Howdy all! Been lurking these forums since my wife purchased her MINI a year ago, and had a question of my own since I recently got a Lightning Blue '08

Anywho, the story: I found a used MINI with the options I wanted, but she had a couple of scratches and dents I insisted should be removed before I purchased her. The scratches mostly got polished out, and the dents got pulled, I signed the papers, and off I motored.

The next night (after giving her a bath), I went to a friend's house to play poker. Obviously, they all wanted to come out and see her, so there was allot of touching of various bits and pieces. During, I noticed a fist sized smudge right behind the driver's door. I just assumed at the time it was someone's greasy paw print.

The next time I washed her (tonight), I didn't notice the smudge in direct sunlight, but as the sun set I noticed the smudge return in defused parking lot lighting outside the grocery store. It then occurred to me that this is where one of the dents the dealership removed once resided...

I tried photographing it tonight, but the flash just reflects off the blue and it looks pretty perfect.

Suggestions? Thanks for reading such a long-winded first post, but I'm **** and tend to freak out pretty easily

 

I wonder what technique they used to pop the dent? That might yield a clue to what's up with the finish. But I'd wager that a quick hand-polish with Meguiars ScratchX or hitting it with a polisher and some Prima Swirl or Finish would knock it right out.

 

I agree with BC. Probably the dent was removed, and even buffed, then a glaze was thrown on it so it would look good to you. Then you washed it,and the temporary glaze disappeared.....or maybe it existed the whole time and you didn't see it.

The way to photograph this is to view the defect in the lighting that shows it best, turn the flash off, put the camera on a tripod if possible, put your finger on the spot to focus the camera on, then take the pic.

The way I polish paint is in a darkened room with a single light source as that reveals the actual condition of the paint. Viewing a metallic in bright light makes it hard to see the clear coat condition.

It's possible the haze is from the repair, or possibly, it happened when the dent occured. If it's from the repair, the person who buffed it, might have not polished it long enough or just used something more aggressive without going to a fine polish.

Like BC said, probably a PC with Swirl and an LC Orange or White pad will solve it quickly, or maybe even a hand applied polish/scratch remover could work as well.

Start with proper photos first so we can diagnose it before going to a solution that may only make things worse.

Richard