My MCS (dark silver of course) is only about 2 months old and has been "Zainoed" several times. I have searched everywhare for any clues but I can't seem to find where my hood may have been repainted, to repair a shipping issue. The reason I think it may have been is that the silver metallic seems to be best described as a bit splotchy when looking at it under certain lighting conditions. The clear looks good, no sand marks, no swirls and I can't find a bit of overspray anywhere so I'm thinking this is all factory finish. It's not terrible mind you, just a bit annoying.

Has anybody else noticed this?

Thanks,
Gene Sweeney

 

I dont have DS, but Electric Blue. Unfortounatly, I had to have my hood replaced. It was repainted at the body shop. Yesterday, while washing her, something cought my eye. As I waked by, I though I say swirl marks in the bonnet. After closer examination, Nothing was found.

After I started to walk, I though I saw it again! When I walked by, and the sun was just right, I guess the paint seems....well...blotchy. Its very possible that you bonnet was replaced, or, maybe, it was the heat from the engine.

If I can, I'll try to snap a pic to compare with you.

 

I think I know what you are talking about. I have a 2004 DS and it seems to be splotchy in certain lighting conditions. This only happens with the hood. The sides don't seem to do this.

 

You are 100% correct. The sides are perfect. I wondered through our company's garage just now and looked a a dark silver Scion, same thing. I guess my ****-rententive side is showing!

Gene Sweeney

 

agreed. splotchy is a good word for it. under certain light conditions, i see the "splotchiness" as well. sometimes i am not sure if i am seeing things or what but other times... it bugs me so much that i think i should say something to MINI. we just picked out MINI up in early August.

of course, if i were to ask MINI about it. all they'd suggest is a repaint... which from what I know about car paintjobs is the job they do at the factory is better than most auto body shops will do...

so, for now, i'm biting my tongue...

 

Heh. Gotta love that DS. Sometimes it hides things (dirt) well, and other times it shows things well. Sometimes I think I see things that aren't even there. At least it isn't boring like a solid color. You know, that is always just a solid color.

Yea DS!

 

I see it too, almost looks like little areas where there is a higher concentrations of a darker pigment, and only on the hood. All this time I thought is was just me

 

I have one spot near one of the headlights that seems to have a higher concentration of lighter, metallic silver color. You have to catch it in just the right light. The first time I clayed the car I worked on it like crazy, but it is under the clear coat.

As far as I know, no one else has ever noticed it. You have to just catch it right to see it.

I figure it's OK - I have a few "beauty marks" too!

Mark S

 

Talked to Mini of Towson about this and they were cool, but don't have a body shop. They suggested I contact Mini of USA and try to set up an appointment with the district rep, hey it's worth a try.

Gene

 

...just picked up my dark silver clubman. how do i join the cool club?

 

you want to join the splotchy paint club?

 

me thinks they may have fixed the paint issue...i havnt noticed..ill take another look...

 

it's the nature of silver paint... all of those flakes and pigment can never be truely evenly applied... at least from what i've seen/been told.

 

I have not noticed this at all on my DS - MCS.

 

Unless the bonnet is actually removed, when it gets repainted, everything in the engine bay is masked off. The way to tell if the bonnet has been repainted is by looking at the edges of it.

Lift the bonnet, and carefully follow the edges. Are there any drips of paint or clumps?

Run your fingers along the underside edge. Does it feel sharp or rough?

Look for tape lines along the edges.

When we repaint parts, we need to color sand them to remove or match existing orange peel. We can't sand the extreme edges because the paint is too thin and/or can't get a buffer there. Look for fogged areas along these edges where a shop may have sanded it, but couldn't polish it out.

Metallic paints are blended into the existing paint. The experienced eye can find where the paints are blended and "dusted". They will occur near body/seam lines.

Use an electronic thickness gauge. The paint thickness will be fairly uniform across the whole car. It won't vary by more than 1 or 2 mil. Depending on the repaint was done, the cheapest way is to just add more paint. So if your paint measures 5mil now, after the repaint, it may be 10 or 11 mil. Unless the original paint was completely sanded off and repainted, it will be thicker on the newly painted areas.

Look at the paint in the dark, and use a flashlight over the paint looking for reflections. If the orange peel on the suspected area is less than surrounding areas, it was probably repainted as well. This happens because a shop that painted it, color sanded and polished the area to a high degree, better than factory, and thus made it look better. It could go the other way around too and look more orange peely if they didn't do any color sanding.

Finally, look for white compounding residue in the cracks and crevices. This won't exist from the factory, but always happens at body shops. I'm not talking about dealer applied waxes and polishes. I'm talking about splatter and thick white residue under the bonnet or inside the engine bay where the sanding residue or polishing compound made it's way and was too hard to remove.

In the past month, I've worked on two high end cars...a Corvette Z06 Anniversary Edition and an M3 that were both purchased new from the dealer but had been repainted without the new owners knowledge.

The evidence was clear in each case. The Vette although painted in a very high end manner had an extraordinary amount of orange peel. There were drips along the hood edge corners. There were uneven smooth/textured areas of clearcoat in straight lines around the hood and the engine bay where the painter overlapped the fenders and stopped. Tape lines were found on some panels as well. There was polishing compound in the recesses of the car. We found it behind door panels where they would only exist if the car was taken apart. We found body panel fasteners that were OEM painted black, but scratched as if a tool was used to remove them.

The M3 had similar issues but the paint was extraordinarily soft in some areas. The clear responded in a negative way to polishing...I'd polish it clear, and moments later would fog/haze up again. I'd wipe it down, be clear, then minutes later be fogged as if it were humid but it wasn't. The paint was very thin in these suspect areas less than 3 mil. BMW paint is usually in the 4.5 to 5 mil. We eventually found "waffles" in the paint. Something I originally thought was a dent was actually a dimple in the paint which can occur because a contaminant like a hair was in the paint, it was removed, colorsanded and polished, and left a little divot in the paint that can only be seen when viewing the reflections, and the reflected lines bend at that point.

The splotchiness the OP is referring to is common in most metallic paints. It's not always a sign of a repaint. You have to play detective and look for some of the clues that I have outlined here.

Richard