Jngrbrdman
New member
Ok, so I have an interesting problem. I have a client who brought me their 2009 M3 convertible a month or so ago. He had left it outside in his driveway and I guess the neighbors did some painting, because in the morning it had paint speckles all over it. Instead of dealing with the neighbor, he decided to just go get it taken care of. The BMW dealership said they could get them off for $130, but I couldn't send him to the stealership to have his paint ruined. When it didn't come off with a simple wash I am sure they would just bust out the rotary with wool pad and try to burn them off. So I told him that I had two hours I could spend on it for $130 and I would get them off as best as I could. Well, I guess his anal retentive dad has a pretty good eye for detail because he found some that I missed. To my credit, this is a jet black car and it is like polishing on a mirror. It is next to impossible to tell the difference between white paint speckles and dust from the polish. Also, there are some rock chips on the hood that look exactly like the paint speckles, so most of the freakout was over things that I can't remove anyway.
So he brought it back over so I could tackle the spots I missed. I was thinking I must have done a really bad job and left spots all over the place, but it was actually really hard to find any. I seriously must have gotten 99% of them out and this guy was still seeing that 1%. This 1% survived being clayed and polished multiple times, so they are pretty sticky little buggers.
So he wants me to give it one last shot to see if I can get the last remaining speckles off. I really thought I did that the first time and definitely thought I did it the second time, so I'm starting to doubt if I can even do it. What would you guys try next? I tried mineral spirits and it caused more damage than what it solved, so I'm not really feeling like doing that. I've tried clay, XMT360 (thought maybe just a good paint cleaner would work), Klasse AIO, Pinnacle paint cleansing lotion, 4* Light Cut Compound, Poorboys SSRII, and Black Hole. I knew Black Hole wouldn't do much, but just so you know, it doesn't do anything.
Any other suggestions or techniques?
Oh, here is the car in question. I posted these awhile ago because I was so surprised with the paint quality. I'm wondering if these paint specs are hiding in the dimples of the paint and that is what makes it hard to get. Do you think? This is textured enough paint that I guess it is possible.
You can kind of see the speckles in this picture. They are just so tiny they are really really tough to nail down.
I still feel good that he didn't waste $130 at the dealership and then get burned paint that had to be repaired, but I'm really starting to doubt my own abilities at this point. I've already spent four hours on this car and apparently I'm still not getting all the spots off. I've tried to tell him to take it to another shop so they can get perhaps better results, but they are fine letting me keep taking a whack at it and are even willing to pay me to sit down with it all day and just get the job done. Before I take a job like that, I'd like some opinions on whether or not I'm missing something that will work better.
So he brought it back over so I could tackle the spots I missed. I was thinking I must have done a really bad job and left spots all over the place, but it was actually really hard to find any. I seriously must have gotten 99% of them out and this guy was still seeing that 1%. This 1% survived being clayed and polished multiple times, so they are pretty sticky little buggers.
So he wants me to give it one last shot to see if I can get the last remaining speckles off. I really thought I did that the first time and definitely thought I did it the second time, so I'm starting to doubt if I can even do it. What would you guys try next? I tried mineral spirits and it caused more damage than what it solved, so I'm not really feeling like doing that. I've tried clay, XMT360 (thought maybe just a good paint cleaner would work), Klasse AIO, Pinnacle paint cleansing lotion, 4* Light Cut Compound, Poorboys SSRII, and Black Hole. I knew Black Hole wouldn't do much, but just so you know, it doesn't do anything.
Any other suggestions or techniques?Oh, here is the car in question. I posted these awhile ago because I was so surprised with the paint quality. I'm wondering if these paint specs are hiding in the dimples of the paint and that is what makes it hard to get. Do you think? This is textured enough paint that I guess it is possible.
You can kind of see the speckles in this picture. They are just so tiny they are really really tough to nail down.
I still feel good that he didn't waste $130 at the dealership and then get burned paint that had to be repaired, but I'm really starting to doubt my own abilities at this point. I've already spent four hours on this car and apparently I'm still not getting all the spots off. I've tried to tell him to take it to another shop so they can get perhaps better results, but they are fine letting me keep taking a whack at it and are even willing to pay me to sit down with it all day and just get the job done. Before I take a job like that, I'd like some opinions on whether or not I'm missing something that will work better.
