E30 Paintwork Help Major Problem....

[johal87]

Hi guys, as many of you know ive recently brought another E30..

now im trying to get it in to the best possible condition i can while the summers here and the put it away..

the paint work was smooth, but not smooth enough, so i thought a light t-cut would bring that back, plus i can remove any light scratchs while im at it.. so i started doing a panel a day.. now this happend





If you look to the left of the red line.. you will see how the paint works gone really dull and odd.. i dont quite know what ive done and how bad it is.. maybe i've taken the clear coat off? if i rubb hard enough, it becomes smooth and the right color again, but it just doesnt seem right.. any advice would be great

thanks

[josh-hocking]

seems you have rubbed though a thin layer of paint..... keep rubbing and your going to the original???? i dont know - however take to your local bodyshop and see what they say... have you tried buffing??

[johal87]

my dads had a look, and he said it might have been sprayed, and ive gone through, he might be able to get it looking decent with wet dry method, will post back, but omg i hate the way it looks!

[Mark-W]

Did you leave the t-cut on there over night or something? Or was there lots of dust on the paint when you started t-cutting, that will leave billions of fine scratches making it look dull!
I doubt you have rubbed through the paint, that would take some serious elbow grease an lots of rubbing!! Unless it was done with aerosol, but the finish would have looked shite anyhow!!
Bit of flat an polishing'll bring it up

[Chris-W]

Your car has had paint; probably the arch was done, but not the whole quarter.

[harry_p]

deffo looks like you've rubbed through some lacquer overspray., at a guess the arch has some filler in it and a patch repair.

now you've seen it i expect you'll always be able to 'see' it just because you know it's there even if you manage to disguise it well enough that most people would never notice it. i'd take it to a decent dodyshop and see what they suggest, but their answer might not be healthy for your wallet

[bodger]

looks like you've rubbed through the lacquer to the base coat, dont think you should use t-cut on metallic cars for this reason

[B7]

As chris says. thats had a local repair to the arch. Only way to rectify is to re paint the panel.

[harry_p]

t-cut is fine on metallic cars provided there's a decent layer of lacquer on there. it's not that abrasive compared to a lot of other compounds!

[Mark-W]

Ooo, my bad, didnt see that bit, it has had a blow in, looks like one of them 'smart' repairs, you've rubbed the laquer back to the black basecoat!! Definately a bodyshop job, the more you rub the more paints gunna come off, obviously, you'll be back to the primer in no time!!

[johal87]

right, thanks for all the comments people and advise

i was told when i brought the car that there has been no repairs etc... but you live and you learn

i can confirm that, if i rub.. grey/black color is now rubbing onto the cloth..

il take it down to the bodyshop tommorow, i was hoping a mop up would fix it, but i guess not

however, i will probably get it blown in, theres a little dent at the end by the light, so il get that sorted at the same time, il post back with some more details tommorow

[m_jermyn]

Take it from me mate your car has been repaired in some way, What you can see there is the BLEND in the clear. No big problem just polish it out. Us a finer polish and it should vanish. Do not try and polish it away at the edges you will just keep polishing off the clear.

A nice polish should bring it up good.

Mike

[johal87]

hi mate, thats could be a major problem solver if thats the case

what do you mean by "fine polish" any particular makes? types? and should i work from the middle out?

[m_jermyn]

Ok think of polish as in 3 steps.. like in wet and dry or sand paper.. Some polishes are more abrasive then others. Just like sand paper you must go through the grades of polish.. Basically you have a
1; Compound (abrasive) This is used to bring up real dull paintwork that has been poorly looked after.
2; Polish (normal everyday polish) We all know this polish there is many different brands and is available everywhere.
3; Swirl Remover (fine polish) This one is used to polish out the fine swirl marks left in the paintwork from the previous polish. This step should leave the car absolutely perfect no marks at all.
THEN IF WE WANT TO GO FURTHER
4; Glaze (finer then fine polish) this again polishes out the really small light swirls that the previous polish left. I uses it because its like a security blanket and leaves the paint work super smooth making it difficult for dirt and grime to bond to the paintwork.
5; Wax this isnt a polish but more like a protective layer or film over the paintwork. Carubra wax is the best (spelling).

