White car dilemma!

O

Ozam

New member
I am a long time follower of the forums and was hoping for some guidance/opinions.

My family has a seven and ten year old BMW, both of whom have white paint (alpine white and mineral white). I have taken great care of them over the years and they still look good. Every six months or so I clay bar them and apply the Klasse Twins (old school I know) or something similar. I do take them to a local automatic carwash (a newer style) several times a month, and while not ideal, it keeps them clean. Given that the cars are white, my eyes rarely notice any surface marring. However, under the right lighting (typically low) I can see spider weds, imperfections, etc.

So my question is this….do I leave well enough alone or do is it worth a paint correction? I’ve read a zillion posts and watched hours of diy videos. I just can’t determine whether it is worth my time other than to feel a sense of accomplishment (without a noticeable improvement how the cars looks). :unsure:

Thoughts/Opinions?
 
Ozam, welcome aboard! What is acceptable to you may be completely unacceptable to the next guy. There isn`t any right answer, of course.

It comes down to how much time and $$$ you wish to commit to getting set up to polish out the surfaces.

For many folks, simply keeping the paint clean is 99% of the battle to yield a "satisfactory" result.
 
Welcome!

Do you plan to continue to take it to the automatic car wash regularly?

Simply put... Your answer to this question determines my answer to your question. IMO, it`s not worth spending the time/money to correct a car if you`re just going to continue the washes that put the defects in to begin with.

Now if you want to dive into the idea of a light polish with something like an AIO or finishing polish, That may be beneficial as it isn`t really too expensive (or labor intensive) to give the car a quick once over with a polisher (should take about an hour in experienced hands). Not going to get anything close to 100% correction (probably get 50-75% at best) but you`ll restore a lot of lost gloss.
 
ShaneB said:
Welcome!

Do you plan to continue to take it to the automatic car wash regularly?

Simply put... Your answer to this question determines my answer to your question. IMO, it`s not worth spending the time/money to correct a car if you`re just going to continue the washes that put the defects in to begin with.

Now if you want to dive into the idea of a light polish with something like an AIO or finishing polish, That may be beneficial as it isn`t really too expensive (or labor intensive) to give the car a quick once over with a polisher (should take about an hour in experienced hands). Not going to get anything close to 100% correction (probably get 50-75% at best) but you`ll restore a lot of lost gloss.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the quick reply. Much appreciated. Unfortunately, I do no have time to always be hand washing the cars! So are you suggesting a one stage with something like Boss Finishing Sealant or Perfecting Cream with a corresponding pad will provide a noticeable improvement over my hand application of Klasse AIO? I`ve already purchased a DA polisher so I will only need to get some pads/product. Obviously this approach and my use of automatic car washes will prevent "perfect." I just want them to look nice! :)
 
If you are going to keep going to the automated car wash then I would stick with an AIO. You will be right back where you started after doing all of the work to see it gone in one visit to the car wash. You would of course get better results with a machine. Keep in mind that KAIO is non-abrasive and does most of its work chemically.
 
Giving a white car a good machine polishing will change the color of the car, especially after ten years.

I`ve machine polished my mother-in-law`s pearl white car with an AIO when it was 2~3 years old and helped a friend polish out his four year old mineral white BMW with regular polishes. In both instances the white was significantly brighter, more "pure" white, and had a crisp/clean look to it. The mother-in-laws car became hard to look at in bright sunlight.

All that said, if you are going to continue going through automated car washes, I probably just continue to maintain them as-is since the car washes would un-do any work you perform pretty quickly.
 
Thanks greatly for the responses. I was under the false impression that if I corrected the paint with a polish and then followed up with a sealant or wax, it would protect the paint from the car wash. Obviously I was mistaken!

My plan is to machine polish with KAIO or something similar and use a pad with some light cutting capabilities. I will follow up with a sealant or Colinite 845.
 
Both of our cars are white. My wife`s was a year old before I polished it and it was night and day. There`s an old thread on AG from Mike Phillips about what white paint teaches us about when to polish.
KAIO on light cutting pad with 845 takes me back. That was my go to for Honda paint.
 
Ozam said:
Thanks greatly for the responses. I was under the false impression that if I corrected the paint with a polish and then followed up with a sealant or wax, it would protect the paint from the car wash. Obviously I was mistaken!

