Best strategy for new paint
 

Any suggestions for restoring paint on an old X5 (5-years old)? Can I buff out cobwebs by hand?

You cannot do this properly by hand.

It is not THAT hard to do, however, if you invest in the right equipment and materials. There are likely many threads in detailing forums about this, but the highlights are below:

1. Time- you will need a couple of days

2. Space- you need a garage, maybe heated? Light.

3. Clean- Strip off all old wax, dirt. Wash it twice. You want NO dirt whatsoever.

4. Prep- Remove weatherstripping, or mask stuff you do not want to damage (note if you find grit/dirt when doing this, wash again.

5. Paint correction- You will use a random orbital buffer (PC 7424, etc) with decreasing compounds to remove surface imperfections, and then to polish.

6. Wax or Polymer protection. I like Zaino.

Depending on the surface and how much abuse the paint has suffered, you can get a 5 year old car looking pretty nice.... however please don't tell me it's black.

:)

A

I'll re-emphasize... reading my post you can get lost. Three distinct steps:

Clean
Restore paint/ surface
Protect


Don't get so caught up in the different names of materials and what brands and all that stuff... every major detail will hit those three things.

If you do research and start trying to understand what it is they are trying to accomplish with each product, you can start developing your own understanding of how it fits together.

I'm interested to know why the need to restore the paint on a 5 year old X5? Just wondering if I'll experience it on mine when gets about that age.

Pay a professional to do it, if it is your first time. OR try it on a lesser car first. The OMG when you burn through the paint on an edge....not priceless.

Whats up with black?

I had mine professionally wet-sanded and buffed and it looked amazing.

However, there were other issues that made my decision to accomplish a high end respray. Now it looks as good as any brand new car, but I wouldn't mind taking it back to that slicker appearance that the wet-sanding and buffing offered.

"wet sanded and buffed"

Why?

That is something done to correct a defect- NOT a way to get 'slicker' appearance... the only time you need to do this is for orange peel/other surface defects.

(or many shops just feed a line of crap to people who don't really know what goes into the process but want a shiny car)

Black it the hardest color to keep looking good. Fact. 5 years of neglect will be a bear to correct.