For your case I would start at step 1. It seams you have used a real abrasive cutting compound to polish the car even more abrasive then step one It looks like you have used p1200-p2000 wet and dry on the car.

Now dont go and buy all these polishes as they cost a bomb I would go to a panel shop or call a detailer but you should have normal everyday polish at home like maguires or mothers kitten or something just give it a go, that haze should disappear.

Mike

[d6dph]

A very good mild polish is Meguiars Scratch-x.

It is a diminishing abrasive so unlike T-cut (I would not use that on any car imvho) it breaks down as you work it. Think of it like using multiple grades of polish but in one step.

Don't forget that all polishes need to be worked, Spreading on then wiping off does nothing! Work the polish until it goes clear/mildly cloudy then buff off.

(Mike has given some very sound advice above too)

[josh-hocking]

yeah the polish procedure would be correct if you never went though the lacquer - but due to you saying when you rub you get a grey/black colour that means your taking the paint of and there is no lacquer stopping you....

bodyshop job imo

[m_jermyn]

No the car has been repaired and the CLEAR has been blended in my opinion, very hard to see in a picture but you could take it to a panel beater to confirm this. It is near impossible to polish through the CLEAR. I work on cars all day long and it takes a fair amount of effort so sand through clear with p1500 let alone polish through it.

I think all you have done is polished away the edge of the blend which might mean the original paint was not prepped properly and the new paint hasnt adhered.

Anyway blending is very common as it keeps costs down on repairs, basically its blended and blown out on the edges. Once the CLEAR has dried the edges are polished and they disappear.

Like I said take it to a beater and have them confirm this first. I am only looking at a picture.

And by the way Lacquer is used on wood, sorry dont know why but it annoys me.

Mike

[m_jermyn]

Sorry I must of missed something in the previous post. YOU GET GREY BLACK COLOUR ON THE POLISHING RAG???

If this is the case your fooked..

Metalics have a clear over them to protect the colour, basically the little metalics in the paint are exposed to the elements and oxidis. Thats why we use clear to protect it. Now solid colours (colours that have no metalics or pearls) dont have a clear because they dont need them. Thats why alot of red cars are really faded, no clear.

Now days some of the european cars do have clear on all paints. We call this C,O,B clear over base.

Sorry man I should of read your full post didnt mean to get your hopes up.

Mike

[Pdot]

I would suggest getting the car buffed by a professional it will bring out the good paint underneath, and then just polish it once a month with auto glym polish...any 1 can correct me if im wrong

[harry_p]

pointless imho.

buffing up the paint is only going to remove more of the exposed basecoat, and to take that back to the 'good' paint underneath will also expose whatever nasty it was sprayed on to cover up, so while what paint you have might be shiney, no doubt there'll be some bare filler too!

[Pdot]

what else woud u suggest to do?

[harry_p]

i would suggest taking it to a proffesional who will more than likely have to repaint and lacquer the entire rear 3/4. the only way you will get a good, lasting fix.

[Mark-W]

Another problem is smart repairers use 1k laquer as it cheap, easy and drys much quicker than using 2k stuff, if you try paint over that in solvent base basecoat it will react with the shitty 1k laquer and pickle up, so make sure the bodyshop you take it to uses waterbased basecoats (no solvents to react with the crappy laquer), otherwise its a case of 'washing' off the crap paint with thinners, which is a messy horrible job!!

[johal87]

hello guys!

just had a read through, thanks everyone for trying to help, ive been down the the garage we use for all our repairs, top guys, known them for years, and there jobs are better than new

hes had a good look, and yes it has been blended in, a poor job, well a "nice looking job" but a poor job, this will be done again next week, but at the same time il have the other touch ups done, as theres a slight graze on the rear bumper, and stone chips on the front mtech 2 lip

i really appricate all the feedback, i will post pictures of the car soon once its all done, hope fully within a week or so

again thanks lads!