Brilliantrot oxidized paint, wet sand or?

[Stabmasterflex]

I claybarred the car on the weekend. Nice and smooth now but the paint sucks. I have some flakey clear coat on the front fenders and hood. Im NOT repainting this anytime soon so whats my best option? I did a power polish on the trunk lid after the clay. It looked ok but still meh. Ive been thinking a1500 grit wet sand test on my hood (which needs serious dent repair, but fixable) and see how it looks. What are the majority doing with this issue? Just a strong cut and polish/wax?

[Vivek]

Brillantrot isn't clear coated.

But if you have like zinno that is cleared, I'd sand off all the clear (wet sand 1000-1500 grit) on the given panel and then either polish the color coat until it's acceptable to rattle can some new clear on.

[TimKninja]

Cars that have been subject to shitty resprays might have clear on them .

How heavy is the oxidation ?

[Bimmerguy91]

Post pics of the problems with the paint and we may be able to further assist you

[agent]

Cars that have been subject to shitty resprays might have clear on them .

The way this reads, it sounds like you're inferring that any car with clear on it has a shitty respray. Surely that's not what you mean...?

[jrobie79]

Clear on my brillantrot...flaking like a bastard too

[Kvasi]

[peytonracer4]

Clear on my brillantrot...flaking like a bastard too

see this is strange. some people say that brilliantrot doesn't have clear. however the vert i recently got definitely has clear peeling off in one place.
the car has no signs of respray.

[JRYE30]

My Brilliantrot was almost matte pink (heavily oxidized) and just yesterday I finished a cut/polish/wax and it literally looks new!

Just a wool pad with cutting compound
Polishing pad with polishing compound
and some wax

[jeffnhiscars]

To the best of my knowledge my 84 318i in alpinweiss (146) was a single stage paint, yet despite zero evidence of any body or paint work, it has clear on it. I recently installed tweeters so took the PS door card off and low&behold, that door used to be silver.

Only took me 13 years to figure that out :-)

[MattBimmer]

^Boooo. Silver E30s look sick.
OP. Do a couple of stages of rubbing compounds and polishes. Then hard shell wax it. Just some good elbow grease can remove serious oxidation.

But if you want try the rattle can clear. Mine is oxidized and stays shiny for maybe 2 weeks at a time in areas. The roof gets dull fairly quick.

[stamar]

the only 2 stage e30 paints were mettalic colors. silver and bronzit. and a few others. diamond schwartz is probably the most common, with delphin.

many resprays are 2 stage.

so brilliantrot and zinnoberrot, all 1 stage.

Ive got them both on my car zinno 1 stage and zinno respray that loooks like shit. heres whats crazy one of my doors is single stage one is base clear.

the og orignal zinno like is on my hood and fenders is a straight white primer with a thin coat of red. It is extremely fragile and scratchable, thats why i have so many examples of its primer and layers.

Whereas the respray is rolling on black on red on a terrible clear that turns it all orange. overall extremely durable in its ugliness.

[Mr. Tasty]

Yea, I burned though my single stage zinno on my trunk corner while machine polishing. I can see specks of primer showing through.

[stamar]

i can scrape the 1 stage off my hood with steel wool could write my name with a key its its so soft likee talc.

whereas it wont even dent just the messed up pealing clear on the drivers side rear quarter panel

and tthe lower stage under is dull.

I am eventually going to try to reclear that quarter panel when i can get the clear off.

[Nick's e30]

zinnoberrot LOVES to oxidize..or show age. Mine I spent over 4 hrs cut/buff/wax and it was shiny and my car looked amazing. Now, 4 days later, the paint is starting to show its age again.

Its tough to keep single stage paint looking good for a long time.