Paint problems?!

[joy]

What do you do when your three year old bmw's paint just starts to chip off?! Oh my God!

I had heard about the paint problem for a couple of oldie bmws but didn't think it would happen to me someday.

Its just chipping off from the door sides and the other ends where the rear window is installed. i just cant believe it. I actually feel like contacting BMW!

[kevin]

Uhh thats terrible especially if it is happening to your BMW!! well yes but that normally happens when BMW oldies are used for 9+ years ... def not three. Mine is for five years and the car is immaculate!

Is there a possibility that the paint job on the car was not original? Maybe someone had it done before you bought it? etc etc

[joy]

Uh well it was second hand but when i bought it the car had hardly any mileage on it .. it was used for max a year! How can a person get a second paint job just after a year of a new car ownership?! most importantly whatt do i do now?

[irik]

Let me share some paint expertise, with you guys. Your car has several layers of paint on it excluding couple of base coat and then topped up with two or three coats of lacquer to give shine and protect the paint for number of years. Ethically speaking if car has no scratches or accident then paint job done by car makers can go for unlimited number of years, and yes if no polishing has been done in those number of years.

There are number of things that actually kill the Car paint. For this to understand properly, you need to understand that of car paint is protected with lacquer that means a plastic coating on top of your car and if that plastic coat tear off then paint started dying. Major killer for paint is the sun, as in sun lacquer get burnt and you must have notice certain part of your car less shinier than other because of this issue. So if you park in sun all the time, then keep changing the parking spots and parking direction to not to affect certain part and kill that area shine and expose the paint. Second killer is scratches and dents that can crack the paint and crack the lacquer layer and expose the base paint to moisture effecting the whole car paint. You should get your scratches treated as soon as possible to close the moisture door for car paint. If moisture opening stays for long time then it can crack the paint from underneath and break the air bubble from where it gets the space and crack or chip the paint. Third killer is sub standard paint job, that will show its age after 6 month to year time, as that level of job has not been done with quality. After accident, one should get paint job done from agency or from competent paint shop who do the paint in a paint booth and takes few number of days to apply several coats of paint and not just one spray over the base coat and voila. One coat over base coat will show its age as sun will eat the lacquer and moisture gets in and one layer of paint can't stand for long and it will start cracking and chipping. Fourth killer is grinding and polishing, if you big fan of seeing sparkling shining car and get polishing done every year then in 5 years time your paint will die and start cracking and chipping, as with every polish certain level of lacquer and paint get scrap and leave your car paint bald after every coat. Ideally one should get car polishing done once in 4-5 years time and not too often.

So in joy case either second or third killer is the culprit and you can get that fix properly by getting professional quality of paint job from AGMC or from any reputed hi quality paint shop. Good luck.