Compounding and polishing is meant to remove a THIN layer of your clearcoat. Compounding is more aggressive than polishing when it comes to thinning your clearcoat.

Repeated compounding can ultimately remove your entire clearcoat, but usually takes more than 1 round to do so for factory painted cars.

Clearcoat cannot be reapplied by hand, but need to be resprayed, and this is usually best done by spray paint shops (unless u are a very good home spraypainter).

U will have to look very very close on the scratch line to see how far deep has the scratch gone. Usually, if u can feel the depth of your scratch with your fingernail, it means it probably has gone through your clearcoat. If the colour of your line is not the same colour of your car (example your car is black, and your line scratch is grey/red), then possibly the scratch has even gone beyond your colour coat down to your primer base. In most of these instances, unfortunately compounding/polishing wont be able to do much, and your best option is to respray.

If u use fingernail and "scratch" across the scratch and it feels flat, that is the only area that u could still remove by compounding and polishing. U can do a test by putting a drop of compound onto the edge of a microfiber cloth and rubbing the scratch. Which ever parts that dont disappear, means probably need repainting.

Sorry to hear that your car got keyed even though parked at your own designated parking.

Agree on that point. Daily drivers pickup stuff on the road regularly, so to cover at end of day and reopen again creates potential for the loose dirt to scratch paint when placing cover on and removing.

Mmm, generally the sensor at the pump gun should prevent over-refueling. If it ever happens, once u have done refueling and closed your cap, there usually is a water canister nearby that u can use to wash off immediately the excess fuel.

If the stain is left too long, then try the standard steps to clean stubborn contaminants, such as claying/polishing.

Quite unfortunate u have developed such phobia and worry over fuel pumps. Personally for me I only pump in 2-3 regular gas stations most of the time as I am mostly a city driver.

Perhaps 2 products I can recommend keeping in the car for such emergency cleaning:

1) wet wipes, not the baby wipes or hand wipes, but stronger soapy types, usually available in Ace Hardware or Jusco/Cold Storage. It is very good to quickly clean fresh bird poop, major bug splatter, and some bigger chunks of fresh road tar. Its soapy action should be able to clean some of the fresh petrol stains also.

2) water in bottles. I practice this since old car days cuz had radiator issues, but the extra water in bottles is handy to wash off any soapy residue from the wet wipes and any loose contaminants especially bird poop.

Hope this helps.

Mmm, I have never used one before, but theoretically I would imagine u flip the car cover inside out and hose it down with water to clean it.

Carter Wheel Cleaner maybe? Can give it a go, I am using it and it works quite decently.

Sorry to hear about your machine dying on u. There are numerous decent DA machines with reasonable prices sold by Osren and Active Star Trading (Puchong), maybe can check them out.

Looking at your paint condition in the picture, it looks very well maintained. Personally I dont think well maintained paintwork needs to be repainted unless the scratches have gone deeper than your clearcoat. Even defect accumulation over long periods of time can be removed so long as u have more aggressive compounds and the right pads. In even more extreme cases, u could even attempt to wetsand the paintwork using 1500 grit to 3000 grit sandpaper. So long as clearcoat have not been compromised, nothing is impossible yet.

As always, the best practice is always to start with the least aggressive method first. So that means claying > polishing > compounding > wetsanding. Compounding alone has numerous products with varying degree of cutting ability, such as Meguiars Ultimate Compound that u are using, Meguiars M105, even Meguiars M100/101. For compounding pads there are aggressive cutting foam pads, wool pads, microfiber cutting pads. Do proceed with caution as always. Hope this helps.

EDIT: After re-looking at your last picture, there are 3 possibilities:

1) Those swirls exist before compounding and compounding didnt remove enough, which means u may need to go more aggressive.
2) Those swirls only appeared after compounding, means it was compounding haze, so continue with a finishing polish should solve your problem.
3) Those swirls exist before compounding, but after compounding they seem to shift or become more refined, in which also continue with finish polish to solve your problem.

This post has been edited by blurcase: Nov 17 2017, 03:25 PM

Depending on time and date, I should also be able to make it.

BMW original clearcoats are hard clearcoats AFAIK. U may need to step up the aggressiveness of your compounding pad and cream to remove those defects.

Not necessarily. Long throw DA with MF pad can do just the same, potentially with less finish work to do. In certain cases and combinations u can single-step compound with DA and it still finish very well.

In car detailing there is no one solution fits all. Experiment and learn.

u can try import some warm white torchlights from fasttech.com. they use 18650 battery but are quite bright.

try abit of soapwater maybe? just take a towel corner and put a few drips of soapwater from kitchen.

Using an allen key that is L-shaped should technically give u plenty of leverage to unscrew it. Worst case add a strong hollow pipe into the allen key to give more leverage

Erm, Meguairs Ultimate Liquid Wax is just a softer creamy version of paste wax? If u are looking for application speed, then maybe consider spray wax or sealant.

I do my own DIY coating application. To be honest, it is not very difficult, but very tedious.

Firstly it is recommended u compound/polish ur car to as best condition u can achieve. U dont want to have coating applied to a car that is still full of swirls and holograms.

Secondly, u will need a few pieces of good quality (and lint free) microfiber cloth to sacrifice when buffing off coating residue. Once u finish buffing off those cloth should throw away because the coating residue will eventually harden on the cloth.

Thirdly, timing is very critical when it comes to application and buffing off time. Some coatings need to apply and within 30 seconds to 2 mins need to buff already, so u will be working on small sections at a time. It is also very important to be working on a cool condition and definitely under proper shade, as warmer condition means your coating will dry even faster and u have to buff even sooner after application.

Fourthly, if u mess up, u must quickly clean it off before the hardening completes, else u will have to compound/polish that affected area all over again.

Hope this gives u an idea of coating. That is why u find shops charging alot for it.

Erm, coating and sealant are 2 vastly different protection types. Sealant still comes in tubs or bottles like wax, but coating comes in tiny 30/50/100ml bottles only.

Application is also very different. Sealant can apply mostly like wax, just probably thinner layer. Coating application applies and buffs off very differently.

Maybe u wanna refine your question to which product u are interested to try?

Unfortunately, in terms of water marks prevention, u wont find it with coating. Coating is a watermark magnet.

Mmm, u know of any coating that is less of a watermark magnet? Please do share, I am hunting for my next detailing project.

Mmm, maybe I should breakdown for u the polishing part first. There is actually compounding (aggressive polishing), polishing, and finishing (fine polishing). No one can tell for sure how many "layers" or steps of polishing u require, as it depends on physical assessment to know for sure. However, for simple answer, your car should require compounding and polishing, that is as much as we are able to assess based on your description.

The biggest difference between polishing and wax/sealant/coating is polishing (as described above) is meant to REMOVE a thin layer of your paint. Think of polishing like super fine sandpaper shaving a super thin layer of your paint and restoring the shine. Wax/sealant/coating are protection that u ADD on your paint to reduce/prevent further surface damage.

It is never recommended to go straight to coating. Coating is a much more expensive product, so to maximize your value, it is always recommended to compound/polish at least 1 round to remove any form of defects on the car paint and try to give it maximum shine before applying the coating. If u apply straight with defects still on the paint, then its generally seen as a waste cuz when u need to polish to remove defects u have to polish to remove the coating first.

Hope this clarifies.

I would like to suggest u consider trying to compound/polish your white car, it should clear most of the yellowing and bring back the white shine. I see the yellowing is most apparent in white cars, especially Asian and local cars, which I suspect is attributed to the clearcoat used. Do try it out and let us know the results.