My plan is to machine polish with KAIO or something similar and use a pad with some light cutting capabilities. I will follow up with a sealant or Colinite 845.
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Ozam,
If/when you get around to doing the actual work on the paint, you will need more than one pad..
You will also need a good product to clean the pads so they can be reused..
Good lighting will be needed if you want to be able to "see" white paint better when you are doing the paint cleaning, correcting, etc., work stage..
We can talk about that if you want, as you do your research and then come up with your plan, ok ?
Dan F
 
Ozam said:
Thanks for the quick reply. Much appreciated. Unfortunately, I do no have time to always be hand washing the cars! So are you suggesting a one stage with something like Boss Finishing Sealant or Perfecting Cream with a corresponding pad will provide a noticeable improvement over my hand application of Klasse AIO? I`ve already purchased a DA polisher so I will only need to get some pads/product. Obviously this approach and my use of automatic car washes will prevent "perfect." I just want them to look nice! :)
Click to expand...

Ozam - is the car wash you use a "Touchless" that just sprays all the way around it, or is it one that has those brushes, those long slapping things, etc.. ?
Of course, the touchless would be better since it does not scratch the paint like the other 2 options, but ALL car washes use really strong soap and that will always make whatever product you apply (that is not a coating), come off much quicker, than if you hand washed it at home with a good car wash soap..
Dan F
 
Ozam- Welcome to Autopia!

I love white cars in part because of the way they don`t show every little bit of marring. But I still treat `em as if they were black. BUT THAT`S JUST ME.

You don`t have to be all Autopian about this stuff unless you want to be and I could argue against it easier than for it.

IMO, if the marring doesn`t bother you, then it DOES NOT MATTER and you shouldn`t give it another thought. Keep up the Klasse twins and stay happy. (FWIW, I always preferred 6 layers of KSG for decent durability, although the looks quit improving after only four).

Just keep an eye out for Ferrous Contamination/"rust blooms" as they can look awful on white and are best dealt with before they`ve been on there a while.

If you want to ramp things up *reasonably* while still using that carwash, there are undoubtedly ways to do that and plenty of us can offer suggestions. But my #1 suggestion is to not look for problems...and do work on `em...that you don`t know you have. The Curse of Autopia, where everything has to be perfect all the time, can drive ya nuts.
 
Ozam said:
I am a long time follower of the forums and was hoping for some guidance/opinions.

My family has a seven and ten year old BMW, both of whom have white paint (alpine white and mineral white). I have taken great care of them over the years and they still look good. Every six months or so I clay bar them and apply the Klasse Twins (old school I know) or something similar. I do take them to a local automatic carwash (a newer style) several times a month, and while not ideal, it keeps them clean. Given that the cars are white, my eyes rarely notice any surface marring. However, under the right lighting (typically low) I can see spider weds, imperfections, etc.

So my question is this….do I leave well enough alone or do is it worth a paint correction? I’ve read a zillion posts and watched hours of diy videos. I just can’t determine whether it is worth my time other than to feel a sense of accomplishment (without a noticeable improvement how the cars looks). :unsure:

Thoughts/Opinions?
Click to expand...

I have a 10 year old alpine white BMW and I what I found works the best is, IGL F4 and top with IGL Premier. Wash,decon,clay then F4( hand or machine) and top with Premier.
F4 will not correct, but it looks like it without spending much time. Especially good when you are not sure how much clear is left.
 
Thanks greatly for all the replies....the opinions are much appreciated. There is no car more beautiful than one with pristine black paint, but I just do not have the time to keep them up every week (and it would drive me crazy not to)....hence I`m a automatic carwash guy! But, I do keep our cars clean and looking good!

After further consideration, over X-mas, I plan on machine applying HD Speed AIO with an orange (? med, med-light) pad and following up with Klasse Glaze. I understand the paint will not be perfect but I`ve always wanted to try!

:autopia:
 
Ozam- I`d sure verify that the Klasse Sealant Glaze will bond OK to the HD Speed (which would surprise me). I only use KSG over top of KAIO, and if some correction is required I do that and then strip the polishing oils before using the KAIO.

I wouldn`t use *only* an orange light-cut pad because I`d be pretty surprised if that pad would leave any of my paints in ready-to-wax condition (sure hasn`t ever happened yet, not even close and I have mostly hard clearcoats).
 
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