My DIY paint chip repair

[Russianblue]

This is not a perfect tutorial by any means but i was happy with results. I basically have a hood full of paint chips and pits which are really noticeable on this dark paint because they are WHITE. My old silver X did not show much at all. This one shows EVERYTHING. So I got some factory touch up paint and went to town

Major fail not taking a 'BEFORE' picture, but I just didn't think about it.

This was a LOT easier than I thought. Last night I cleaned everything with wax and grease remover and then loaded up the chipped out spots with paint in little mounds rising slightly above the clear. I let it dry overnight.

This morning i got some 2000 grit and some water in a spray bottle with just a TAD bit of Meguiar's gold class car wash soap and wet-sanded the paint spots level with the clear. A tad tricky to know when to stop wetsanding but i just used my brain and didn't go crazy. I stopped pretty much as soon as i couldn't feel anything running my fingers over the chip spots.

You can see some of the repair spots in the pic. little "dots" amidst the dulled sanded areas.

Wiped off the slurry and then took the Jescar compound with the Rupes yellow polishing pad on my GG orbital and massaged out the dull spots. i may need to go back with some 2500 grit or 3000 and another round of polish to get it perfect but it looks HELLA better than it did before. I had one large claw looking gouge to the right of the Roundel that is basically GONE. makes me HAPPY HAPPY. was also able to pretty much eliminate a rather obnoxious clear coat blemish on the hatch. i have a lot more paint work to do before it's ready for ceramic coating but i am getting close!

[bmwman528e]

Looks great! Going the extra mile by level sanding and buffing always works wonders.

[Russianblue]

Originally Posted by bmwman528e

Looks great! Going the extra mile by level sanding and buffing always works wonders.

have you done any level sanding on your cars? after I sanded and compounded a few chips and scratches the factory orange peel on the rest of the hood is just MOCKING me. I am now tempted to wetsand the entire hood. I want to leave sufficent clearcoat for the future though ; ) If I go that route, I want to be ready to put ceramic on it immediately thereafter.

[crystalworks]

Originally Posted by Russianblue

have you done any level sanding on your cars? after I sanded and compounded a few chips and scratches the factory orange peel on the rest of the hood is just MOCKING me. I am now tempted to wetsand the entire hood. I want to leave sufficent clearcoat for the future though ; ) If I go that route, I want to be ready to put ceramic on it immediately thereafter.

I am planning on having the front bumper and hood wrapped in Xpel (or like) protection film after having both repainted. Can ceramic be applied before the vinyl and live happily underneath it?

[crystalworks]

Where you getting your matched paint?

Nice work btw. My hood is in a very sorry state... just going to have it painted. But my fenders could use this treatment I think.

[Russianblue]

I just bought the Genuine BMW touch-up kit with the paint and clear. It's not much paint at all. 0.4oz to be exact. But it should be enough. I used a toothpick to dab it on. in my case, it was this one here at ECS.

I got the Griot's buffer, the Rupes pad, jescar and sonax compounds from Detailedimage.com. Not solely to repair a few paint chips mind you. I'm prepping this car to look better at 180k miles in 10 years than my previous 180k mi Xer.

I had the 3m sandpaper already from a long time ago.

[Russianblue]

no, i am pretty sure you have to apply the ceramic AFTER the vinyl - on top of it. Because the vinyl outlives the ceramic. And apparently, some vinyls take ceramics much better than others. but i believe there a lots of folks who coat the vinyl too. or just coat up to the edge. bottom line is that they can certainly live happily together. just have to find the right combination. from what i read, Xpel film is one of the best. Suntek as well. 3m is not as highly regarded in my admittedly not exhaustive, yet fairly thorough research.