[RC3]

Side note mlai. How's your paint job done at WK for your fender?

I recently spent hours to remove scratches and swirls from my boot lid. I think they left a lot of scratches when they repainted it. My black color could notice these imperfections quite easily.

[ronaldskchan]

RC3 did you choose matt black or high gloss for your trim wrap?

[jxnco]

I chose gloss before but somehow the material keeps on getting bubbles and peeling off. After I switched to matte, problem went away. Highly suggest you pick matte.

[mlai]

Originally Posted by RC3

Side note mlai. How's your paint job done at WK for your fender?

I recently spent hours to remove scratches and swirls from my boot lid. I think they left a lot of scratches when they repainted it. My black color could notice these imperfections quite easily.

I had my friend checked the repaint out. He thinks the job was done well.......

Then again, I have sophisto grey. Scratches and swirls were probably a bit harder to notice than your black.....

[RC3]

Originally Posted by mlai

I had my friend checked the repaint out. He thinks the job was done well.......

Then again, I have sophisto grey. Scratches and swirls were probably a bit harder to notice than your black.....

Cool, I just had my boot lid spot wet sanded, compounded and swirl removed. Took days. First time I wet sand, afraid of screwing up but eventually turned out alright. Even had the deep scratches on hood and paint chips on door and hood fixed. The paint chip fixes are till noticeable if look up close but I think I did better job than most body shop on the touch up job.

[RC3]

Originally Posted by ronaldskchan

RC3 did you choose matt black or high gloss for your trim wrap?

Matte, as Jxnco suggested. Many people did gloss and outcome not good.

[grimlock]

Originally Posted by RC3

Cool, I just had my boot lid spot wet sanded, compounded and swirl removed. Took days. First time I wet sand, afraid of screwing up but eventually turned out alright. Even had the deep scratches on hood and paint chips on door and hood fixed. The paint chip fixes are till noticeable if look up close but I think I did better job than most body shop on the touch up job.

Wow Rc, you finally did it..
Did you fill in the paintchip with paint +clearcoat?
Wetsand so brave, i went with your advice, got some 2000 grit to fill in the gap between 1200 and 3000..

[ronaldskchan]

Ching if I put 19" wheels in my 523i would it slow down the car a lot?

[grimlock]

Hi Ronald

It depends who you ask. Some have tried the 20" and find them unbearably heavy.. like "two fat men" riding in the car. But those weigh 34 lbs each, with non-RFTS roughly equal the OEs+RF in weight, so according to newtonian mechanics there is no diff.
But how do we reconcile the experience and the theory?
Perhaps Relativity can help here, as einstein stated, E=MC2, or light appears the same speed to all viewers, regardless of their speed, suggesting a 'subjective' component to experience.
But even einstein may be wrong, as is currently being challenged by the CERN results.. if so then you may even have to question what your father's last name is.
Anyway, physics say 0.1s per 10lbs/rim for 0-100km .. but E=MC2 may be false so don't blame me.

[mlai]

Originally Posted by ronaldskchan

Ching if I put 19" wheels in my 523i would it slow down the car a lot?

If tread width is the same, then it largely becomes a question of combined weight of the tyre and wheel combo. So if you go from 17" cast to 19" cast wheels, with lower profile tyres (could actually be heavier depending on tyres due to more reinforcements), then performance MAY be adversely impacted.

Like you are running on heavier shoes. Go for forged/flow-formed (RC3 is expert there) wheels will help to keep the weight down for the wheels.

But then, only my 2cents.

[jxnco]

Originally Posted by grimlock

Hi Ronald

It depends who you ask. Some have tried the 20" and find them unbearably heavy.. like "two fat men" riding in the car. But those weigh 34 lbs each, with non-RFTS roughly equal the OEs+RF in weight, so according to newtonian mechanics there is no diff.
But how do we reconcile the experience and the theory?
Perhaps Relativity can help here, as einstein stated, E=MC2, or light appears the same speed to all viewers, regardless of their speed, suggesting a 'subjective' component to experience.
But even einstein may be wrong, as is currently being challenged by the CERN results.. if so then you may even have to question what your father's last name is.
Anyway, physics say 0.1s per 10lbs/rim for 0-100km .. but E=MC2 may be false so don't blame me.

What are we talking about again?

I have 20" ones and I don't think they make my car any slower. Of course, they are ultra light and I saved more than 10lbs per corner from the stock setup.

Mlai is right. At the end of the day, depends on what kind of wheels you get.

[RC3]

Ronald, don't worry about Einstein grimlock there.

Seems like every new member here asked the same question over and over again. We should make a sticky thread on wheel swapping.

As mlai and jxnco said, it depends your rim and tire combination. The OE rims are pretty heavy, if swap to a larger and wider OE rim unsprung weight will be affected and performance will not be good. So get lighter rims like forged and flow formed.

Wider set up will definitely affect performance since more friction from the tires to the road. But then cornering will be improved. Which means straight road will be slower and windy road will be faster. So it's give and take.

For me, my rims are pretty light though not as light as Jxnco's. I don't see any performance lost. But this is very personal and you have to make the call.

[RC3]

Originally Posted by grimlock

Wow Rc, you finally did it..
Did you fill in the paintchip with paint +clearcoat?
Wetsand so brave, i went with your advice, got some 2000 grit to fill in the gap between 1200 and 3000..

