does everybody have this spare rim?

[m3f_romh_9db5ad5d95]

I bought my 1998 M3 with 12k miles the beginning of 2000.



I did a car fax, checked all dealership records, and everything turned out super clean.



I have never had to replace anything major, but have had repairs due to normal wear and tear. My car now has 106k miles. I put on alot of miles.



These are the things that are strange about my car, and I was wondering if anybody has had these problems.



1) My hood is oxidizing pretty badly. I wash my car every week. If I don;t use a light rubbing compound + wax every month, the hood starts getting white spots everywhere. The interesting part is that even at the waxing step, the towel gets red paint all over it. A body shop once told me that the hood was repainted and they only did a type 1 or 2 painting.(whatever that means). From far, you can;t notice it, but up close, it's very obvious and ugly. This started about 50,000 miles ago.

BMW told me that the Florida sun will do this. What do you guys think?

I have had all the engine parts inspected by my BMW mechanic friend, and he says that there isn't any sign of a frontal collision.



2) Second: I have all four stock m3 rims (20 spoke I believe), but my spare rim is the Lightweight wheel. Is this normal? Do all of you guys have this?

Maybe the previous owner had the lightweight wheels and simply resold them when he got rid of the car. Who knows



Thanks.

[m3f_KUpolo]

Sounds like the repaint was a cheap job. As far as the spare rim goes, I have the M Contour wheels and my spare is an M Contour as well.

[m3f_CarQz17_da02e24fb5]

i have the twin-10 spoke and i have the identical spare in back

[m3f_Predator_7d824d33ea]

my spare is the same as the alloys on the car, and i read somewhere about the red paint on beemers,

here i hope the link below helps,



http://www.totalbmwmag.co.uk/HandsOn/TechNov02.PDF

[m3f_Sirius_880bd69485]

Cheap repaint job. At work, we use the same method as BMW factory, minus the robots painting. BMW uses a two stage paint system. Bascially, this means color then clear. Techinically, its primer (2 coats), sealer, two color coats, then clear coated, then baked for about 25 minutes at 180F. Some of bmws colors, their pearl coats, use three stages, an extra coat for the pearl affect. Some paint systems use a 1 stage system, color+clear combined. Macco for example, uses their OWN colors, therefore, you get a repair done at macco, good chance is that no-one will be able to match their colors.



And off the top of my head, I belive if you have a convetr, prob wrong, you didn't get a full alloy spare.



(Most of the new BMWs dont' even come with spares heh, M5's, the new 5 series, z4's, z8's. They are relying on the run flat technology now... )



And my spare is the same type of rim as KUpolo's rims.

[m3f_romh_9db5ad5d95]

Thanks Ravi. That webpage is awesome! I;m going to order those polishing / rubbing compounds. I didn;t know that Red was the hardest BMW color to maintain. All of my car's have been red and they were all perfect. But now I know that I can fix it up without having to do any repaint.



Concerning the rim question. I guess I'm the only one with a lightweight wheel as a spare. Well, at least now, I only have 3 more to buy.

[m3f_romh_9db5ad5d95]

Hey Sirius. Have you had any problems with your red? Fading anywhere?

How often do you polish / wax it? That webiste above, does state that if the paint job is cheap, those products might not work. So my question is:

What do I look for when repainting my hood? How can I find a good body shop? The BMW mechanic told me that some body shops do awesome work. That sometimes, you can;t even tell that it's been repainted. Is that true? I thought, that nobody could match a factory paint job, because the factories dip the panels into paint rather than spraying it. Again, I have not done any research, just what I've heard.



First though, I'll try polishing the whole car with those products and methods from the webiste above. My hood is the only problem area though, because the rest of the paint is super deep and shiny. I also have to repaint my front bumper because all the highway driving has chipped it pretty bad. After the new paint job, I'll probably install that 3M protective stuff on the front.

[m3f_Sirius_880bd69485]

I wash my car weekly. Rain or shine, winter/summer. I put a good layer of wax on it every two-three weeks durring the summer. Right before winter hits, Ill put about 4 coats of wax on cause its just too cold to wax it, even in the bay at work.



As far as I can tell, and my boss at work, all the paint besides the rt door and fender is original. You can look at paint and tell by orange peel, and by paint lines. On a hood for example, any good shop will know that you don't clearcoat the underside of the hood. Some shops end up doing that. BMW does not clear any of their interior panals. On the edjes of the hood for example, the clear should fade off, kinda hard to explain. This car was also garage kept by the previous owner.



To find a good shop, ask your dealer. See if any bmw dealers have a body shop on site. And alls they do is bmws. Thas how we are set up. Have you tried to machine buff the car also? That will help remove oxidation from the paint.



As the shop about their procedures. One-stage paint set up as opposed to a two-stage set up. BMW factory uses two, and they use robots to paint the cars. They only dip the car for the sealer and primers.



Look at the shops finished work. Ask about warrenties. My shop has a life-time gaurentee on our paint.



That link is locking up my ie.. let me post this part and look at the link...

[m3f_Sirius_880bd69485]

Okay. That article is pretty good. What you do when you buff a car like that is you remove the oxidation. Basicaly, you're taking a fine layer of the clearcoat off and exposing a fresher layer instead.



If you do that, be very careful, you can burn a hole thru your paint rahter easliy... trust me, I have done it...



The only place I am seeing fading is my mirrors.



About the 3m stuff, I have seen it at work.. I don't like it. It tends to turn yellow after awhile and look nasty. But thats my opinion.

[m3f_00poop6x_6dca3456a4]

I have 3 spare 20 spoke and 4 ltw's. kinda opposite from everyone else. want to trade 1 ltw for 1 20 spoke?

[m3f_romh_9db5ad5d95]

Which lightweight do you have available? I need a rear lightweight.

[m3f_romh_9db5ad5d95]

Sirius:

Your hellot red looks really good. I might just need to repaint the hood because everywhere else looks good. What wax do you use?

I use some 3m glaze, and then some zymol wax ( the cheap stuff from any walmart or local parts store.) on top of that.. I've heard that zaino is the best though.

[m3f_00poop6x_6dca3456a4]

Which lightweight do you have available? I need a rear lightweight.

Sorry I didn't state my post clearly. I meant I have 3 spare 17" 20 spokes that say motorsport on them(235's), but I have 4 ltw's on my car right now, staggered. I was asking to trade one of my 20 spokes for one of your ltw's....since you have one ltw spare.

[m3f_romh_9db5ad5d95]

Oh. I see.

This is the thing. I really want to save up some money to buy 3 more lightweight wheels and give my car a different look. I;ve had it since 98 with the 20 spokes. Let me ask you one more thing.

1) Where did you get the lighweights, and is the dealer the only place that sells them

At $650 / piece.



Thanks again. Sorry for the confusion.

[m3f_mikeo_0b82f0afc2]

I also have a 20-spoke spare (wheel is perfect, tire is about 50%) that I'll trade for your LTW spare, plus a little cash. Email me if interested.



Mike

[email protected]