I was with a friend today at a body shop and the owner of the body shop noticed my MINI and commented on it etc etc, then he saw the aero kit I had on, and he said that the textured parts on the entire kit all the way around is done completely wrong. He's done a lot of MINIs before and he works on a lot of show cars. He said the problem is that, the clear is suppose to be over the black textured parts instead of being under. The aero kit was painted at the dealer when I picked up my MINI (4/06), it was done by Long Beach BMW/MINI in which I called and they gave me the ref. number my car's aero kit. Other people have also commented on how the textured part and the paint is done poorly on my aero kit, anyone have any insights? I never knew about this until today, do I even have a chance against that bodyshop to do it right again? Long Beach gave me numbers to the body shop that they sent it out to paint the aero kit when I bought my car, but they already closed for the night.

 

That would be correct, textured paint would go down under the clear coat.

Having just created a textured product...

Prep surface
Prime
Texture
Color Coat
Clear Coat

 

Wouldn't clear coating the texture portion make the matte portion glossy?? I had my Aero kit skirts painted at the factory, so I never really noticed whether it was cleared or not, but it matches well with my matte plastic trim. I'll have to ask my paint guys about this as well.

Richard

 

The body shop guy told me that my black texture would end up chipping off easily because it has no clear over it, and that has started to happen in some places especially on the edge parts of the black textured places have started chipping off. How should I pursue this with the body shop that painted my aero kit originally? I'll take pictures later tonight when I get home, all I can say is if you seen my aero kit up close, it looks pretty bad.

 

alpha- mine is not textured, it is a smooth matte black on the area
that matches the arches. i don't even put wax on it cause as
OG mentioned, it's suppose to be matte and don't want it looking
glossy!

 

close up of the matte black part of the bumper...

 

same on the front.

 

Ken, mine looks like yours but it has a texture feel to it, and where the black meets body color, they done a horrible job...

 

alpha- why don't you mask your PW, sand it down with a 400grit, finish
with a 800grit, primer, then paint it matte black to a smooth finish?

you can probably find duplicolor matte black and it should work just fine.

unless you want to pay the bodyshop for all that work...then talk to octaneguy. hint hint.

 

Long Beach told me which bodyshop they used to paint the aero kit, and gave me a person to talk to. The SA, Audrey told me that if it is truly done wrong they'll have to step up and figure something out. No way am I going to pay for someone else's mistake plus it looks like a 5th grader painted my front bumper and side skirts where the black meets the Pepper White!

 

Bump anyone else?

 

No expert here, but why would you put clear coat down and a color coat on top of that? Make's no sense to me..... PS: Do clear coats come in different degrees of gloss, IE: satin, semi-gloss, high gloss, etc?

 

Bump!

 

I would suggest you do as your SA advised.....call the body shop and make sure they do it right

 

I have the Assistant Service Manager and the Service Manager at Long Beach MINI/BMW dealing with this with the body shop guy that painted it originally back in April of 2006. They'll give me a answer to this tomorrow.

 

Clear HAS to go over the base coat, assuming that is the type of paint the body shop used. To get the different degrees of gloss there are additives mixed with the clear to achieve the finish, flat, semi, matte, desired.

I flattened the clear in the interior of my '56 Chevy truck to give it the look of leather.

 

i have never seen clear over the black. My black is very flat and it drives me crazy cause my black plastic is very shiney. My black paint is flatter and more textured than any other ones i have seen. What canada got instaed of the GP has factory aerokits (yes, actual factory painted and installed ones) and they are not cleared over the black. As a person who has some professional painting training (not much but some) clearing over the flat black just does not make any sense. However, it is a good idea if done right, (black base coat, and semigloss clear), and i bet that might look better than that actual flat black paint they use. But i doubt very much that is what the shop would have done. Everypaint shop has textured black paint on the shelf, and it is not designed to be cleared over, but maybe i will have a project coming, testing the base/clear with semigloss clear, then i can paint all my black including the arcehs so they all match (im **** about things matching in colour and textures) Beecher