[B1ue52]

If anyone is planning on buying ready painted aftermarket parts, this guide I posted on the benefits of colour sanding will really help you out:

DIY: An Enthusiasts Guide to Colour Sanding https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1651370

If you're planning on buying non-painted parts and want to learn how to paint them yourself and save yourself a fortune in body shop costs then I'll be posting a guide on that also quite soon. Can help anyone out in the meantime though, just message me

[EDIT]
Painting guide posted here
[/EDIT]

[Alscoob]

Well done mate nice write up, that will be a great help to some & scare the pants off others

I've done a whole car before when it came back from a dodgy repaint. In fact most modern car finishes are full of orange peel, the syndrome of too much paint when the coat below has started to dry or not dried enough, although most wouldn't notice.

I believe that Daftasabrush had his F31 wet sanded and repolished on delivery.. does look good though.

Keep up the good advice.

[B1ue52]

Originally Posted by Alscoob

Well done mate nice write up, that will be a great help to some & scare the pants off others

I've done a whole car before when it came back from a dodgy repaint. In fact most modern car finishes are full of orange peel, the syndrome of too much paint when the coat below has started to dry or not dried enough, although most wouldn't notice.

I believe that Daftasabrush had his F31 wet sanded and repolished on delivery.. does look good though.

Keep up the good advice.

Thanks mate

You're right, orange peel can be caused by sub coats not being dry before the top coats but these days it's also just an inherent "quality" of manufacturer applied clear coats. Any clear coat for that matter goes on chunky, it's much more viscose than base and is also applied in thicker coats more often than not. Manufacturers just don't flat it back anymore with a colour/wet sand because as you say, most wouldn't notice lol.

It makes a world of difference though. Whenever I've had a brand new car delivered the first thing I've done is give it a 2 stage polish, that alone makes a massive difference, but doesn't flat back the orange peel so the next new car I get I'm deffo going to do it though. Can't wait to do my F32 in the spring!!

Nobody should be scared to do it on parts though. The worst thing that can happen is you'll strike through the paint or clear coat, but that's easy enough to fix. I've only done it once when a neighbour distracted me and I just carried on sanding blindly whilst I chatted to him like I said, I'll post a step by step on painting soon when I get my splitter and paint that and hopefully at least one person can save themselves body shop costs.

Thanks for the feedback