, say, a 2x4 into a rounded end, and you wanted it to be really smooth, too, so then you could paint it and make it shiny. If you started with really fine paper, it would take you forever. If you used only coarse paper, you could sand it down fast, but it would be rough. So you need to start with the appropriately coarse paper, then progressively go to finer paper until it's all smoothed out.



What you have done with your finish, is to use a really coarse compound, and then go right to a sealant (the paint in my example above). You need to refine the finish with some intermediate steps. This may be a combination of pad and polish changes.
 
ah3000- Welcome to Autopia! Sorry you're having problems.



The trunk lid looks *very* different from the rear quarter panels :confused: Was it repainted or something? Anyhow..



What year is your 840? I sorta suspect it's from the days when BMWs had very hard clear.



Some 3M compounds work great and are perfectly safe, but some are *not* and all of 'em need to be used properly. You need to really break then down and that means higher speeds than 1-2 and probably a lot more time than you spent. Used properly, the right 3M compound will actually finish out very well if your paint is what I think it is (I used it on my friend's 740).



But even used properly, the compound needs to be followed by something milder for a truly ready-to-wax finish (or ready-to-Klasse Sealant Glaze).



So, besides studying up so you really understand what you're trying to do and how to go about it....



-what 3M compound do you have?

-which pad did you use on the UDM?

-do you have Klasse All In One or just the Sealant Glaze?



For the milder polish I'd probably recommend Meguiar's M205, but I haven't tried it yet.
 
First of all, thank you everyone for the help. I've taken the time to go through the guide and I get it now. I think I understand what I did wrong. However, I don't understand the effect. I don't get how that could affect the paint in that way. I used the same process on my black ford explorer (UDM - 1, to Klasse sealant) and it may not have been the best process but the finish didn't trun out as bad as it did on the BMW. Would someone explain how my messed up process could cause a faded or discolored look?



Second, I redid the process yesterday and made sure the UDM was at level 5 and the polish was broken down. I also used an intermediate step with Meds SwirlX and made sure that was broken down...same thing.



Right now, unless someone can explain it to me. I'm starting to think that the truck was a poorly done respray. The only thin that baffles me is that I've had the car for two weeks and didn't notice the color difference until I worked on it. So maybe it is me that messed it up?? Man...confused.



So, I still need help. What should I do that this point?



It's a 95 BMW, by the way.



And THANK YOU everyone for helping out!
 
I also drive an 840. And, given the year and potential miles, I might venture a guess that, depending how anal the previous owner(s) of your car were, this car may have been rubbed a few times. I'm gonna venture a guess that as much compounding you've just done, you may have gone thru the clearcoat??
 
BreakingDownPolish.jpg
 
ah3000- A poor respray could very well explain why the trunk lid looks weird. OK, yeah, a '95 will (probably) be hard.



I truly doubt that you went through the clear.



How does the *rest* of the car look now?



When really hard paint gets messed up (including when it gets really oxidized), it can be a royal PIA to sort out; I had to resort to Purple Foamed Wool ("PFW") pads on an oxidized Audi.



This can be hard to figure out online, might not be all that easy to figure out in person! Don't beat yourself up for not noticing things earlier, most people don't really *see* things like this, ever...and now that you're really concentrating on examining it you're suddenly looking at the car with different eyes so to speak.



I'd pick one small area where you have the problem and try to get that one area sorted out. If the trunk lid needs repainted that sholdn't be all *that* big an expense and they'd almost certainly blend any new paintwork into the tops of the adjacent quarter panels, so I'd possibly pick an area there (top of the quarters near the trunk lid) to experiment on.
 
ah3000 said:
... what would a good respray cost?
Click to expand...



Hard to say, depends on the shop. Doing the trunk lid and blending into the tops of the quarters should be a few hundred. Doing the whole car will be a few thousand. Beware really low prices ;) My good painter only charges ~$35/hour but a full repaint costs thousands because of all the prep to do it right.
 
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