hire a reputable pro. the end.

 

Wet sanding an entire car? Hell no. Not as a weekend project, though. Check out this video of the guy removing a stain from bird crap from an E39 M5

 

Wet sanding an entire car? Hell no. Not as a weekend project, though.

Heh, I needed a weekend to do just the front hood and rear trunk lid; BMW factory paint finish is not exactly "soft" to work with. It took me 4 or 5 passes with Meguiar's Ultimate Compound just to get rid of most - not all - of the scratches. The wings, roof and doors await the next extended holiday...

 

You want someone experienced to this because it is very easy to burn through the clear coat with sandpaper or the buffer, and if this happens the panel needs to be repainted.

 

Oh absolutely, I plan on hiring someone with exp to do this for me.

Wet sanding an entire car? Hell no. Not as a weekend project, though. Check out this video of the guy removing a stain from bird crap from an E39 M5

Yes the whole car would be need to be done.

hire a reputable pro. the end.

agreed but what should the price be on this project?

Heh, I needed a weekend to do just the front hood and rear trunk lid; BMW factory paint finish is not exactly "soft" to work with. It took me 4 or 5 passes with Meguiar's Ultimate Compound just to get rid of most - not all - of the scratches. The wings, roof and doors await the next extended holiday...

Yeah I dont have the time, experience nor patience to do the whole car.

 

I paid a guy $300 to do the whole car. He is the pro at a body shop. Took two days to do properly. It was a huge difference. The car looks like it was just repainted. As for the chipping bumper you will need a re-spray. That probably can't be fixed with wet sand. See my thread on the 2000 M5 Restoration for the before and after pics. Amazing!

 

Thanks for the info buddy! I will look for the thread now.

 

$300 to wet sand an entire car seems really low. I have seen paint correction on cars (no wet sanding), really bad ones, run over $1000 to $2000 and up so why is wet sanding so much lower in cost?

OP - Are you sure it cant be handled with paint correction vice wet sanding? In any event I wouldnt budget any less than $1000 and ensure its done properly with removing trim, tape other areas etc. and thats noted in your scope of work when your getting bids. As a note if your bumper is flaking/peeling nothing but a repaint will fix/improve that. Post before and after pics in this thread.

 

$300 to wet sand an entire car seems really low. I have seen paint correction on cars (no wet sanding), really bad ones, run over $1000 to $2000 and up so why is wet sanding so much lower in cost?.

Agree. Couldnt have been a wet sand.

 

Area of the country makes a big difference in price. Get a few quotes and, even more importantly, some recommendations for a good pro. Maybe check Autopia.com for reccos for someone good in your area.

 

Wet Sanding ($10,000) :

 

Did you witness the wetsand?

I've published a major detail, with removal of trim and blue painters tape isolating parts not to be polished... all to be able to polish the paint. Essentially dialing up compound to remove haze and scratch, then polish out to optically perfect. yes, it looked like it was prepped for painting

Unless you saw the car with WET SANDPAPER being applied to the clearcoat, I am not buying a complete wetsand. There is rarely a need to wetsand, it doesnt do any better than other polish techniques, and is really only needed for specific defects.

Just stained, oxidized, sun aged paint does not need wetsanding.

Im not taking anything away from your car, but to tell people wetsanding a whole car is $300 as a market price is a major disservice to everyone.

IMO

A

 

Did you witness the wetsand?
D d
I've published a major detail, with removal of trim and blue painters tape isolating parts not to be polished... all to be able to polish the paint. Essentially dialing up compound to remove haze and scratch, then polish out to optically perfect. yes, it looked like it was prepped for painting

Unless you saw the car with WET SANDPAPER being applied to the clearcoat, I am not buying a complete wetsand. There is rarely a need to wetsand, it doesnt do any better than other polish techniques, and is really only needed for specific defects.

Just stained, oxidized, sun aged paint does not need wetsanding.

Im not taking anything away from your car, but to tell people wetsanding a whole car is $300 as a market price is a major disservice to everyone.

IMO

A

Man, I just don't know what to tell you buddy. So we agree to disagree. It is what it is. Yes, I did watch him rub the problem areas with 2000grit. Those areas were mainly the top surfaces that had dirt, scum, sun and water sitting on them for over two years. I actually demanded it after the first guy tried hitting it with compound for a few days and the haze from the heavy oxidation kept coming back. Two good detailers I know told me the paint was not salvageable bases on the results I expected. I have done a black car myself several years ago with 2000grit, porter cable, assorted pads, compound, and wax. Took about 14 hrs. Slow and steady does it. Do you work for the National Wetsanders Union or what? Give me a break. I don't think I have said anything misleading. I even said I might pay $900 if I had a guarantee against over sanding. Anything over that, suck it up and get it repainted. The OP already has to have a bumper or two redone. If it's going to be a thousand or more additional for wet sanding, just work a deal to repainted the whole car. The results will be worth the extra expense. :cheers:

 

So I made a few phone calls to some old friends that work for dealerships, here's what I got quoted:

Friend at Lexus said his body guy will wet sand and buff the whole car for $375.00
Friend of a friend that works for a body shop said he'll do it for $400.00
My buddy who owns a performance shop in Miami said his paint guy will do it for $275.00 and a case of beer.

