Brought my chalky/faded/hazy paint back to life!

[ringmeister81]

Long story short, the PO had the car detailed and partially resprayed before I bought it. However, at some point after doing that, and before he sold it, the hood was replaced with another.

I've owned the car for a year, and the hood was a real eyesore... Looked faded and hazy, almost pinkish. I lived with it for a while, but it was getting worse and worse. I had finally had enough.

Yesterday, I took some 3m rubbing compound to it. The results were very satisfactory! Not perfect by any means, but it brought the color and shine right back. Sealed it with a layer of nano wax. Here are the results...

Before


1/3 of the way


2/3 done


Finished!

[Mr. Tasty]

the beauty of a single stage paint.

[jalopi]

Factory e30 paint is single stage?

Also, looks great... 3M buffing compound is some pretty amazing shit, right?

[ringmeister81]

I was and am still amazed... It's crazy that it came out so smooth and glossy. And I had to do it by hand because I don't have an orbital. Just a FYI, I only used the 3m rubbing compound and nano wax. I have some polishing compound as well, and I intended to put that on second, but it looked so good that I just threw the wax on and called it a day. From start to finish it took a little over an hour. Very pleased.

[jalopi]

So I don't remember exactly which one is which, but at my old job we had two different 3M compounds we used for various jobs. One was tan and more abrasive, the other was like, milky white. The detailers used that stuff on the cars and goddamn did they come out looking great, pretty much like your paint.

I think they only used the white stuff on paint that wasn't too fucked up though since the tan stuff was apparently pretty strong.

[hendrixvodu]

Factory e30 paint is single stage?

Also, looks great... 3M buffing compound is some pretty amazing shit, right?

Non metallic colors are single stage from what I've seen

[Mr. Tasty]

Factory e30 paint is single stage?

Also, looks great... 3M buffing compound is some pretty amazing shit, right?

yes, mostly

[AndrewBird]

All early models except metallics are single stage, all late models are two stage if I'm not mistaken.

[ringmeister81]

I used the tan stuff Jalopi... But I went very easy with it. Made two light passes over the hood. After it hazed up, I used a clean, dry terry cloth to bring out the shine. That required a little more muscle. But I was being careful not to gouge anything and ruin it.

[jalopi]

If you get the chance, pick up some of the white stuff. It's magic

[PutterMcGavin]

Looks great!

Yep it is amazing what you can do. I recently clayed and then took a DA to my alpine with Wolfgang's Uber compound, followed by Duragloss 501, Duragloss 105 and Collinite 845 and it looks incredible!



Did this a while back too. Zinno was much more rewarding than the Alpine. The difference was crazy...

[Mr. Tasty]

single stage zinno provides the best "before-after" feedback. I crapped myself when I did mine.

[nick_318is]

Gotta do this, particularly on red cars, did it to my brilliantrot last year.

Before:


After:

[StereoInstaller1]

[ringmeister81]

Wow! Those all turned out great! That last one, holy crap stereoinstaller! Mine has been a couple weeks now and seems to he holding up nicely. Still really happy about doing this. Next time I'm trying the clay bar and then an orbital buffer.