# M3 soon to be going in for bodywork



## bildo (Mar 29, 2008)

Finally got my warranty approved by BMW, and they're saying it looks highly likely it'll get booked in for the end of next week.

Now, to save any unnecessary hassle I want to get the car prepped as best as I can for when it happens. I obviously can't control the weather on the day but the car is garaged so up until then I want to get it as ready as I can.

What would you all do if your car was going in for paint?


----------



## Hasan1 (Jul 1, 2011)

Nothing


----------



## danwel (Feb 18, 2007)

Stripping off all protection won't do any ham


----------



## R7KY D (Feb 16, 2010)

hasan1 said:


> nothing


+1....


----------



## bildo (Mar 29, 2008)

Interesting, after the amount of people on here who are terrified of even having their car washed I thought there might be more that'd be recommended!

Is it not even worth claying? Not entirely sure what their processes are but are they likely to machine polish the whole car after doing it or is it more likely to be just the area they have repaired?


----------



## VAG-hag (May 14, 2012)

They will be removing the paint anyway so why clay? They may buff more than the painted area they may not, totally depends on the shop. Get ready for dust when you get it back!


----------



## bildo (Mar 29, 2008)

Fair enough chaps, thanks for the help, I'll just give it a quick wash and then detail it once the paint is all sorted.

Luckily got another car to use my new products on at the weekend so I won't be too upset!


----------



## Aaran (Sep 18, 2007)

if you do clean of use anything please DONT use any silicone based products on anything (incl interior) until you get it back

just saves any problems when they have it. bloody hate silicone products


----------



## yanman (Jan 17, 2013)

Aaran said:


> if you do clean of use anything please DONT use any silicone based products on anything (incl interior) until you get it back
> 
> just saves any problems when they have it. bloody hate silicone products


x2 on that, anything silicone based is a nightmare for bodyshops


----------



## Kelly @ KDS (Aug 4, 2008)

wash and degrease it firstly (if its washing up liquid/APC/water based degreasers)

some of these waxes and sealants need many times over to remove with degreasers. 

we had tested different panels wipes and were very surprised to see they dont remove the products with just a couple of wipes.

also IF you car is having any blending for colour match (you may not know) then clay the car before hand.

the amount of lacquer blends we have seen with trapped dirt under the fresh lacquer , in a similar way to when you see alloy wheels that have been smart repaired and lacquered over the brake dust.

we even wash and clay the panels that are going to be rubbed down and painted. 

stops tarr and dirt becoming clogged on sand paper , if you were to rubbed down paint thats got silcone products on the surface you then cross contaminant the paper that then spreads the silcone around and to the lower levels of paint. 

Of course most body shops should do all of this before hand , but when 95% of the cars they repair would have never seen any products in the entire cars life on the bodywork , then they get lazy and dont have any problems with not cleaning and degreasing properly. 

A guy from a Detailing back ground drops their car off and a car covered in long lasting products (the body shop wont know this) this is when the trouble starts. 

HTH Kelly


----------



## Hasan1 (Jul 1, 2011)

Thinking about it I would take photos of the car before it go's in so if you see somthing you don't like when you get it back you have proof it was not like that


----------



## MK1Campaign (Mar 27, 2007)

Degrease and jet wash all door shuts, boot shuts and wheel arches.


----------



## squiggs (Oct 19, 2009)

Kelly @ KDS said:


> wash and degrease it firstly (if its washing up liquid/APC/water based degreasers)
> 
> some of these waxes and sealants need many times over to remove with degreasers.
> 
> ...


I see what you're saying here Kelly - but surely any half decent bodyshop should have the correct products to degrease and clean - and should by experience recognise a 'well looked after' car.
I always assume that every vehicle I work on has 'product' on it and thoroughly degrease and clean before I start, and I keep cleaning throughout the repair process.
If I can do it (mobile) I would expect a bodyshop to do it - rather than leaving it up to the customer to do the first stage of the prep work


----------



## bildo (Mar 29, 2008)

Kelly @ KDS said:


> wash and degrease it firstly (if its washing up liquid/APC/water based degreasers)
> 
> some of these waxes and sealants need many times over to remove with degreasers.
> 
> ...


Kelly,
Thanks a lot, this is the kind of response I was hoping for which proved it wasn't just me being paranoid!

As you say, some products really don't strip wax all that great, although the car hasn't had any wax for about 6 months it's garaged and not driven all that often so I expect some is still remaining (it was AG HD at the time.)

I assume giving the car a clay and then using G101 with about 1:10 dilution over the whole car would give me a decent chance of stripping the wax? I haven't got any dedicated wax removers since I'd seen some reviews where people were disappointed so decided to save my money! Would an IPA wipedown help at all? I know this is often used to remove sealants.

Thanks for all the useful responses in here chaps!


----------



## Mike k (Oct 14, 2011)

Alot of people dont even wash their car before it goes in but personally ive always thought that if a garage was to see an immaculate well looked after car come in theres more chance of them hopefully taking more care over it.

What paintwork defect does it have just out of interest?


----------



## bildo (Mar 29, 2008)

Mike k said:


> Alot of people dont even wash their car before it goes in but personally ive always thought that if a garage was to see an immaculate well looked after car come in theres more chance of them hopefully taking more care over it.
> 
> What paintwork defect does it have just out of interest?


I agree, at least I hope so!

It's a rust issue, and the car is covered under the corrosion warranty, common on these cars sadly!


----------



## andyrst (Apr 6, 2009)

so it will be bare metaled?


----------



## Kelly @ KDS (Aug 4, 2008)

squiggs said:


> I see what you're saying here Kelly - but surely any half decent bodyshop should have the correct products to degrease and clean - and should by experience recognise a 'well looked after' car.
> I always assume that every vehicle I work on has 'product' on it and thoroughly degrease and clean before I start, and I keep cleaning throughout the repair process.
> If I can do it (mobile) I would expect a bodyshop to do it - rather than leaving it up to the customer to do the first stage of the prep work


i will put money on it that you are NOT stripping back all the products, we were very shocked to find this out on our own testing either for painting or for training days.

NONE of the so called degreasers FULLY removed the products , only standard thinners was actually removing the products.

easy to see here .

about 11 photos down.

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=284546

and lets face it i get to see loads of poor paintwork to be put right by KDS thats was most of the time a fault of poor prep work , this includes the cleaning process.

even when the products are not fully removed most of the time this does not give a problem IF the process is correct.

as i said 99% of cars that go into a body shop for repairs would not be wearing protectives products , so this means body shops assume that there are none when there is a few that are (and they are mainly on here hence why i answered to the op in the way i did).

i tell you what let the op go with the comments to leave it alone and see what happens , he came on here to ask the questions (i guess as he is fussy) and i gave him a very sensible answer.

told and trained my staff to ask the questions and have a very good look at car before any paintwork to establish the past history.

How many body shops and smart repairers have paint depth gauges????

i think it best to spend sometime with customer and then use everything you have (equipment / know how / products) to get the best results.

kelly


----------



## Tom-1 (Jan 23, 2013)

I wouldent touch it soon as we get a car in we have de greaser and will get de greased mire then ten times before it gets to paint stage.... as for mopping the car- probably not they will mop the panel/s panels that have been painted and thats it, 9/10 all panels are de nibbed and mopped after paint as even in a spray booth you get little dust particals that land on the finish 

Hope this helps just relax


----------

