Advice??!!

[DMeNS]

Hey all,My car is sapphire black. There were some minor scratches last time and I sent it to paint shop to respray the scratched mark. But the colours looks a bit blury and u can see the difference under the sunlight. And also, there are a lot of circle fine scratches from the cleaning of my maid. Just wondering if all this can be polished and gone forever or I do need a new paint job? Especially the blury part, watermark as u called it?? Thanx!!

 

[SP|D3RMaN]

The blurness you see is not watermark.
My friends Myvi which has a resprayed bonnet has the same problem.
I've tried compounding and polishing and even glazing but the shine doesn't come out. Not too sure whats the cause of it but i believe that the clear coat is not thick enough.

The scratches your talking about, I believe it's actually what alot of people refer to as swirls. With compounding/polishing, those are easily remove by removing a super fine thin layer of clear coat and even out the layer to reveal a glossier surface. You do not need to send the car for a respray cos most Chop Ayam spray shop would polish your paint and you'll end up with the same problem again.

Cheers

 

[DMeNS]

thanx for ur reply spiderman. Im not so worry about the swirls but the blury part. What can i do with it to make it looks alike the rest of the paint? When i see the blury part i feel sien already, looks ugly to me. How to make this part?

 

[KrisMas]

Those cirlces of fine scratches can be polished and remove. But the 'blurry' part would need some expert's evaluation. Know any friends who work in paintshop? Or you can send it to one of the renowned professional detailers (Autodetailer, Pro Detailer, etc.) for a quick consultation. They are quite a helpful lot.

 

[plutoII]

Hey all,
My car is sapphire black. There were some minor scratches last time and I sent it to paint shop to respray the scratched mark. But the colours looks a bit blury and u can see the difference under the sunlight. And also, there are a lot of circle fine scratches from the cleaning of my maid. Just wondering if all this can be polished and gone forever or I do need a new paint job? Especially the blury part, watermark as u called it?? Thanx!!

Hi, kindly allow this newbie here to shed some light on this errr..."blurry" subject!!

The blurness on newly re-sprayed panels, bumpers or the entire car is very common. This is a characteristic of a budget re-spray job. The blurness will remain and depending on the actual technical cause, might or might not be remedied.

Possible technical causes:
Spraying on primer and paint, without waiting for filler/putty to dry fully.
After spraying, the filler underneath is still moist, and as the filler drys, it contracts and the entire finish "sink"/"shrink", causing the blurness.
He needs to finish the job quickly and get rid of your car asap. Time is money!

Using a lousy, cheap, locally made thinner.
This is one of the main causes of low-gloss, or blurness.
A good, proper thinner is called reducer, and it's damn expensive!
99% of the time, these chinamen will use local, cheap thinners.
Some dickheads even use re-cycled thinners!

Using a "fast" thinner that dries too fast.
Too fast drying also causes a severe drop in gloss. In our weather, slow or extra slow reducers should be used.

Using locally made, very cheap components to re-spray your panel/car.
Many owners cannot understand why re-sprays need to be so expensive or time consuming. They want the cheapest job and ask for quality which is beyond the scope of this low budget. Therefore, el-cheapo locally made fillers/putty, thinners, basecoats and clearcoats will be used.

Spraying all layers too soon, with insufficient 'flash off" times.
Each layer needs time for solvents to flash off before the next layer can be applied. But because typical Msian laymen cannot wait 2days for a bumper to be resprayed, the poor sprayer has been chasing for time in his whole career, and therefore, has to 'fast-track' the process to satisfy customer's tight leadtime. Insufficient flashing-off times will result in blurness and other problems as well such as hundreds of tiny pinholes on your clearcoat.

