BMW Paint finish

[dele]

Picked up the M3 on Friday

Ive never seen such a terrible paint finish on a car in all my life! Orange peel all over every panel!

Ive heard this is a common thing now with BMW, anyone else have the same?

[hesnotthemessiah]

Which model?

[robsti]

Black makes it look 10 times worse!

[dele]

E92, ive heard other people complain of the same thing

[ecain63]

Might actually be a good thing. My RS6 had pretty poor quality paint when I first got it. After a gritter incident it got a full respray by the local approved bodyshop. The finish was 10X beter than Audi could have achieved. Get it back to BMW and get them to repaint it via the local specialist.

Oh and same thing went my missus Alfa Prodrive. The paint peeled after 6 months so after grilling Alfa UK I sent it to the local bodyshop, which turned out to be my local Ferrari garage / bodyworks. Excellent job done again.

[MattOz]

Very common on BMW's these days I'm afraid. It's especially galling when you've spent a not inconsideable sum on an M3 and the finish is sub standard. Only way to rectify is wetsand and polish.

[CharlesElliott]

If you speak to Kelly at KDS Keltec - a) he can fix it and b) I think he has some experience of owners getting BMW to pay for it....

[Beardy10]

It's a well known problem

Chris Harris's car had it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NszVXttN0R4

Shame your mate didn't spot it/know to look for it before he took delivery.

[belleair302]

BMW are not well finished in regard to paints and clearcoats. The drying process is rushed and you may well need to visit a professional detailer who will wet sand your paintwork to restore that smooth look.

Walk into any BMW showroom and just be shocked by the 'orangepeel'. I am sure salesmen will say they are all like that....but not over at Lexus or Ford!!

[andye30m3]

CharlesElliott said:

If you speak to Kelly at KDS Keltec - a) he can fix it and b) I think he has some experience of owners getting BMW to pay for it....

This link shows some of KDS's previous work on BMW's fairly atrocious paint work

http://pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&t...

[kds keltec]

Hi Guys

Here is another link to E93 M3 with same process

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.p...

I have done the same process to over 15 E92/93 M3's now and a few other bmws (X5 / M5)

got a hugh collection of photos to go through as i will make a new thread in the future of the process again (in more depth) with many different colours / models too .

A collection of non wet sand machine correction details of bmw's from the past

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.p...

I will post a similar thread collecting all the non wet sand machine correction M power models together as well

From a different forum a car not yet posted

http://forums.m3cutters.co.uk/showthread.php?t=186...

and lastly the best example of what the paint CAN look like when the orange peel is removed

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.p...

HTH

OH and i have finally got my M3 where i can say i am happy with the finish

Kelly

[Carlton Banks]

Kelly, as usual, your pictures do the talking.

Amazing and BMW should be ashamed of themselves!

[bmthnick1981]

Carlton Banks said:

Kelly, as usual, your pictures do the talking.

Amazing and BMW should be ashamed of themselves!

Yep, very impressive work. Shame the car's don't come out of the factory like that.

[kds keltec]

Carlton Banks said:

Kelly, as usual, your pictures do the talking.

Amazing and BMW should be ashamed of themselves!

Thanks carlton,

Here is another M3 jerez black that i have not yet posted a full write up process for .

This car has been the worst i have had to rectify so far

before












a few durings









machine correction








and a few afters now looking much better













Kelly

[rash_decision]

Great work Kelly!! How much would it cost to have this carried out on your average E92 M3?? I have a Silverstone E92 and would be very interested in having the orange peel rectified!!

[pilchardthecat]

I really don't mind the orange peel effect, I actually think it looks quite good with a with a bit of a wax on it. I certainly wouldn't expend vast amounts of effort/money to get rid of it.

[dele]

Mine looks in exactly the same condition as that Jerez one you posted, infact, i almost went outside hoping it was mine you worked on :P

I'd also be intrested in costs

As for "rejecting" the car, afraid i cant, its second hand

[PigFilth]

My new BMW is like that, and the door bottoms feel like sandpaper. Think I'll clay it to remove that texture but not going any further with it being a lease car.

[DeanR32]

I'd also be interested in a price for this. I've got a few RDS's and some filled stonechips i could do with smoothing out.

I can take care of swirls and the like, but this is another level!

[Webber3]

Kelly, just out of interest can you tell us where the defect is? Is it just in the clear coat? How many microns do you need to remove to get rid of it?