Auto body repair & detailing: 2-step repaint advice, bmw 5 series, paint job

Question
Hello Gary. Thank you for taking the time to field questions/act as an expert for those of us who need unbiased, accurate advice. I have an '88 BMW 5 -series with most of the mechanicals restored. NOW, the clear is failing badly across the entire top, and the paint is oxidized beyond repair (again, across the entire top. Need a repaint, have gotten all sorts of advice (starting with matching and shooting across the top only, all the way through sttripping the entire car, removing all glass, trim, etc). I would like the car to look at least as good as the sides still do. I've been told to steer clear of anyone using grinders on the prep, told all will peel if not completely stripped, and on and on. The car is mettalic black, and I've never seen a good job done on a black car...they all look wavy. The body  has a few (2 or 3 ) small rock dings. I'm afraid that filling these will actually produce large "wavy" areas if not flawlwssly sanded and blended. To further muddy things, I've been advised and then not advised to color sand before the clear. I'm not a millionaire, but on the other hand, I've spent 7 years having this car pretty much mechanically restored. estimates range from 2500 to 15,000 dollars. I want it to look good, and won't be happy if waves or other imperfections are visible to my keen eye. The car is worth about 3K (blusbook). Can you offer specific "do's and dont's that I can request, in writing, from whatever shop I use (i.e. color sand, etc).Also, is  replacing panels the way to go for rock dings (to prevent "wavy" panels? I would appreciate the most detailed advice you can offer on this. I really don't have a lot of money, but would be heartbroken if I got a bad paint job. Thank you again. Sincerely, Chris

Answer
Hi Chris,

The question here is going to be is the vehicle going to be worth fixing? You say the car is worth around 3K according to KBB. Obviously, you wouldn't want to spend 10K on a car that's worth 3K. So the question is, How much are you willing to spend to make the car look nice again. It's apparent to me that you care about the looks of you vehicle or you wouldn't have sought out advice from many different people. So with that thought in mind here is how I would proceed:

1) Find a body shop that specializes in both paintless dent repair and auto body repair. My reasoning here is this way you can have them use paintless dent repair on the "small rock dings". Then you can have a look at them and see if any further work is going to need to be done before the paint work is completed. Typically, paintless dent repair men have a keen eye for details and can make some of the most unsightly damage disappear at a fraction of the cost of filling and sanding and priming and sanding etc...etc...

2) For the most efficient repair to be done I would have the finish sanded back into the factory primer and then re-primed using a top quality 2K Urethane Primer. This should give you good adhesion and durability without having to strip the entire surface. It would then need to be wet sanded to remove all defects. (Any body man worth his salt should be able to wet sand until the waviness is gone). Look for a shop that has seasoned help. Experience is key to a slick paint job.

3) The base-coat color does not require color sanding between coats. Color sanding is a term that was brought from the older technology (Acrylic Lacquer) where every coat would need sanded before the next was applied. "Color Sanding" can be done on the clear-coat after 2-3 coats are applied. I usually recommend at least 1500 wet sanding paper be used for this step.

I hope this helps you out. Good luck with it.