There are nine million white spots on my hood... that's a fact

P

perr

New member
Hello to all!

This is my first post on this forum, and I'm a fresh auto detailer-enthusiast. Or at least I would like to be in the future. :woot2:



My friends bought me a polisher for my birthday, and as stupid as I am, i had to go get the first carnouba wax there was, and wax my hood. Here's what happened:

- the undamaged parts of the hood look fantastic and they're just unbeleivably smooth on touch.

- a large number of white spots appeared after waxing. I'm guessing the wax filled in the small damages (holes) in the clear coat.



Now my question is, what to do about them?

My idea is to wetsand only the spots with (600? 1000? 1500?) sandpaper, and then go over the whole hood with a fine polish, and then wax again. The pain is otherwise in a decently good condition, that's why i only intend to use a fine polish. The car is a '98 BMW E36 3-series in Avus Blau Metallic.



Again, all I ever did for my car was to wash it, and I'm only starting to learn this art of detailing. So could any of you suggest me what to do, so that it wouldn't cost a fortune, and that I can do myself at home.



Regards,

Peter
 
A few questions...



1. Could you post some pics of the white specs?



2. What polisher did you use?



3. What wax did you use?



That will help us to diagnose what the problem is and give you an answer...



Soon, we'll be saying "Oooohhhh, that explains it!":xyxthumbs
 
Thank you for quick answers.

I find it difficult to take a photo of these spots. I just can't seem to get a good shot inside, nor outside in the sun.

But as I've just put the car out, and we have a nice sunny day, I inspected the spots again, and they are shallow holes, mainly on the clear coat and you can feel them with your nails.



I've gone to the bmw dealership yesterday, and they say they can get me the touch up kit for my colour (paint+clear) by tomorrow.

I'm imagining to repair these spots like this:

- first step - prep

- touchup the clear, and on the really deep spots the blue colour first, using a toothpick or something with an even finer edge

- after a few hours, remove the residue and flatten the surface with a fresh razorblade

- maybe some fine wetsanding



As you can see, I only have no idea on the first step. How do I prepare these spots so that the new colour will stick nicely and look good or at least okay.
 
As Tom P. stated, I agree that wet-sanding is not a good idea.



You need to start by removing the white wax residue from the pits...



You can do that with an alcohol wipe down, using a soft sponge that will get down into the small holes.



Then you can polish and seal.



The reason wet-sanding won't fix the problem is that the pitted areas are probably too deep for wet- sanding to correct.
 
perr said:
and they are shallow holes, mainly on the clear coat and you can feel them with your nails.
Click to expand...





Pete, I think you need to halt, take a step back and consider what you're about to do. Do you believe you'll have a satisfactory result by "filling in" 9 million craters on your hood with globs of touch up paint :nervous: I believe it will appear substantially worse when you're done. Think about what you are doing.
 
tom p. said:
Pete, I think you need to halt, take a step back and consider what you're about to do. Do you believe you'll have a satisfactory result by "filling in" 9 million craters on your hood with globs of touch up paint :nervous: I believe it will appear substantially worse when you're done. Think about what you are doing.
Click to expand...



Ok there are not really 9M holes, it's just a nice song to adapt for a threat title. :)

But there certaily are more than I can live with, and I have all the time in the world to at least try to correct them. I find Luster's tip about alcohol useful, and I think that's just what I'm about to try.



Thank you again, guys!
 
img0203.jpg




I hope this one will do. Note just the white dots and please say nothing about the swirls... the car has 120000mi behind and I'm not sure how the previous owner took care of it.
 
Hello Peter,



There's a huge amount of knowledge on these forums... HUGE! :) It's worth it to take a few hours and do some reading. Here's a quick summary of what most of us would consider the "standard method" of car care. Products and technique will vary, of course, but for the most part, this is what we do to "correct paint":



1. Wash car thoroughly



2. Clay



3. Use an abrasive polish on either a Dual Action (DA) machine or rotary. (Skip the rotary for now. That's kind of an advanced machine to use).



4. Use another, lighter abrasive polish with a DA



5. Use yet another, lighter abrasive finishing polish with a DA



6. Apply any Pre-LSP Glaze, if any. (LSP = Last Step Process)



7. Apply your favorite LSP.



If this procedure does not fix your paint, it's time to seek out either a professional detailer or an auto body shop.
 
Here's a photo. Please note only the white spots and not the swirls. The car is 11 years old with 120000mi behind, and I'm not sure how previous owners treated it. :)

img0203.jpg
 
From that pic, it looks like the chips aren't all the way threw the clear but I may not be seing it correctly from the photo. I would wipe it down with alchohol as good as you can, maybe even use a soft (old) toothbrush to get it all. Then apply some clearcoat touch up with a toothpick. build up a few layers alowung plenty of dry time, then wet sand the spots only with 2000, use a small rectangular eraser for a sanding block, then start you compounding/polishing process.
 
I did my girlfriends explorer and the hood had the same thing.



After washing/drying, claying, polishing, all the rock chips were greatly magnified. Couldnt really see them from a couple of feet away, but get up close and there were lots of them. I guess that is what happens on a daily driver that hasn't been cared for in 3 years till i came along.



Polishing and bringing out the clarity etc.. in paint looks awesome, but it will also bring out any imperfections along with it.



If I had the know how I would like to fill them all in and let the paint cure for a couple of weeks and wet sand them down and try and hide them as best as possible
 
tom p. said:
Your car has been peppered just like everybody elses' car, it's often referred to as "road rash".



<snippage>



[*]search on Dr. ColorChip fool-proof auto touch up paint kit for chip repair on your car- BMW,Porsche,Ford,Honda,Mercedes,Lexus,Toyota...most color codes
Click to expand...



Anyone with hands-on experience with Dr. Color Chip? Pretty impressive before n afters as well as testimonials and reviews. I've got an upcoming detail on a black Hyundai that's had the front end absolutely peppered. Just wondering how a Dr. Color Chip repair reacts to polishing?



TL
 
I don't like the idea of respraying, but will consider it. But even if I do decide and do it, I'll abuse the hood and experiment on it until respray. :)
 
TLMitchell said:
Anyone with hands-on experience with Dr. Color Chip?
Click to expand...



Somebody here did a comprehensive write-up on this product a couple months back. However, all his fotos have evaporated, his dialogue is still there.



i did view the pictures and the result was far better than I would have ever imagined. In fact, his work and fotos put the pictures at the vendor's website to shame. The subject car was a red BMW Z4, IIRC. It made a vast improvement in the car's appearance.
 
I checked this Dr. Color Chip and it looks interesting. If tom p. says it is ok (and I bleive him because the badge in his avatar is the right one:)), then I'm ready to try, I just can't find something like this here in Europe, and this guys aren't on ebay. :p
 
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