Should I wet sand this?

[JustinL]

Hey all. I have a 1988 BMW 635CSi, original single stage red paint.

The hood shows a lot of imperfections when close, and I wanted to know if wet sanding may take care of some of the scratches on it. Or if I would need to do use touch up paint and then wet sand. Or, just leave it alone completely...



Also, I uploaded a pic of what *looks* to be cracking paint...and this is ALL over the hood...it seems to have gotten worse over the years. So Im afraid the paint may be getting very thin in certain spots.



Anyways...on to the pictures.



1st up

The HOOD scratches (main ones im most concerned with):

Here is shot of what I believe to be the "cracking" in the paint:

And, lastly, this is a scratch on the decklid I want to remove:

Please advise on whether I should attempt sanding out any of those scratches. I don't want to make things worse, but I do have all the necessary supplies needed.

 

[Accumulator]

I would *NOT* wetsand it. The cracking probably extends down throughout the paint and even if it appears to be gone, could just come back later (meaning all you did was thin the paint for no good, permanent/long-term, reason). I have a few spots where the ss is cracked on the ('85) XJS and I just live with them. After a car gets to a certain age such flaws are "patina" that confirms the originality, some of us originality-freaks even consider them kinda cool for that reason. Better imperfect original paint than a need for a repaint (as I always say ). Some *very* cool older cars have far worse checking/crazing than that and even show judges consider it OK.



I'd worry more about paint thickness (i.e., don't over-abrade it) than about the marring/other flaws. Hey, you have original 1980s ss red that's not oxidized or polished away down to primer! That's quite something :xyxthumbs

 

[danforz]

Regarding the OP's concern... can a filler be used to fill in cracking?

 

[Bigpoppa3346]

Regarding the OP's concern... can a filler be used to fill in cracking?

Not in my experience.



And yeah, don't try to sand it. The cracking is paint failure and too much abrasion could make the problem worse and give you lots of trouble down the road.

 

[imported_GregCavi]

Regarding the OP's concern... can a filler be used to fill in cracking?

Nope. As stated above, don't sand this. My dad had this on his ford f150 after it was 4 years old... which is inexcusable. Sanding this will not do anything but thin the paint. The only way to fix this is repaint.



Greg

 

[JustinL]

Thank you for the responses.



But what about the picture that shows one of the scratches on the decklid? Would that be a possible sanding option? Because no where else on the car has any paint cracking except the hood....

 

[Accumulator]

.. what about the picture that shows one of the scratches on the decklid? Would that be a possible sanding option? Because no where else on the car has any paint cracking except the hood....

I wouldn't wetsand it because of the long-term consequences of taking off that much paint. It's pretty amazing that the paint is in such nice shape (even with the cracking on the hood), such nice survivors are rare. Horizontal surfaces take a beating from sunlight and thus require more than their fair share of polishing. Thinning the paint by wetsanding it would just take off too much *for my taste* and would eventually come back to bite somebody, even if it's years later. I'd hate to have to reshoot the trunklid because I took out a scratch and the area that got wetsanded would fail long before the unmolested paint on the rest of the panel.



Much as I appreciate marring-free finishes, IMO it's a case of "hey, a twenty year-old car is gonna have some scratches". I have stuff I thought about getting aggressive with on the Jag, and years later I'm sure glad I decided to live with it as I like having so much original paint. Had I taken out a few scratches (from the '80s) that *are* pretty bad, by now I woulda had to have at least two more panels reshot, probably three. And then it wouldn't be very original any more.



I'd use a mild compound/medium polish to round the edges of the scratches a bit more and then live with them. As I said, to me it's "patina", wear from years of honest use, like the blue getting worn off a hunting rifle.



And I'd use a glaze/wax approach on that paint if it were mine. Some ss paint realy soaks up glazes like the Meguiar's "pure polishes".

 

[JustinL]

Oh yeah, the paint definitely soaks up glazes without a doubt. I guess you are right. I should just let the imperfections be.

 

[Accumulator]

Oh yeah, the paint definitely soaks up glazes without a doubt....

Some single stages do that more than others do, and if it *does* soak it up I'd sure do that. This can be one case where the old "feed the paint" stuff isn't really complete BS after all.