My E36 DIY Polishing

[sszone]

hi guys, after so many months of talking abt diy-ing my car polishing cos i wasn't satisfied with the quality i get outside after paying almost 200 bucks each time.....finally bought myself all the stuff and got down dirty to polish my black mistress....hehe

got myself a car adaptor, that kind that feeds off the cig lighter and comes out with a 3 pin plug kind....and a polisher from black n decker

as what i learnt from my fren who runs a car polishing biz, i did a washdown of my bmw.
followed by drying.....then application of compound to remove swirls, scratches and whatever.
then wipedown....
then apply polishing wax.....then polish again...followed by wipedown.
took abt 1.5 hrs but the end result was satisfying....hehe...well at least, i dun have to pay 200 bucks and then kaopei abt the quality of polish i am getting...haha

here's some photos

my apologies for the quality of the photos cos taken with my hp but can still see the shine.....hehe

 

[jawzsg]

Re: My E36 DIY Polishing

Have you ever tried doing it on a white car? I'll be glad to volunteer.. .kekekeeke.. nice job dude.

 

[louis]

Re: My E36 DIY Polishing

be careful when polishing a white car. white paint contains titanium oxide as a dye which makes it a lot harder than black which contains carbon. approximately 70% of the hardness of diamond for white vs 20% for black.

this means you'll need to rub harder, deeper and use higher heat to polish a white base coat if you want to get rid of deep seated scratches and swirls. ironically, this increases the chance of you creating even deeper and more permanent swirls, because your clearcoat is relatively softer than your white basecoat.

if you damage your clear coat, you can always cover it up with wax and it won't be as noticeable, but once the wax wears off, the difference between a professional job and a weekend warrior's effort will show. at this point in time, even if you're willing to double the asking price of $200, it'll be too late as there's no recourse but a new paint job.

of course, nothing beats the satisfaction of a DIY job! just proceed with care.

 

[jin teck]

Re: My E36 DIY Polishing

Care to share what products you use as I want to DIY too to turn mine into a black beauty like yours

 

[deputyruggles]

Re: My E36 DIY Polishing

Bro, where did u get the car adaptor and how much?

 

[sszone]

Re: My E36 DIY Polishing

i still experimenting.....trying to find some more other stuff especially from germany....heard they got pretty nice polishing stuff there
i am still not satisfied with my polishing job.....feels that its short of a waterproof sealant coat to end the job...still looking around for that
jin teck, your black beauty already very shining leh...haha

anyway, not all of the so-called professionals are professionals....most of the time, they hire their ka-gias who do a half-f job. some of them just have nice-looking signboards.
so my advice is to try out those 1 time jobs and dun sign package.
even for packages, they will do a nice 1st time job and then half-f job after u signed the package.
i am not sure what the other guys encountered but that has been mine and some of my frens' complaints. and since i love diy-ing, well what the heck......diy my polishing loh...hehe....plus i learnt the polishing know-how already from my fren who runs a polishing biz. just remember to go easy on the polisher

 

[BMWSILVER]

Re: My E36 DIY Polishing

Hi ! sszone.

Good job for the DIY. Your car look shiny

But I think you have posted in the wrong folder. I think the correct folder should be Exterior Section

I am a DIY guy too, need to learn some polish skills from you someday

Cheer ! Happy DIY.

 

[sszone]

Re: My E36 DIY Polishing

oops....i tot i clicked on exterior section when i started this thread....bummer...haha
any way to shift it? can help?

 

[Puny]

Re: My E36 DIY Polishing

shifting to exterior section.

Great job by the way!

 

[Runner71]

Re: My E36 DIY Polishing

COOL BRO...You know what, we should gather all E36 guys and get a weekend, we all do together mah, like the mycarforummers guys. Good job anyway bro.
R71

 

[maddriver]

Re: My E36 DIY Polishing

COOL BRO...You know what, we should gather all E36 guys and get a weekend, we all do together mah, like the mycarforummers guys. Good job anyway bro.
R71

u mean d.i.y, tats my favourite,sweat it out

 

[sszone]

Re: My E36 DIY Polishing

shifting to exterior section.

Great job by the way!

thank you for shifting the thread.
my thanks to you for the great work on the site.....keep it up

 

[sszone]

Re: My E36 DIY Polishing

and hey deputyruggles, thanks for the PM.
i got the adaptor from sim lim square, the shop's called M technics at 4th floor, near the big notebooks shop and skylet computers.
there's 2 models, one is 60w selling for 40+ while the 100w i bought was selling for 69 but managed to get it for 65 bucks after toking crap with the shop-owner...hehe....anyway, its more worth it getting the 100w cos the 60w can't really power up alot of power-hungry equipments like the polisher. maybe just the laptop....so thats why i rather pay 20 bucks more and get something better. just treat it like an investment on the car loh....
just took a pic with my hp but unfortunately i dun have any card reader with me at the moment, can't transfer and post it here.
gotta wait till i get home from office

 

[sszone]

Re: My E36 DIY Polishing

u mean d.i.y, tats my favourite,sweat it out

eeee........not like brokeback mountain rite? haha...just joking

 

[deputyruggles]

Re: My E36 DIY Polishing

Thks for the infor man... been looking for an adaptor for ages... wanted to power a pump to spray wash the car...

and hey deputyruggles, thanks for the PM.
i got the adaptor from sim lim square, the shop's called M technics at 4th floor, near the big notebooks shop and skylet computers.
there's 2 models, one is 60w selling for 40+ while the 100w i bought was selling for 69 but managed to get it for 65 bucks after toking crap with the shop-owner...hehe....anyway, its more worth it getting the 100w cos the 60w can't really power up alot of power-hungry equipments like the polisher. maybe just the laptop....so thats why i rather pay 20 bucks more and get something better. just treat it like an investment on the car loh....
just took a pic with my hp but unfortunately i dun have any card reader with me at the moment, can't transfer and post it here.
gotta wait till i get home from office

 

[Gombat]

Re: My E36 DIY Polishing

u mean d.i.y, tats my favourite,sweat it out

Hey u need loads of German Beer to get this going and done..........

 

[jin teck]

Re: My E36 DIY Polishing

Agree with Runner71. Gather on Sunday morning and do polishing. Good workout for everyone followed by breakfast and German Beer to cool us down.

 

[sszone]

Re: My E36 DIY Polishing

Thks for the infor man... been looking for an adaptor for ages... wanted to power a pump to spray wash the car...

remember to start the engine and keep it running while using the adator or else u can't get much power out of it

 

[sszone]

Re: My E36 DIY Polishing

here's the pic of the car adaptor

have fun

 

[jawzsg]

Re: My E36 DIY Polishing

Err.. for the D.I.Y. thingy, can I swop my car with Jin Teck... err.. I hate messing with tianium oxide and prefer the carbon based coat. kekekekekeke.. we can swop back after the polish lah.

Err.. LOUIS, thanks for the head up as I have seriously overlook the white paint pigment altogether despite being to a titanium oxide mining plant on an educational trip some time back. Ya, those are really hard substances to buff, hence, I hardly DIY and sign for those no good polish packages for donkey years... I have always love white cars.

Anyway, this year subscription is really wasted as I have not made a single polish to date. .. opps.. $480 down the drain liao. Anyway paintwork chipping off everywhere so no mood to do anything. Guess I need to budget for a paint job quite soon.