If you let me see your car, I can try to help you out by either compounding or sanding + compounding. :top:

 

[KrisMas]

DMeNS, I told you those real pro detailers are a helpful lot. Now that's what I call a response^^^^

 

[DMeNS]

wah, good piece of article! Thanks to PlutoII. Hm, i only know how to drive and brag when my car doesnt look shiny and nice. Now i understand why!!! But sumtimes I just dont wanna spend so much money just to repair some minor scratches. But if i dun respray it, I dun feel good seeing a tiny scratch marks there. Fix also headache, dun fix also headache. I feel like respraying the whole car. Just wondering if anyone of you know roughly Im looking at to repaint the whole car, e60. What i want is good job that looks like brand new car with the original paint. Whats the figure Im looking at? Thanx in advance!

 

[KrisMas]

My philosophy is 'don't fix if it's not broken'.

Before repainting why not send your car to a professional detailer and get a quote and see what they can do. I heard also that a re-spray would depreciate the car's value. Unless you don't like the colour of your paint, why not give it a try.

 

[plutoII]

wah, good piece of article! Thanks to PlutoII. Hm, i only know how to drive and brag when my car doesnt look shiny and nice. Now i understand why!!! But sumtimes I just dont wanna spend so much money just to repair some minor scratches. But if i dun respray it, I dun feel good seeing a tiny scratch marks there. Fix also headache, dun fix also headache. I feel like respraying the whole car. Just wondering if anyone of you know roughly Im looking at to repaint the whole car, e60. What i want is good job that looks like brand new car with the original paint. Whats the figure Im looking at? Thanx in advance!

Bro, I understand your feelings and would like to help you.

The condition of one's car is a clear indication of what one is capable of doing, and what one is NOT capable of doing. If your car is always plagued by tiny scratches, door dings, tiny dents, etc etc, that's just too bad because that's how the car is used. The daily driven car can never be a show car. It depends on your usage method. You hv to accept this reality, or else, it'll be very frustrating in the long term.

Meguiars, was one of the very first companies in Msia that propagated the idea of "showcar detailing". The notion of possessing a "showcar" condition vehicle was spread in their literature since a long time ago. This could be applicable to garaged American vehicles in low-dust, cool environments. But in Msia, with our atrocious highway conditions, crazy driving methods, highly dusty cities, and poor quality car washes, this concept is plain silly to me. It'll never happen, unless your car is garaged most of the time.

The classic Msian-style response to this problem is "I'll respray-loh...".
Not so simple, bro.
Depending on how fussy you are, the new paintjob might be, again, full of problems that'll frustrate you.
Even if you re-spray professionally, and continue using your car this way and subjecting it to the same conditions as before, those scratches, dents etc etc will happen all over again....on your new paint. You'll be frustrated again.

My reco to customers is to be realistic and practical.
If your usage style cannot change, then you'll need to accept minor damage/defects as part of life, and make your entire car look good via detailing. Avoid hunting for the slightest defects/damage on your car because it is frustrating and never-ending. Admire your car as a whole...not in parts. Yes, it could have some scratches...but hey, it's a real car in the real world!

Even my own beautiful car has some tiny damage if I hunt hard enough for them. But to me, it's a real car, and I use it daily. It just can't be a showcar.
Each time your car goes into the spray shop, it's likely to leave the shop with overspray problems, scratches, improperly attached trims etc etc.

Hope I've managed to present you a different perspective on this matter, bro.

But I

 

[laserlover]

Question

Your post rocks!

 

[ashman55]

I totally agreed about the poor quality car wash in our country,that's why i never let anyone else wash my car.i do my own washing and detailing.u get the kick to see the product of your own handiwork and at the same time u get some workout too.I can imagine how boring it is to wait for like an hour at the car wash while u can do it at the comfort of your own home while sipping lemonade.My 4 months old E90 now looks as good as the day one i took it from the showroom probably better because i make sure my ride get all the attentions it deserves

 

[chookleng]

bro salute u from tip to toes. u sure must be very free n in damn loving on tis beast with u. my car been with me for 1year+ n up till now, i only laid my had (wash it myself) less then 3times. tat y got lot of scratches. but i had it polish and wax every month, hehe so eventually those scratches faded away n look just as good as showroom car. i just don have times to wash my own car + LAZY after work. where got time to wash personally!!!!!