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jrkoupe

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hi all..

60 yo car guy here.....have lurked for yrs, and have learned alot here, big thnkx. Normally Im on a track forum but have always come here to learn


sooooo

My dumb**s lubricated some hinges on a 99 bmw about 8 mos ago, then put car away in garage, never seeing the bad overspray of the product.
It was a teflon? based or silicone based lubricant..I cant recall...whitish in color

I just noticed this past Sat while installing a new batt......siiigh...

car is arctic silver, oe color..bmw


clear coat has cloudy spots in overspray teardrop shapes..like 20.

1)you cannot feel the spots w/ your hand
2) they seem to go away when car is wet.....but then re appear.

3) meguiar 205/orange pad and a PC DA didnt do much at all...3 passes
4) saturating a mf cloth w/ p21s total wash and laying on hood for 2 hrs did almost nothing
5) 5 mins of wet sanding w/ 2000 did very very little...and I was scared..lol


did I really screw up and damage the car?...




what can you all suggest?.........Im so upset at myself for not seeing this 8 mos ago.


best

JR

In my long searching for solutions, Ive read alot about different water spots, and what to do for them...but this isnt water
 
jrkoupe said:
hi all..

60 yo car guy here.....have lurked for yrs, and have learned alot here, big thnkx. Normally Im on a track forum but have always come here to learn
Click to expand...

H Jr,

Welcome to AGO! :welcome:


jrkoupe said:
My dumb**s lubricated some hinges on a 99 bmw about 8 mos ago, then put car away in garage, never seeing the bad overspray of the product.

clear coat has cloudy spots in overspray teardrop shapes..like 20.
Click to expand...

Ouch! That's has to break you heart...


jrkoupe said:
1)you cannot feel the spots w/ your hand
2) they seem to go away when car is wet.....but then re appear.
3) meguiar 205/orange pad and a PC DA didnt do much at all...3 passes
4) saturating a mf cloth w/ p21s total wash and laying on hood for 2 hrs did almost nothing
5) 5 mins of wet sanding w/ 2000 did very very little...and I was scared..lol

did I really screw up and damage the car?...

what can you all suggest?.........
Click to expand...


Well...

Stains are either topical that is on the surface or sub-surface, this means the offending chemicals have penetrated INTO the clear and physically altered the paint itself as well as its apparacne.

You stated you tried these two things and I'm assuming in this order?

jrkoupe said:
3) meguiar 205/orange pad and a PC DA didnt do much at all...3 passes
5) 5 mins of wet sanding w/ 2000 did very very little...and I was scared..lol
Click to expand...

3 passes with a fine cut polish on an anemic polisher would not be aggressive enough to abrade the paint enough to remove it. (I'm guessing from your description of the damage and years of experience).

Then you say you sanded with #2000 grit sandpaper but did not say you then tried to remove your sanding marks?

Sanding would leave the paint looking sanded. It's the compounding after sanding that would remove the sanding marks and restore clarity to the clearcoat?

So did you buff after sanding?


:)
 
Just going to throw this into this thread...

Don't mean to scare you but sometimes you're better off to learn to live with a defect versus re-paint the car...

Clearcoats are thin by Mike Phillips

Click the link and look at the pictures.

Sanding can be done to a factory finish but here's the thing,

  1. Sanding removes paint
  2. Compounding removes paint
  3. Polishing removes a little paint

If you're not careful, you might see the color of the paint on your buffing pad. When working on a clearcoat paint system, seeing the color of the basecoat is a really bad thing.



:)
 
Hey Mike!

I feel like I know you after watching so many vids over the yrs.

Oops my bad, that was confusing:

I wet sanded first of course., then used the DA

And just the other day as a final resort , I used P21s Total wash


any thoughts ..any ideas I can try?

and big thnx
 
wait , did u call my PC DA anemic?..lol

haha, I know its not an industrial pro strength tool....but overall its quite decent for my needs.

and I made a mistake,..... I used 105 then 205 to finish!
 
jrkoupe said:
wait , did u call my PC DA anemic?..lol

haha, I know its not an industrial pro strength tool....but overall its quite decent for my needs.

and I made a mistake,..... I used 105 then 205 to finish!
Click to expand...

I've watched Mike use, and heard him praise the PC many times over the years. I think 40-50% of us on here started with a PC, I know I did.

To go back to what Mike said three passes with a fine cut polish on the PC or any other machine for that matter isn't enough to remove 2000 grit sanding marks. It doesn't sound like you're very confident in your wet sanding abilities. You might want to try and get some paint thickness measurements in those ares before proceeding.

If you decide to proceed I would either go over it lightly with 3000 then use a compound and cutting pad followed by polish and a polishing pad. You can go straight to the compound and cutting pad but depending on the product you're using it could take several passes to remove the 2000 grit marks. I'm assuming your BMW paint is on the hard side as most are.

