Quote:
Originally Posted by minirips2
Namely, the original owner of my 2011 128i. I spent all of last Saturday compounding it, and the damage to the clearcoat is irreparable. Water spotting, scratches, you name it. I don't think this car ever saw another coat of wax after it left the dealer- in Florida, of all places. I did the best I could with it, and it actually looks pretty good outside from 10 feet away. Inside my garage, close up under bright LED lights is another matter. Even the windshield has heavy water spotting and wiper scratches.
I bought it from a dealer who did a respectable job with the paint, but plastered glaze on it to hide the original paint damage. Three months later, after claying the car, the true condition of the paint was painfully obvious. I was considering wet sanding, but I just couldn't make myself get that aggressive, without knowing the actual thickness of the paint. I guess I'll just have to live with it. I told my wife that the car really needs a respray. She was not cool about that!
Thanks for letting me vent. I'm sure many of you can sympathize.
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Oh man I think we're in the exact same position. Florida. Overall my paint is in good shape. Outside in sunlight it's a 5ft job. Shiny, pretty deep and uniform.
In my garage with my "working on the car" bright fluorescent lights on, there's water spots, swirls, oxidation, you name it. I've clayed it I think 3-4 times now (usually every time I wax it, which is every 3 months). Then I've tried polishing it, and paying a friend who knows more to do it but it only reduced the damage, not got rid of it. The clear coat is really hard so even a medium cut didn't do a whole lot. We both ended the session with "I don't know how deep the clear is so I don't want to cut too heavy."
The polishing got rid of a small layer of "haze" I didn't even know was there, which made the swirls even more visible (although they're still minuscule in the grand scheme of things).
Not to mention the PO installed dings. Some of them I can't blame him for, though, they look like parking lot dings. But I did finally get around to using a little bit of compound and getting traded paint out of the rear bumper where something was dropped loading it into the trunk, and the side skirt that who knows what happened.
But let's not talk about the state my front bumper is in.
I've just learned to live with it.