Yup, touch up paint, clear coat, wet sand, compound, polish and wax. It's not perfect and the chips could be seen up close. But the surface is basically smooth, better than repaint the whole panel for just one or two chips. I think the clear coat is not that useful and made the chip more noticeable. Next time I will just do the paint and wax. Or use a ultra thin coat of clear coat.

You used 1,200 grit... Not too coarse? I messed up using 1,000 last time and have to fine sand down. Guessed I wasted quite a bit of clear coat. I could not find any 3,000 so went with 2,000, 6,000 and 8,000. You got your sand paper from ebay or something? I eventually have to go to MK model shop to get them. And they don't have 2,500, 3,000 and alike.

[grimlock]

Originally Posted by jxnco

What are we talking about again?

I have 20" ones and I don't think they make my car any slower. Of course, they are ultra light and I saved more than 10lbs per corner from the stock setup.

Mlai is right. At the end of the day, depends on what kind of wheels you get.

Sorry, i have a disturbed mind ..
or just wanna be funny too bad

[grimlock]

Originally Posted by RC3

Yup, touch up paint, clear coat, wet sand, compound, polish and wax. It's not perfect and the chips could be seen up close. But the surface is basically smooth, better than repaint the whole panel for just one or two chips. I think the clear coat is not that useful and made the chip more noticeable. Next time I will just do the paint and wax. Or use a ultra thin coat of clear coat.

You used 1,200 grit... Not too coarse? I messed up using 1,000 last time and have to fine sand down. Guessed I wasted quite a bit of clear coat. I could not find any 3,000 so went with 2,000, 6,000 and 8,000. You got your sand paper from ebay or something? I eventually have to go to MK model shop to get them. And they don't have 2,500, 3,000 and alike.

On the rim, clearcoat good to even out surface and feel smooth, but it still look the same if its uneven underneath.. sanding after clearcoat is such a pain, now i understand why no shop will do it-paint+clearcoat by spray with no sanding/compounding.polishing is MUCH easier .. maybe they use less labor on one bumper than for us to fix on little scratch which requires all theses steps and each one needs lots of rubbing. (=)

I use on rims, should have mentioned, sanding away the dried stick out clear.. lots of it and save time, but have to tape off other part to prevent one accidentle swipe, or more work later.
On car def. too rough, esp. if only on the original clear..
I got up to 1200 from renovation shop downstairs, only $2 sheet.. no finer and dont know where to find so ebay, 40 for 1 piece .. $$ but one sheet last forever on these little scratches.. got 2000,3000,5000 online
What model shop, can get next time .. but i will go blind if i can finish one sheet of each
Did u use the 6000 and 8000? after 5000 i go to 3m rubbing compound.. and its perfect or near already (final megs hand polish)

[ronaldskchan]

Any chings know how much will cost to paint the front grill matt black?

[mlai]

Originally Posted by ronaldskchan

Any chings know how much will cost to paint the front grill matt black?

Just buy a set!

[ronaldskchan]

mlai ching where can I get them at approx how much?

[ORIGIN M.]

The Matte looks fantastic!

[mlai]

Originally Posted by ronaldskchan

mlai ching where can I get them at approx how much?

oops. my mistake. didn't realize you were looking for matt.....

[jxnco]

You can get matte grills on ebay. Should be about US$100 including shipping.

I know a shop that can paint but you will pay roughly the same.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/REPLA...item45fd515ea8

[RC3]

Originally Posted by grimlock

On the rim, clearcoat good to even out surface and feel smooth, but it still look the same if its uneven underneath.. sanding after clearcoat is such a pain, now i understand why no shop will do it-paint+clearcoat by spray with no sanding/compounding.polishing is MUCH easier .. maybe they use less labor on one bumper than for us to fix on little scratch which requires all theses steps and each one needs lots of rubbing. (=)

I use on rims, should have mentioned, sanding away the dried stick out clear.. lots of it and save time, but have to tape off other part to prevent one accidentle swipe, or more work later.
On car def. too rough, esp. if only on the original clear..
I got up to 1200 from renovation shop downstairs, only $2 sheet.. no finer and dont know where to find so ebay, 40 for 1 piece .. $$ but one sheet last forever on these little scratches.. got 2000,3000,5000 online
What model shop, can get next time .. but i will go blind if i can finish one sheet of each
Did u use the 6000 and 8000? after 5000 i go to 3m rubbing compound.. and its perfect or near already (final megs hand polish)

Clay bar clean first. Then I used 2000, 6000 and 8000 wet sand. Then all Meguiar stuffs, Ultimate Compound, Scratch X 2.0 and Swirl X. Then NSX Tech Wax 2.0, 2 coats. Good as new now. But I think I lost 10 pounds doing these (exaggerated). And I became a freak in the eyes of my neighbors and the security guys. "What the heck is the dude doing with his car all the time?"

Plan to add another 1 or 2 coats of Cabana wax after the liquid wax. To give it a more rich look. Black car is crazy to up keep. White will be my choice for next car.

I only did the boot lid and hood. Still need to do the doors, top, bumpers, skirts and etc. Do them next time I wash my car. But no need to fix scratches any more. Probably the most is swirl fix wipe.