longtime lurker, first post!

[jrkoupe]

hi all..

60 yo car guy here.....have lurked for yrs, and have learned alot here, big thnkx. Normally Im on a track forum but have always come here to learn


sooooo

My dumb**s lubricated some hinges on a 99 bmw about 8 mos ago, then put car away in garage, never seeing the bad overspray of the product.
It was a teflon? based or silicone based lubricant..I cant recall...whitish in color

I just noticed this past Sat while installing a new batt......siiigh...

car is arctic silver, oe color..bmw


clear coat has cloudy spots in overspray teardrop shapes..like 20.

1)you cannot feel the spots w/ your hand
2) they seem to go away when car is wet.....but then re appear.

3) meguiar 205/orange pad and a PC DA didnt do much at all...3 passes
4) saturating a mf cloth w/ p21s total wash and laying on hood for 2 hrs did almost nothing
5) 5 mins of wet sanding w/ 2000 did very very little...and I was scared..lol


did I really screw up and damage the car?...




what can you all suggest?.........Im so upset at myself for not seeing this 8 mos ago.


best

JR

In my long searching for solutions, Ive read alot about different water spots, and what to do for them...but this isnt water

[Mike Phillips]

hi all..

60 yo car guy here.....have lurked for yrs, and have learned alot here, big thnkx. Normally Im on a track forum but have always come here to learn

H Jr,

Welcome to AGO!

My dumb**s lubricated some hinges on a 99 bmw about 8 mos ago, then put car away in garage, never seeing the bad overspray of the product.

clear coat has cloudy spots in overspray teardrop shapes..like 20.

Ouch! That's has to break you heart...

1)you cannot feel the spots w/ your hand
2) they seem to go away when car is wet.....but then re appear.
3) meguiar 205/orange pad and a PC DA didnt do much at all...3 passes
4) saturating a mf cloth w/ p21s total wash and laying on hood for 2 hrs did almost nothing
5) 5 mins of wet sanding w/ 2000 did very very little...and I was scared..lol

did I really screw up and damage the car?...

what can you all suggest?.........

Well...

Stains are either topical that is on the surface or sub-surface, this means the offending chemicals have penetrated INTO the clear and physically altered the paint itself as well as its apparacne.

You stated you tried these two things and I'm assuming in this order?

3) meguiar 205/orange pad and a PC DA didnt do much at all...3 passes
5) 5 mins of wet sanding w/ 2000 did very very little...and I was scared..lol

3 passes with a fine cut polish on an anemic polisher would not be aggressive enough to abrade the paint enough to remove it. (I'm guessing from your description of the damage and years of experience).

Then you say you sanded with #2000 grit sandpaper but did not say you then tried to remove your sanding marks?

Sanding would leave the paint looking sanded. It's the compounding after sanding that would remove the sanding marks and restore clarity to the clearcoat?

So did you buff after sanding?

[Mike Phillips]

Just going to throw this into this thread...

Don't mean to scare you but sometimes you're better off to learn to live with a defect versus re-paint the car...

Clearcoats are thin by Mike Phillips

Click the link and look at the pictures.

Sanding can be done to a factory finish but here's the thing,

1. Sanding removes paint
2. Compounding removes paint
3. Polishing removes a little paint

If you're not careful, you might see the color of the paint on your buffing pad. When working on a clearcoat paint system, seeing the color of the basecoat is a really bad thing.

[jrkoupe]

Hey Mike!

I feel like I know you after watching so many vids over the yrs.

Oops my bad, that was confusing:

I wet sanded first of course., then used the DA

And just the other day as a final resort , I used P21s Total wash


any thoughts ..any ideas I can try?

and big thnx

[jrkoupe]

wait , did u call my PC DA anemic?..lol

haha, I know its not an industrial pro strength tool....but overall its quite decent for my needs.

and I made a mistake,..... I used 105 then 205 to finish!

[DaveT435]

wait , did u call my PC DA anemic?..lol

haha, I know its not an industrial pro strength tool....but overall its quite decent for my needs.

and I made a mistake,..... I used 105 then 205 to finish!

I've watched Mike use, and heard him praise the PC many times over the years. I think 40-50% of us on here started with a PC, I know I did.

To go back to what Mike said three passes with a fine cut polish on the PC or any other machine for that matter isn't enough to remove 2000 grit sanding marks. It doesn't sound like you're very confident in your wet sanding abilities. You might want to try and get some paint thickness measurements in those ares before proceeding.

If you decide to proceed I would either go over it lightly with 3000 then use a compound and cutting pad followed by polish and a polishing pad. You can go straight to the compound and cutting pad but depending on the product you're using it could take several passes to remove the 2000 grit marks. I'm assuming your BMW paint is on the hard side as most are.

Missed the comment about using 105 first. How many passes on what pad and speed??

[jrkoupe]

didnt mean to confuse any1 here...sorry

After wet sanding I used 105 then 205 w/ my PC DA

I used orange pad w/ 105,..then white pad w/ 205

speeds?...IIRC :4-6

3 -4 passes w/ 105

I had no problem removing 2000 grit marks

its the stains I cant get out..lol

[DaveT435]

didnt mean to confuse any1 here...sorry

After wet sanding I used 105 then 205 w/ my PC DA

I used orange pad w/ 105,..then white pad w/ 205

speeds?...IIRC :4-6

3 -4 passes w/ 105

I had no problem removing 2000 grit marks

its the stains I cant get out..lol

Gotcha...some people who are new to wet sanding don't realize that the sanding marks make the paint hazy. This situation definitely isn't sounding good. If you removed a considerable amount of clear and didn't get much change IMO, for what it's worth, the chemicals penetrated the clear.

[Mike Phillips]

wait , did u call my PC DA anemic?..lol

haha, I know its not an industrial pro strength tool....but overall its quite decent for my needs.

Just in context, don't get me wrong, I've probably buffed out as many and maybe more cars using the PC.

I'm also the first guy to ever make a "complete" how-to video showing from start to finish how to de-swirls a car using the Porter Cable Dual Action Polisher.



Porter Cable actually started the trend to use small wood sanders to polish paint, I share the backstory in my article here,


The Free Floating Spindle Bearing Assembly - The Story Behind The Story...


So please don't take it the wrong way, I'm a huge fan of the PC but now days the Griot's Garage 6" Random Orbital Polisher simply has a lot more usable power and... it's re-design of the PC, like most/all of the other 8mm free spinning orbital polishers on the market "world wide".

and I made a mistake,..... I used 105 then 205 to finish!

If 105 didn't fix the problem and if sanding followed by M105 didn't fix it then it's probably too deep to fix.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. You can try more sanding and more passes but here's another thing I type/say a lot.


"Word cannot express the heart sink feeling that overcomes you when you find out you've burned or buffed through the clear layer of paint"

[jrkoupe]

siiiiiiigh.....

pure laziness got me here..........had the car since new...19 yrs..its mint....235k miles.....sooooo angry at myself.


i really dont know how much clear I removed tho...never measured