how much of this can I and cant I fix?

[bauerbach]

almost 5 years, I tried hard. lost the battle somewhere around 2 or 3 years ago.



its been egged, its been hit, its been dented, its been stoned, its been through a full college life and then some. and here it sits, faded and scratched.



I know I need to go for a full polish, going to get the PC with the various pads and such.



but what are my options for the egging marks and rock chips? should I touch them up with a touch up pen and just polish it with the rest of the car? specially the egg areas, can I just fillin the cracks?



heres pics of the damage

 

[HenrikP]

Nice car! You definately want to start with the mildest solution first and progress from there and see what works. I would pull out the touch up until you are sure it can't be cleaned or polished off because it might look like a chip when it's really a scuff or hardened on residue. Once you know your going to touch it up make sure you condition the metal before priming and so forth. You can never achieve perfect results but you can always make it look better. There is a great post on touch up by David here: http://autopia.org/forum/car-detailing/14072-scratch-chip-repair.html

 

[SVR]

Sonus SFX 1 or other 1200 grit compound would be the heaviest I would go

Front bumper needs a 1500 with a light cut or polishing pad. (may burn through the plastic if you go higher)



Pity about the chips. Looks like alot of them there. may need to call in a professional touch up man.

 

[Accumulator]

bauerbach- Welcome to Autopia!



That would be quite a challenge for *anybody*, even some of the miracle-workers here.



IMO it's time to decide if you're gonna keep the car, and if so, how nice you want it to be.



At least some areas need to be repainted IMO and it might be time to consider that for the whole car. Whenever a repaint might be in the cards, I'd give serious thought to just getting a new vehicle.



Sorry if that sounds really pessimistic, but that's how I see it. You could do a lot with some good touchups and some aggressive compounding (some of it'll need wetsanded too IMO), but how much effort/time do you want to put into this? I'd at least have the front bumper cover professionally repainted and probably the hood too. If you trade it in I bet the dealer will have that done to prep it for resale anyhow.

 

[velobard]

It pains me to see that sort of thoughtless damage to a beautiful car like that. Most folks don't understand just how severe damage is from egging. On impact the shell fragments into little razors that cut right through the paint. There's really no viable option other than a repaint. Some of the other damage might be buffed out, but not the egg damage.

 

[BMW335i]

Looks like a lot of heavy damage there. I wouldn't bother buffing it out if you're looking to a close to new-looking finish. If you are satisified with just removing some of the minor imperfections then by all means go ahead. The rock chips and egging will not come out with buffing.

 

[bauerbach]

thanks for the input.



its about paid off, and is still mechanicly perfect, so of course Im looking foward to no payments.



the bumper needs to be replaced due to an accident; and the hood could stand replacing as well; but not till its paid off.



mostly waiting because when it comes time, I want to repaint it right, unlike the rear bumper that I got done cheap and crappy.



Im going to see what I can do with some new toys, worst case, they will come in handy in the future even if they dont restore it this go around.



I am pretty handy with a detailed airbrush, but Im not about to take that to the egged areas. Ill try to fill them in and sand it down, might not be opticly perfect, but atleast it wont be noticable a few feet away. that really bugs me, just had it parked outside my friends house; pager alarm went off and I ignored it figuring what could happen in a good neighboorhood and it is always going off for no reason. lucky for whoever it was...

 

[Accumulator]

bauerbach- OK, the additional info puts a little different spin on this. I think you can do some good and learn while you're at it. Tip: get some Meguiar's Unigrit sandpaper, it really *is* that much better than regular stuff like 3M.

 

[norcalg]

Darn, I just bought some 3M 2500, couldn't find any 3000(don't know if they even offer it). A couple weekends ago, I had to use some 2000(all I had on hand) on a small area on Infiniti black paint. It did turn out great using the PC with OC on Edge 4" Yellow and OP on 4" Green pads.



Accumulator, what is the main difference between the Unigrit and 3M paper? I've always used 3M but always hear good things about Unigrits. I may need to pick up the 25 pack.

 

[Accumulator]

Accumulator, what is the main difference between the Unigrit and 3M paper? I've always used 3M but always hear good things about Unigrits. I may need to pick up the 25 pack.

Glad to hear your previous efforts worked out so well! I've done OK with even 2K grit scratches (without needing the rotary) but the finer stuff does make things easier (my painter likes to finish up with 4000 grit).



The Unigrit stuff has a more uniform abrasive. It's sorta like the 3M stuff has big/small particles that "average out to 2000 grit" whereas the Unigrit is *all* 2000 grit. That's an oversimplification but not too far off. With 3M paper I'd occasionally get sanding scratches that looked like a piece of grit got under the paper (when I knew that hadn't happened) and then I'd have a fun time trying to level it out; that never happens with the Unigrit.



I had always thought that any differences would be insignificant, that the hype surrounding Unigrit was just BS...I was wrong, and the difference really impressed me. IIRC the Unigrit is actually made by Nikken, so keep that brand name in mind too.

 

[norcalg]

Thanks for the info. Makes sense with the name Unigrit. That's what I was thinking since I always noticed the non-uniformity of the 3M sanding scratches left behind, especially at 2000. I will definitely try some next time around.