Missed the comment about using 105 first. How many passes on what pad and speed??
 
didnt mean to confuse any1 here...sorry

After wet sanding I used 105 then 205 w/ my PC DA

I used orange pad w/ 105,..then white pad w/ 205

speeds?...IIRC :4-6

3 -4 passes w/ 105

I had no problem removing 2000 grit marks

its the stains I cant get out..lol
 
jrkoupe said:
didnt mean to confuse any1 here...sorry

After wet sanding I used 105 then 205 w/ my PC DA

I used orange pad w/ 105,..then white pad w/ 205

speeds?...IIRC :4-6

3 -4 passes w/ 105

I had no problem removing 2000 grit marks

its the stains I cant get out..lol
Click to expand...

Gotcha...some people who are new to wet sanding don't realize that the sanding marks make the paint hazy. This situation definitely isn't sounding good. If you removed a considerable amount of clear and didn't get much change IMO, for what it's worth, the chemicals penetrated the clear.
 
jrkoupe said:
wait , did u call my PC DA anemic?..lol

haha, I know its not an industrial pro strength tool....but overall its quite decent for my needs.
Click to expand...

Just in context, don't get me wrong, I've probably buffed out as many and maybe more cars using the PC.

I'm also the first guy to ever make a "complete" how-to video showing from start to finish how to de-swirls a car using the Porter Cable Dual Action Polisher.

8134HowToDVD.jpg


Porter Cable actually started the trend to use small wood sanders to polish paint, I share the backstory in my article here,


The Free Floating Spindle Bearing Assembly - The Story Behind The Story...


So please don't take it the wrong way, I'm a huge fan of the PC but now days the Griot's Garage 6" Random Orbital Polisher simply has a lot more usable power and... it's re-design of the PC, like most/all of the other 8mm free spinning orbital polishers on the market "world wide".



jrkoupe said:
and I made a mistake,..... I used 105 then 205 to finish!
Click to expand...

If 105 didn't fix the problem and if sanding followed by M105 didn't fix it then it's probably too deep to fix.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. You can try more sanding and more passes but here's another thing I type/say a lot.


"Word cannot express the heart sink feeling that overcomes you when you find out you've burned or buffed through the clear layer of paint"


:)
 
siiiiiiigh.....

pure laziness got me here..........had the car since new...19 yrs..its mint....235k miles.....sooooo angry at myself.


i really dont know how much clear I removed tho...never measured
 
Welcome to AGO! The PC7424XP was my 1st DA. Still use it too as my mini DA! But get Mike Phillips book. You will learn a lot!
 
had a student at Lime Rock w/ a 2013 stang and track pack.....fun car.
 
so I was thinking...

should I get a paint meter?... and see if I can sand more?.......I was very timid initially about the sanding as I was scared to burn thru the clear.

or just let it go......?????



and if it went thru the clear?...then y does it momentarily disappear when car is wet?
 
jrkoupe said:
so I was thinking...

should I get a paint meter?... and see if I can sand more?.......I was very timid initially about the sanding as I was scared to burn thru the clear.

or just let it go......?????



and if it went thru the clear?...then y does it momentarily disappear when car is wet?
Click to expand...

I would measure the paint before doing any more sanding. If you were real timid I would think you would have some room to work.

Where are you? Maybe there is a member close to you who could measure the paint and assist you. How much wet sanding have you done??

You said you were timid is it because you're unsure of yourself or just want to make 100% sure you don't go through the clear?
 
I was timid due to :

all of the above..lol


Im in NY...1 hr N of NYC...not far from NJ and CT as well!

any1 around ?...lmk..beer on me
 
jrkoupe said:
I was timid due to :

all of the above..lol


Im in NY...1 hr N of NYC...not far from NJ and CT as well!

any1 around ?...lmk..beer on me
Click to expand...

Hopefully someone will reply. I wanted to get a feel for your skill level. I certainly didn't want to suggest you do something that ended up further damaging the car.

Can you get some pictures of the spots?? If you can't repair them are you planning on having it repainted??
 
I would not repaint due to these issues.....Maybe in 5 yrs she will deserve new paint.

pictures......may be hard to see in todays weather and on a silver car.......look for haze streaks inside the circle.

that is not a good pic, but for some reasons the better pics are coming up as invalid files..I dont know y.......sorry.
 
jrkoupe said:
I would not repaint due to these issues.....Maybe in 5 yrs she will deserve new paint.

pictures......may be hard to see in todays weather and on a silver car.......look for haze streaks inside the circle.

that is not a good pic, but for some reasons the better pics are coming up as invalid files..I dont know y.......sorry.
Click to expand...

I'm on my iPad so I can't see much. They limit the size of files you can use. If you were going to respray if you couldn't fix them I would say go ahead and try to get more aggressive with sanding. Since that's not the case I would get some measurement.
 
I understand your point....and I agree


but let me ask:

if they go "away" when wet what does that mean?.....they are "in " the clearcoat and not below it?
 
and what about using 105 but w/ a more aggressive pad?......

Im reaching here a wee bit..only because Id like to correct the situ, and I do like the work

Ill look on amazon for a respected affordable paint thickness tool
 
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