Now I also was thinking instead of wet sanding I heard clay bar detailing is another good choice and my brothers employee said he could do it for me for $50.00

so I think I'm gonna go that route for now and see how it comes out.

I'll snap some pics of the car later today.

 

So I made a few phone calls to some old friends that work for dealerships, here's what I got quoted:

Friend at Lexus said his body guy will wet sand and buff the whole car for $375.00
Friend of a friend that works for a body shop said he'll do it for $400.00
My buddy who owns a performance shop in Miami said his paint guy will do it for $275.00 and a case of beer.

Now I also was thinking instead of wet sanding I heard clay bar detailing is another good choice and my brothers employee said he could do it for me for $50.00

so I think I'm gonna go that route for now and see how it comes out.

I'll snap some pics of the car later today.

That wont solve your scratches or other condition issues. Thats just to remove impurities in the clearcoat it wont remove scratches or swirls.

 

I feel like in that video they actually sanded the car lightly, then shot the video of it's Before condition, then completed the wet-sanding and polish. It was just too consistently and evenly swirled over the entire paintwork - without major defects in the paint itself - to have been that condition without deliberation.

Wet sanding, to my knowledge, is only appropriate to remove orange peel from excessive clear coat or to remove burns in the clearcoat. It is a specific technique to rectify gross un-evenness in clearcoat. It will not address actual paint damage, peeling clearcoat, and many other flaws.

Almost any paint job where the paint is in decent condition and clearcoat exists on top of it can be made to look nearly showroom new with about 8 hours or less of work. (there is a difference between "showroom new" and "concours ready").

A perfectionist will remove trim, tape off edges/plastics, etc.

However, a really excellent detail can be had by simply going through 2-3 stages of polishing with appropriate technique, pads, and products - avoiding edges and trim without taping them off/removing them - and then appropriate sealant/wax application.

I can do a wash, clay, 2-stage polish (medium and fine), and sealant in about 4 hours and I'm no where as fast as a pro.

Joe

P.s. I too have found BMW's clearcoat to be admirably tough. On Carbon Black, my 2-stage polish in 2012 removed probably 60-70% of the swirls/clearcoat marks in my paint. A recent professional detail removed about half of the remaining marks (it was a $150 exterior-only detail by a pro shop). So depending upon condition of paint, you might need an aggressive compounding or you may need to do 1-2 more passes.

 

Wet sanding is not that hard, but it is a skill and, like so many other things, needs to be done correctly. The purpose of wet sanding is to remove orange peel, not to "correct" swirls.

 

BMW M5 E39

If your guy can do this over the whole car and bring it back to something very nice....then he is doing you a very good price at $250

 

Yeah full car for $275.00, I think he told me he needs the car for 5-7 hours? sound about right?

 

I agree, a full paint correction can't be done in 5-7 hours on our cars. The clear coat is pretty tough and no matter how it is attacked: sanding, compounding, polishing... the hardness means you can't change the consistency of the finish quickly. Obviously the more one goes down in grit (ie down to 1500 or 2000 grit for sanding) the longer it will take to bring it up to proper polish. Basically any 1 panel on our cars takes 1 hour or close to it. Also, the quick jobs may not be ending at the finest or appropriate level of polish. I personally like Menzerna and use their PG1000 followed by PF2500 followed by PO85RD for swirls and light correction without the need for sanding. It took me at least 30 hours the first time I did my car. I'm now doing a second, lighter correction a few years later with maybe only 10 hours in. The detailers forum on our board is a good one to check out. These times are verified by the experts who post their corrections and products used on numerous cars. Lastly, as others have said there is no need to wet sand for swirls. The London car looks like overkill unless there are issues not shown and this just leaves the paint thinner with less ability to recorrect in the future.

 

I've done one complete car in my life and a few individuAl parts. Ideally, you start with the mildest grit that will still flatten the orange peel and then work finer. Most people stop at 2000 grit, but a few fo to 3000. Then you attack with multiple polishes getter ever finer. Takes me quite a while and my arms want to fall off afterwards. Everything others have said about hard clearcoat being tougher to buff is true...and that translates to time.

 

Very informative thread on BMW paint, and the options to care. I'll have a couple small areas to address on my recent buy. At the end of the day, time=money, and it seems this is clearly an area that you might get what you pay for. On my detailing using a combo of manual and buffer, minimal fine cut required, it's a long afternoon when the third pass over the is wax. I'll bet there are many others in here with that OCD gene when it comes to good lookin cars!