Attempting to restore paint...

[Strelok]

So my recently bought E30 has an absolutely god awful paint job. I'm 99% sure it was rollon, most likely using some shitty household paint. It's worst on the hood, where you can see roller marks and there's almost no shine at all. The sides look a little better, but they have lots of run marks and still very little sheen.

Now prior to this wonderful DIY job my car was Cirrusblau Metallic. It's very easy to see this as the black paint comes off like nothing. Hell I put some very weak masking tape around my lights when I smoked them and when I pulled it off it pulled paint off with it... :crazy: Now my question - I know I could very easily get this black shit off with a sander. But would I be able to salvage the blue underneath it? Judging from pictures I saw of the car in an earlier state it was faded and oxidized, nothing a good wet sand/buff couldn't fix.

Thanks!

[xphiledan]

be very careful with the sander. if you use the wrong sander / pad, you can easily burn straight through the paint. if you have a dual action like the Porter Cable 7424 XP, you will be safe. there are a variety of foam pads that have varying cutting / polishing abilities.

[KillaCams]

I thought i was the only one with this problem lol recently bought lachssilber car that was painted over with home depot paint. I'll be attempting to get it off with the the same methods sometime within the next 2 weeks. I'll throw up some pics when i get a chance, sorry to thread jack but we can probably help each other with some tips lol

[Strelok]

^ Yeah, definitely. I would like to see how yours comes out first because if I totally ruin mine I can't afford a respray! haha

And the only "sander" I have is a cheap as hell orbital buffer from Advance Auto Parts... Should I invest in something more?

[xphiledan]

the orbital buffer should be ok, the only problem is finding/getting polishing pads to fit it if it isn't a standard size

http://www.meguiars.com/faq/index.cfm?faqCat=Working%20with%20a%20machine%20versus%20working%20with%20your%20hands&faqQuestionID=63&section=_63

[KillaCams]

I have a random orbit Porter cable sander right now that im going to try. I can't afford a respray either lol I was lucky enough that it's only the hood, roof and trunk that is painted. A couple of options i have in mind:
1. Replace with fair condition body panels (same color of course) i don't really care if the panel vins match, it's a $500 beater
2. Paint the upper portion of the car gloss black
3. Paint the entire car matte black

It's a beater so im trying to go the cheapest route that will look the best, my ideal solution is to get the house paint off and just have the existing paint polished, won't be great but it will be better than it is now. Here's some pics u can see what im messing with:







Sometime in the next few weeks i'll start messing with the paint. For now i gotta do some maintenance first, then worry about the cosmetics later.

[KillaCams]

This is similar to the random orbit sander i have, will this be able to work?

http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1310886&CAWELAID=166610886

[Strelok]

Never thought I'd say this but your paint is worse than mine! haha. Don't see why that sander wouldn't work, just do like everyone said and be careful not to rip through the original paint.

And yeah mine is my one and only DD, so I would like for it to look nice lol

[KillaCams]

It looks like ass, but i can scratch it off with my fingernail. Thank god the previous owner wasn't smart enough to sand the car before applying house paint! Post up some pics of yours, im curious how it looks

[xphiledan]

another option

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=4064843

[sixsixii]

another option
http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=4064843

don't do that. girls won't get into your car

[xphiledan]

i don't think many girls are impressed w/ the e30 to begin with...

[KillaCams]

I'm ready to order some pads, need some help! I'm thinking 2 yellow pads to remove the paint, followed by 1 orange and 1 white, then finish it with 1 black pad. Any recommendations for compound?

Step 1 - paint removal - should i be using compound with the yellow pads?
Step 2 - orange pad - what kind of compound?
Step 3 - white pad - what kind of compound?
Step 4 - black pad - should i be using wax for this step?

If i can remove the house paint, there's a guy near me that will compound the entire car for like $60 so that's another option

[iXBeater]

You could use the GlossHaus Foundation I compound with the yellow pad, but buy with a Porter Cable you're really going to have to beat the crap out of it even with a yellow pad and aggressive compound - the nature of a Porter Cable is gentle and gradual. You might consider getting wetsanding discs for the PC and trying that...

Scary area...

[KillaCams]

Alright i ordered some stuff today,
2 bottles of GlossHaus Foundation I compound
2 yellow pads, 2 orange pads and 2 white pads

When i get everything in a few days i'll take a crack at it and see what kind of results i get. If i find the machine i have isn't working too well my neighbor has a polisher i can borrow, but it's not random orbit so it scares me a bit.