2007 black BMW 330 xi - worst experience so far

[yakky]

I'd be willing to bet those were dealer installed swirls curteousy of BMW of Sterling. They are butchers.

[silvergray]

Originally Posted by Yal

Thats just insane that paint on a car that is built for the Autobahn would be so fragile. Wow! I own a Benz so I'm kind of stunned by BMW.

From what I've been told, BMW used to use really hard clear, but switched to this soft crap to reduce rock chips. Correct me if this is wrong...

[tdekany]

Originally Posted by yakky

I'd be willing to bet those were dealer installed swirls curteousy of BMW of Sterling. They are butchers.

true but it doesn't explain the paint.

[ebpcivicsi]

I have experienced the exact same thing. Both cars were 06's and both were black. On one, even using the softest MF that I have the paint would mar when I removed any product(even when misted with a QD). I advised the owner to trade it.

[Picus]

Originally Posted by Yal

Thats just insane that paint on a car that is built for the Autobahn would be so fragile. Wow! I own a Benz so I'm kind of stunned by BMW.

It's not the BMW, I am willing to bet that these guys are right and the car was damaged at the port and re-painted without the owners knowledge. It's not uncommon. My 335i has softer than average paint, but nowhere near as bad as what's described here. I've also worked on 4 328's and 3 more 335s and they were all similar.

I actually had a similar car to this, it was a white SC430 and in the end the owner determined the rear end had been repainted after shipping damage.

[Totoland Mach]

tdekany: Boy, some of those pics look similar to a 540i that I recently did as a "do-over".

Here's a pic of a previously detailed 540i


I ended up using Optimum compound on a rotary with a 3M pad at 1200, followed by AIO on a Festool with a Meg's 8006 pad. Final coat was #26 with a finish pad on the Festool.

Here's another shot of the swirls. The car didn't appear too bad unless you looked at the paint from a certain angle.



Finished:


The 1st pic you posted has some serious scratches (which don't appear to be buffer caused)...it almost looks like cracked paint.

Totoland Mach

[SilverLexus]

Someone must be using Brillo pads. The new 3 is not that soft a clearcoat. My friend's 06 is doing better than that even after several trips to the auto wash.

You did a terrific job bringing it back in any event.

[fdizzle]

nice work man . . . those are some nasty swirils

[fdizzle]

actually . . those WERE some bad swirils . . . heheh

[Mad iX]

Fresh repaired paint is ridiculously soft. You can take all day to figure out how to polish it to perfection and then a bad wipe from a fresh MF can ruin it all. Very frustrating.

[fueltuner]

LOL. Yeah.. I know all about soft paint.. I work at a bodyshop that is factory authorized BMW and Benz repair facility.. I wetsand and polish fresh clear all day.
The factory clear on the new BMWs is applied like a powdercoat, then baked.
I have come across one car JUST like this one in the pics. It would scratch like craazy no matter what. Never could figure out what was the issue .. I dont know about the bake times at the factory. I do remember getting about 4 black Z4's at the same time.. The clear had cloudy Blotchy sections all over it. It was caused from the factory not letting the clear dry enough before they put on the shipping plastic and the moisture from the water based base coat ( color ) would get trapped and clould the clear. I had to wetsand the panel, then put a heat lamp on it to wick out the moisture before I polished it.. worked like a charm.
As far as that 328xi... Usually a good heating will harden the paint .. otherwise it will do that forever.

[Picus]

Man, my worst nightmare is that my car gets damaged in shipping and repaired without me knowing it.... Every time I read this thread I get a little more paranoid!