Oxidized paint. Pics inside.

[rcbrown23]

Finally getting around to putting the beemer together (picked it up with a bit of front end damage for $500)

The paint is pretty badly oxidized. What are my options here? I'm a newb when it comes to this stuff, by the way.

Should I take it in and have it "cut and polished"? where would I take it? how much would that cost? I'm in Ft. Worth, tx, by the way.

I just picked up a claybar, and some sort of "oxidation removing" wax. It won't hurt anything to try this myself, will it?

The front door is the good paint (as you can tell), and the rest looks pretty bad. It's dirty, but you get the idea:

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f321/rcbrown23/DSC02759.jpg
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f321/rcbrown23/DSC02758.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f321/rcbrown23/DSC02756.jpg

[E34-520iSE]

He he looks a bit like my car bro - more pink than red lol!

Is that really a 540?

Cheers,

Shaun M

[Macv]

You won't hurt anything doing it yourself. Just do a little research first to get a grasp of how to "cut and polish." Practice on lower parts and you'll do fine.

As long as you don't jump right into it, because you CAN damage what's left of the paint.

[markus]

check out 1z or einseztt whatever its called. they have a writeup on a VW golf, red like yours, and their polishes made it look like new. It was oxidized to hell also.

[rcbrown23]

Hmmm... check out what??

is that a website I'm looking for? another forum member? a company?

I'd like to check it out...

EDIT: found it, thanks I'm reading it now...

http://www.1z-usa.com/vw_scirocco.html

EDIT #2: Ordered it.

[markus]

let us know how it goes.

[winfred]

clay is great, very hard to hurt paint with clay/lube, but it will need to be polished afterwards to a shine, someone with experience with a rotary buffer could kick it's ass in a very short time, a random orbit buffer is much more forgiving of the users experience and can take a while but can produce good results, once you get it cleared of oxidation and polished keep it waxed or it will turn back into oxidized crap quickly

[CharlesAFerg]

First off, fill out your profile, if you live near me I'd totally help you out, I'm a detailer.


clay is great, very hard to hurt paint with clay/lube, but it will need to be polished afterwards to a shine, someone with experience with a rotary buffer could kick it's ass in a very short time, a random orbit buffer is much more forgiving of the users experience and can take a while but can produce good results, once you get it cleared of oxidation and polished keep it waxed or it will turn back into oxidized crap quickly

This guy doesn't need clay, he needs serious cut and polish.

Clay is mostly for maintinence of previously polished paint, it will just get all gummed up from working on oxidized paint.

Theres no point if you're stripping a layer off of it anyways.

[Herb]

I am guessing he lives somewhere in TX, seeing that the car, I think was, being sold in San Antonio/Austin/Dallas/Houston (I forget exactly which city). I had considered that car about 6-8 months ago, but passed due to the trans program error and it being a 540 to boot, Als. vs. Nik. motor. I dont't think the PO knew at the time when I asked, and he wanted $1500-2000 at the time too. Congadualtions and Good luck.
Herbert

[rcbrown23]

Profile is now a bit more informing ;)

No, this is not the car you're thinking of, Herb. It belonged to a friend of mine's mother. Well, she let her son take it out one night, and he ran it through a ditch ripping off the front bumper. She already bought a new roadster, so this was just sitting in their driveway for a year or so. I saw it back there one day, said I'd give her $500 for it, and here we are.


Here's what I'm thinking. I ordered the "einszett" yesterday, and it should be here in a couple days. I'm going to take it over to a friends (who has a large warehouse garage), and start with a good wash.

Then the einszett on a porter cable. Then the clay bar. Then the einszett polish. Then wax.

Sound good? is that the order I should be going, or should I do the einszett polish, then the claybar?

I'll take pictures along the way and keep this thread updated. Could be up to two weeks, though, as I've got a lot of work to do also.

-brown

[markus]

just use the polish. no need for a claybar. you want to remove as much oxidation as possible to get to the paint and thats why we have polish.

[CharlesAFerg]

just use the polish. no need for a claybar. you want to remove as much oxidation as possible to get to the paint and thats why we have polish.

Yeah dude, I don't think he's listening. :p

[bahnstormer]

i have taht stuff
works nice =]

[Ross]

Looks like a partial respray. I just went through trying to restore a bad respray on a red car myself. Here is what I learned.
The PO had tried to use New Finish on it which only made it whiter and showed the application swirls very badly. The paint used to respray this was poor quality and no amount of wet sanding, buffing or polishing was going to bring it back.
Try a small and inconspicuous area first because if yours is as bad as mine was the results of messing with it look worse.
From your photos I can tell you the finish is beyond a simple fix in a bottle or clay bar treatmant. That's not what a clay bar is for anyway.
Your only hope on a finish that oxidized is to abrade the dead paint off. A wash with lacquer thinner might get some off. Mine was dead to the core, the original finish beneath it was better. Good luck.

[rcbrown23]

Thanks guys. Well... I'll give it a go near the end of the week, and post results.

I guess thats all I can do for now. If the einszett works as advertised, it should clean up nicely. If not, so be it... I'll figure something else out.