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Scratch and Dent Removal
This is turning out to be a much colder winter in the Mid-Atlantic region than originally planned. As a result, I’m falling behind in sorting the X5. This past weekend was the first since early November where I could get out and work on it. The previous owner (Mr. Magoo) managed to scrape paint off of all four corners and dent the lower valance. It’s been too cold to try to repaint the big scrapes, but this past weekend I tackled some of the deeper scratches and the valance dent.
First off, it takes a certain talent to perfectly dent plastic without breaking it. Because the PDC sensor is also damaged, perhaps Mr. Mr Magoo hit something larger, but this dent was about the size of a baseball. (It was actually much larger than it looks in the photo.) I wanted to see if I could get it out with just heat and some simple pry tools while I had the weather on my side.
Once I gained access behind the dent, I slowly heated the plastic until it was warm to the touch. Then using the flexible pry tool, I slowly pushed it back into shape from behind. It isn’t perfect, but it looks better than before.
While waiting for the valance to cool down so I could put everything back together, I grabbed the random orbital polisher and a microfiber cutting pad. The clear-coat on BMW bumpers is pretty robust, so I thought I’d see how well Maguiar’s M105 polishing compound levels the paint and helps to reduce the scratches.
These scratches are pretty deep, but not down to the color coat. I took two passes with the M105 before switching to Griot’s Machine Polish #3, and sealed it with a layer of AmmoNYC Skin. The result being that the scratches are not really visible after you get about a foot away from the surface. I probably could have gone a little further, but didn’t want to risk burning through the clear-coat.
Budget Dent Repair: Heat, Air, & Claybar
The High School Parking Lot. Ah, the Horror. The Horror. Since dents and dings are inevitable in this crucible of parking trial-and-error, it’s best not to get worked up over dents and dings until graduation. There are some hints that will help get you through.
Take for example this trifecta: scrape, dent and cracked paint. The most serious aspect is actually the cracked paint. If left untreated, the fender will rust making for a much more expensive repair later on. The easiest to fix is the scrape since it’s on the surface. Just use the Claybar with some Speed-shine and elbow grease.
Dent removal is the area of experimentation for this post. We wanted to see how far we could get with just a heat-gun and compressed air. The result was actually pretty good, especially considering that complex curves are especially challenging for any paintless dent-repair technique. We removed the plastic fender liner, and then used a 1000 watt heat gun alternately with a can of compressed air held upside-down. Heat the area slowly and quickly quench with the cold liquid spray. We did this combo about five times, reducing the size of the dent by about two-thirds. Once we were satisfied (ran out of beer) we decided to flake off the cracked paint, sand the gash a bit, then hit it with some primer and touch-up paint. It’s good at 20 feet and I’m sure not the last time we’ll be doing this.
