I think it's time to repaint my e55. Its blk and its got too many swirl marks all across the car. Since I have a body shop now I'm thinking if I should do something a little different. Maybe put a little dark navy blue candy into the clear paint to give it a little transparent look when the sun hits it. I don't want anything noticeable like a complete color change just something nice. But being it’s an e55 I don't know if I should even do that. I know the car will look blk most of the time just when the sun hits it will show a dark navy blue.

 

Swirls? Maybe hit it with a full on detail job first?

As long as you know resell value will plunge on a repainted E55, you'll be fine. The colors will also be non-matching on parts of the engine bay and inside of doors etc.

 

You can have that painted too, will sure cost a lot though!

 

how about white stripes ?

 

Man... unless you have scratches down to the primer, you don't need to repaint b/c of swirls!
Any detailer worth his salt should be able to fix it.

 

Check out the Detailing threads about how to remove all that stuff yourself. If you do it correctly or have a detail shop that knows what they are doing hook you up, your car will look like new.

 

I would only re-paint as a last resort. Just don't wash it (like me) the swirl marks will fall behind the dirt.

I hope this is a lesson to all the black car owners that get the cheapo details!!

 

No offense man but you are a little for wantin to re-paint your entire car Like others have said, just find a reputable detailer in the area. I doubt you need re-painting unless you've been drying her off with sand paper. Don't get me wrong I hate swirls on black too, prolly the worst thing about black paint, but try the detail route. Good luck

 

Your kidding right?

 

Haha... I'm cheapo. I honestly have never sent my car to any detailer.

But ask couple people here who have seen my car.... they're all clean and only minor swirl marks on the E and almost no swirl marks (extremely minor) on the C. Both are black....

But yeah, I spent like 3-4 hours washing one car.... rinse the mitt every one stroke per side.... only do one pass per surface.... vertical strokes.... use wax 'n dry from Eagle One.... one stroke to dry the surface. Tiring... but hey, I save money to buy gas and drive the car... haha...

 

Sounds cool with the navy in clear, If I had the body shop I would have my boys block that rig to 1000, fine line it, foam the jams and lay 2 coats of clear .
Bake for 2 days, done.

 

Removing swirls for a car with ceramic clear paint is slightly harder than a normal version. I think it would be safer if you found a really good detailer to get the car brought back to like new. You could color sand the car a bit to get some of the really bad marks out but you do lose a bit of the ceramic clear that way. Unless the car is TOTALLY destroyed painting should not be an option.

If you want to do it your self go to properautocar.com and read up about removing swirls from your car and what you will need to get the job done. My SL55 is black and when I take the time to remove the swirls once every 6 months it looks FANTASTIC. I "wax" the car every time I wash it but any time you touch the pain on a black car you end up with swirl marks. It does help to do the 3-4 hr car wash with rubbing in the same direction but that even still leaves marks if you look closely. I use recommend the Menzerna line of polishes for ceramaclear paints and then blackfire wet diamond synthetic wax to shine and protect the paint. Having used everything from Pinnacle to Zaino, I think blackfire's Wet Diamond is the best all around product. Zaino is great but it really lacks any sort of depth and makes a black car look as if it were made from plastic. Menzerna FMJ makes a black car look as if the paint is 1 mile deep (same with Pinnacle Sov.) but it lasts no where near as long as zaino and Wet Diamond.

Get the car detailed and or color sanded and then take a little care to keep it looking great once every 2 weeks and it should always be fine.

One tirck with black is to just let it get dirty and wash it only when you must. Washing it will always put swirl marks in the paint regardless of how careful you really are. Also when you do wash the car use a leaf blower to glow all the water off the paint rather than drying it with a microfiber towel. You will still have to go around and get the left over water but this reduces the rubbing by say 90% and that will save your paint as well.

 

i would get it detailed to where it looks new, sell it, and get something a little newer than 03.

 

I think that's the trick to keeping a black car looking nice. I only wash my car once or twice a month to keep the swirls at bay.....

 

Gentlemen: I too have OCD when it comes to my finish. I only use a pressure washer, 'no touch' type car wash when I dont have her professionally detailed.
I live in southern MI where there's a TON of granite dissolved in the water. To address this I bought a deionizer setup from Costco for 400.00 which I use at home. This lessens the trips to the bay wash.
Try to avoid touching the body at all costs. Mine is Pewter gray so it's not as touchy as black. I had a 2001 M5 in carbon black and that fixed me for black paint forever! Here is the info from the website-hope this helps and DONT repaint your car unless your giving it to your 16 year old!
CR SPOTLESS De-ionized Water Filtration System
Spot-free Rinse System;
No Drying Required
$419.99
Item # 180790