[V8inVA]

I finished repairing/restoring the paint on a '99 328i that was trashed by the previous owner. I got a great deal on the car because he thought te ruined the paint job. There were somewhere in the neifghborhood of 30 to 40 stripes of of touch up paint 3" to 4" long brushed on with the fingernail polish brush that comes in the cap of the touch up paint.

I used 1500 and 2000 grit sandpaper and sanded it all off as close as I could to the original paint without touching it. I tore the sandpaper into little strips that I rolled up as wide as the touch paint stripes. I used a cup of water to keep the paper wet and clean. When the touch up paint was thin enough I could scrape a lot of the remaining layer off with my fingernail...it hadn't really bonded to the clearcoat that well. I then buffed the car back to a showroom shine as follows:

orange pad/rubbing compound (I used 4" pads here on an air operated DA gun and compounded hard as little as possible)

The with electric buffer:

orange pad/3M medium cut rubbing compound
green pad/3M finesse-it II polishing compound
white pad/menzerna final polish II
polishing pads (blue and gray) 3M Glaze then carnauba wax

I spent about 3-5 hours per panel. 40-50 hours in all...but it was worth it. The car is as close to perfect as a 7 year old car can be.

FWIW I take a drop or two of touch up paint and put it in on/in the bottom of a soda can, add a drop or two of toulene to thin and us a 4/0 modelers paint brush I bought a Wal-mart to touch up nicks. Takes three or four applications to fill up a nick completely. I use a piece of 1500 or 2000 punched out with a hole punch and glued to the end of a pencil to sand it then the above process to polish it back.