New to Me 325 - Paint Issues

[hayes3054]

Hi All,
I just traded a motorcycle of mine for an 87 325 with about 187k miles. Considering I only paid $1000 for the bike I'm pretty psyched. It runs great but has a few things I like to work on. The most pressing right now is the paint finish. It has heavy oxidation all over. There is no rust, but it's about as dull as it gets. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Mike

 

[Big Daddy]

Use a mild rubbing compound or paint restore product. Usually any type of washing and waxing will help.

 

[Doughnut]

A though wash and rubbing cutting compound in by hand, (real arm workout) should get it as good as it can get, without actually respraying it.
Welcome to bmwboard, and lets see some pic's of this faded bimmer!

 

[Kirby]

Welcome!!

I see that your car is red, so you have your work cut out for you. Red paint is known to fade (all cars, not just BMWs). As mentioned you need to buff it out to bring it back to life. You might consider a power buffer to make it go faster and easier. The Porter Cable 7424 has pretty much taken over the market as being the best unit out there.

You want to do a three or four step process, starting with claybar and rubbing compound to get the oxidation removed, then polish and top it off with wax. This is a lot of handwork, a power buffer will make it go a lot faster.

Check out the results on this Miata.

He only used polish after removing the oxidation and it looks great. But it really needed a coat of wax over the polish to seal it up. Polish brings out the shine but has no weathering capabilities.

I use the Meguiar's products and I am very happy with them.

 

[325i_Pilot]

Hold up, before you go burning up your paint, make sure you even still have a clear coat! You will waste your time buffing paint, and also polish it at the lowest effective speed you can if you are going to buff it. Red paint will show a buffing burn, like a flat tire will limit your cars handling[driving2]!! cheer and welcome to forums...

 

[Detrich]

can u post some pix to give us a better idea?

 

[hayes3054]

Here are some pics

Thanks for the replies. It looks pretty bad on further inspection. I don't have a lot of cash to throw at the car right now, though. I'm tempted to go with the $250 Maaco paint job. Any Ideas?

 

[Doughnut]

ugh^^^
Poor old thing, you can still try a polish to see how it comes up, but from that first pic you posted looks as though it will take it back to undercoat!
I didn't know it was that bad - $250 maaco paint job sounds like a good idea.

 

[Kirby]

Yikes!!

That is pretty bad, the section in the first pic is not going to get much better.

The Maaco cheap paint job will make it look good from a distance, up close it will look like a $250 paint job. They do not do a great job of prep work on the low end jobs. So if you have any rust, you either need to fix it yourself or pay them extra.

The Maaco job will at least help protect the clean metal for a few years from rusting...

 

[Detrich]

it doesn't look like u have much clearcoat left...

i say try one of the over-the-counter paint restoration polishes and see what it does. it's probably only $10 or $20. and, at this point u have nothing to lose- since the paint is really f'd up.

if the polish doesn't do anything, then u can decide whether to go with a budget maaco job to hold u over -or- save up and have the paint job done "right." a full-body paint job with some minor body work will run at least $1500 at a good shop.

 

[hayes3054]

Well, I just hit it with some polish and it seemed to clean up pretty nice. Of course it looked great till the polish dried. But even afterwards it showed a bit of improvement. It gave me a little encouragement, so I'm going to give it a thorough washing and try to hit it with some rubbing compound and see what happens. Should I try by hand first? Would wet sanding be advisable. It seems that the white in the picture is just on the surface. The paint itself is quite deep as I've noticed from a few chipped areas. Any feedback is appreciated.

 

[Big Daddy]

I would not sand it, wet ot otherwise. Try some rubbing compound and see if that helps.

 

[Kirby]

I agree with Dan. Wet sanding is a last resort when all other less agressive efforts have failed.

 

[Doughnut]

I'm going to give it a thorough washing and try to hit it with some rubbing compound and see what happens. Should I try by hand first?

Yeah, rub the compound in by hand first, so as you don't damage the paint any further.
Rubbing a whole car back sucks regardless of what other people say, just stick with it and post some after polish pictures!

 

[hayes3054]

Rubbing Compound Worked Wonders!

Wow! I wasn't expecting as much improvement as I got. It looks sooo much better. I had to put the ugly bra back on the front till I can repaint it due to excessive chipping. Thanks for all the help!

Looks like my next project will be the front struts. The top where the shock mounts looks like it's ready to crumble. It still feels nice and tight while driving, but when I had the wheel off it wasn't pretty. Do I need to replace the whole strut, or can I take care of the part that needs attention first?
Thanks,
Mike

 

[Big Daddy]

Rubbing compoound, cool it looks good. Nice work!

 

[Doughnut]

wow, you car came out quite well!
My dads old Nissan pulsa is red and was very fadded when he purchased it (not to the extent of yours though) and rubbing cutting compound first off, then periodic polishing keeps the paint shiny.
Red really is, a high maintenance colour...

 

[E30m42cab]

Nice job! I didn't expect that... I brought my old black E30 back to shiney, but it wasn't as bad as yours was to begin with. Good work!

 

[frolf]

wow, i applaud you, that is incredible start to finish

 

[rxter]

Agreed. Nice job. Hey Detrich nice 8. Is that black or black cherry? Looks like my driveway - a black 8 and a black 325. Nice. Both fun to drive, but the stick just makes me crazy in the PM freeway traffic.