Polishing advice for newby with small imperfections in the paint

[emanuel]

Hi guys, over an year ago I bought an 2001 BMW e46 which I love since it's my first car. The previous owner took more or less good care of it. When I bought it the paint was looking perfect, but after 4-5 more aggressive washes (active foam+pressure) I discovered that one of my doors has been keyed (took me a lot to find out, initially thought I hit something). The prev-owner tried to touch up the paint. I still have no idea how he polished it or with what but I swear to God I didn't see that touched up scratch across my door (this is not the main topic, but if someone has an idea how to make it "invisible again" please advise).
I recently started waxing my car, and boy do I love how it looks. I started with the cheap stuff, then I started reading and discovered the better options, then I started hating the swirl marks and imperfections (thanks a lot for that). In Europe we don't do so much detailing. Back home we have touch-less washing where they employ aggressive active foam and high pressure to perfectly clean the car without touching it until it is dried. I moved currently to Denmark.
Anyhow, now I can only find coin operated washing places (I will not be caught dead into a automatic brush washer), and I was my car there. I try to not use the foam brush but even with my own sponge I get swirl marks. I also found some more deeper scratches (I can feel them with my fingernail) probably where there when I bought the car. I have some medium-deep swirls from a CB antenna on the rooftop. this is driving me insane. Considering that a 1 time 3 stage polish (which I'm 100% sure it is competently done) costs here more than twice what I would pay for a G220v2, I am thinking of buying one and polishing my car twice a year.
My biggest problem is that I have some small scratches/bents/stop punctures which have allowed rust to develop. Its hard to explain it, especially when English is my second language. I want to know if it would be safe to polish over it.
I will to polish my entire car. the deeper scratches with UC and then go to SWIRLSX and to a nice lovely wax, but I'm scared that I might damage more the paint where there small rust has formed.
Also, if anybody has any idea what the previous owner has used on the car I would be very happy to hear. I was thinking something like SONAX Polish & Wax COLOR Nano Pro :: Products - SONAX - cleaning and polishing like a professional (hope nobody thinks of this as a commercial). I just need something, and currently prefer meguiars as it appears to be very widely known and respected, easy to source in Denmark and I can find all the info in English. Sonax is mainly german and I can barely find good info or recommendations.
Anyhow, I hope someone can really give me some ideas. I have attached the pictures of the areas and marked with red the imperfections. The winter is coming and I already planned to clay the car (I have some rough regions on one panel where I think the was wasn't properly taken out) and they use a sealant and some wax for the winter as we use a lot of salt in the winter.

[emanuel]

no answer?

[wrb_subie]

Friendly tip..people like reading paragraphs over walls of text. I know this doesn't help with your question, but break it down and more people with read it.

Believe me, my writing in definitely not scholarly, but attracts readers.

[jamesboyy]

Welcome to autogeek....sorry that no one answered your questions, your scratch across door may have been invisible cause the previous owner used some of wax/lsp that filled and or blended it with the rest, as for washing look into waterless or
riseless washing, the deep scratches can be filled in with touch up paint or leveled down almost invisible during polishing, as for the rust areas you need to address it pretty soon, at least with primer, though you could sand, fill with body filler then paint those indent areas too, though in opinion I rather fix rust issues before doing any correction as for product selection try meguiars
m105 and m205/or meguiars ulitmate compound and polish though if you ever get the chance to grab some try menzerna fg400 and sf4000/4500....good luck happy detailing

[chet31]

I didn't read your entire post, only the title. I have a 2005 E46. Meguiar's M205 works fabulously on E46 clear coat if you're talking about minor swirls.

[emanuel]

Dear James,

I will look into that, but for the moment, the coin operated washing place is ok for me, and cheaper (sales tax and sellers markup are making even the cheapest thing very expensive). I bring my own bucket and sponge.

The key scratch was already touched up by the prev owner, and it wasn't the best work. I will have to find the time to see what I can do afterwards, but I think I might repaint that entire door.

While the rust parts. It's almost impossible to fix them all. I think I have around 10-15 places like the ones in pictures 2-3 all over the car and fixing them either will cost me a lot of time or a lot of money. They seem to be coming from small stone pits. or small salt pits.
I just want to polish the car before winter comes as I would like to have it clayed and some minor swirls/scratches fixed in order to apply a good winter sealant, as I don't think I will wash it too often over that period.
I need to know if this can be polished over, or what's the worst that can happen if I polish over by mistake.
Paying 300-400 euros for a "detailer" to give it one pass with an all in one is stupid. A good detailing (cutting compound+polish+waxing) would cost me in the range of 600+ euros. for that money I can buy everything I might even need to take care of my car at least for the next year.

I will try to take some pictures of the places next to some reference object so people can get an idea of how big they are.

[jamesboyy]

I understand when money is tight but you don't really have to compound, and or polish the vehicle out just wash, clay, and apply your LSP(wax or sealant) as that will fill in most imperfections though if you wanna try your hand at polishing I would tape off those area's hand polish around them then machine polish the rest of the unaffected areas of the vehicle

[emanuel]

Thanks for the advice. I was only asking as I might miss some of them.
I want to polish it all since I have some bad swirls done by my mistake, and my OCD is killing me. I really need to do that before winter as I really want to keep the paint as good as possible since I love the color.

[Don M]

Depending on what products you already have and how soon winter is going to hit you over there, you may want to consider a two-step (cleaner wax + sealant) just to keep your car protected for the winter and do a complete detail in the summer when you can get all the products you want and have time to use them.

By the way for being your second language, your English is fine, just break up your postings into smaller paragraphs like wrb subie said to make reading easier