I wasn't sure what forum to put this in (detailing? exterior?), so I figured I'd put it up here, where more people might read it.


Has anyone had problems with their roof paint flaking?

The white coat over the IB is flaking off Pig's roof, big time. The other day when I was washing him, it started coming off in flakes the size of a quarter or so. I've put some photos on line here.

Has anyone else had this problem?

Is this a manufacturing defect specific to this one car?

Do you think this ought to be covered by the warranty? Or just fixed by MINI as good customer service?

Anyone have any idea how much it will cost to get the roof repainted, assuming that MINI won't stand up and fix it?

Any help, or thoughts, greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

 

I'd really think that this is a problem with the primer on the roof. Might even be as simple as one grimy hand touching the roof before it went through the paint booth.

This should definitely be a warranty issue that should be covered.

 

What is the car history? Did you buy it new? Is the paint underneath the white body colored? A little hard to tell from the pics.

 

We bought him new.

Manufactured in May '04, delivered in June '04.

The car has around 24,000 miles right now (we motor a lot).

The paint underneath the white is body colored (Indy Blue), but I had thought that was standard, because I had read somewhere that all the MINI's were painted body color before getting a secondary painting to do the contrasting roof colors.

 

I would have to agree with you, YuccaPatrol


This issue should definitely be covered by the warranty

Love your s/roof graphic were did you get it from

 

Mike at Aesthetic Creations made it custom, and installed it at AMVIV.

 

Do our white and black roofs actually have the body color paint under
them? or did the dealer catch the manufacturing mistake vs customer
order before delivery and had it locally painted?

 

Should definatly be covered by the warranty. Not sure about the paint procedures BMW uses on the MINI, but here it seems that something went wrong in applying the roof color. Either bad primer, or bad prep work. Whichever the case, only a Chevy dealer would claim this to be a normal condition.

Good luck. Let us know how it goes.

 

That was my first impulse. Still shouldn't peel like that though, if the job was done right. It's not unheard of for the dealer to do some painting on a brand new car. The cars do get dinged in shipping, on the lots, etc. Sadly, at least here in California, they do not have to disclose if such work was performed prior to selling the car.

 

I don't think that was the case on our car. We tracked it closely (some might say obsessively) through production and delivery, and there wasn't any time lag at the VPC or the dealer (it pretty much flowed straight through to us).

I'll call my nearest dealer (MINI of Murray, in Salt Lake, they've been very good so far) tomorrow, and report back.

 

MINI's are definately painted all body color, and the roof is painted white or black afterward. There is a film from the UK MINI website that shows a time lapse sort of progression of the car through the factory. It shows how they tape off the top after the whole car has been sprayed body color and then add the roof color on top.

And I must second the opinion on your roof graphic. Top notch! It would look totally sick on a LY/W.

 

Ouch! Sorry to see the paint peeling off your roof. I had until recently a 2004 MCS (Sept 2003 build, bought new Oct 2003) Chili Red with a White roof and never ever had this problem. My white roof was perfect for the 17K miles/16 months of ownership.

It seems to me your car had an aftermarket roof paint job, and a very bad one at that. Did you originally order the car with a white roof or body color roof?

If the car was in fact ordered with a white roof and if the car was indeed painting at the factory this way, then this is the first time in 3 years I see a problem like yours.

We also have a '02 MC CVT, Pepper White with a black roof and after
nearly 3 years and 29K miles of motoring, no problems there either.

Last week I took delivery of my new '05 MCS, also painted Chili Red with a solid white roof (None of my 3 MINIs have had sunroofs) and the paint quality appears to be excellent, perhaps a notch better than my '04 MCS was.

My cars live under the blistering South Florida sun/heat and the paint jobs have held up very well so far.

My suggestion for you is to take the car back to the dealer and have the MINI area representative take a look at the vehicle. Like I said, I don't think your white roof is a genuine factory paint job, but rather, a poorly put together aftermarket paint job gone bad.

I think everyone will be interested in finding more about the outcome of your situation.

Best of luck and keeps us posted.

 

True, but there is the possibility that Tom's roof was not originally painted white at the factory either.

Whichever reason(s) for this particular problem, I think Tom needs to bring this to the attention of his dealer's service manager, shop foreman and the MINI area representative. This is clearly a warranty related defect. but more than that, it would be interesting to determine whether this is a genuine factory roof paint job or not. Something tells me his car left the factory as a solid Indy Blue MCS and somewhere along the line, the snafu in the order was corrected by respraying the roof white with aftermarket methods.

 

My Dobby was on the same ship as Pig, and the only car that was held up at VPC was mine. Pig went right through the factory, to the ship, to the VPC and out real quick, and straight to his dealer. There would have been no time no how to have the roof painted.

Tom, that's the screwiest thing I've ever seen. Perhaps the spray gun went empty when painting the primer over the IB?

 

That roof looks like it was ill painted. The dealer has some explaining to do. I still believe this car was subjected to a roof re-spray of some sort, that or, the factory royally screwed up during the roof painting process.

I know one person that bought an EB/EB MCS a couple of years ago and he insisted on a white roof. The dealer re-sprayed the roof white and he has had no problems since.

Another question... Has this car been exposed to harmful environmental conditions or chemicals?

 

Oh my! This is DEFINITELY a warranty issue...please keep us all posted as to the outcome...sorry to see such sad pixs....I hope it all turns out for the best (as it should)..:smile:

Donna
02' CR/W MCS (gone to MINI heaven)
05' Cool Blue MCSC

 

Your vehicle may have been damaged in shipping and repainted at the Vehicle Distribution Center. There is a photo tour of the facility on this site showing Mini's and BMW's undergoing bodywork to repair shipping damage. There is one photo of a Mini recieving an entire new roof. I believe the following address will take you to the correct page.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...&highlight=vpc

This may not have happened to your car, but it is a possibility. The loss of coating adhesion that you are seeing is not normal and is usually an indication of poor prep work. You should see the dealer.

 

No doubt in my mind this car received a paint re-spray on the roof. See the dealer and escalate the problem as necessary.

 

The consensus seems to be that the paint on the roof was either applied after production or touched up at the VPC. The weird thing is that I tracked this car OBSESSIVELY from the moment we ordered it. I was calling ASKMINI several times a day and logging into the Owner's Lounge all the time. I even had a calender on which I marked each step of the process (yes, I'm a dork).

Pig was ordered as an IB/W MCS, which was reflected in the Owner's Lounge within a few days of the order being placed (he was initially scheduled to be CR/W). His factory schedule was textbook--finished exactly as predicted, the right amount of time in the paint shop, went straight to the dock, etc. He hopped on a ship and cruised right through the VPC. I literally do not think there was any extra time at the VPC for paint to dry. When I picked him up at the dealership in June 2004, I asked the MA if anything had gone wrong (just to make sure). He said no. We've had no other problems with the paint (thus far, anyway).

One poster asked if the car had been exposed to any harsh environmental or chemical conditions. None. He's been doing a lot of motoring (23+K in 9 months), but he's garaged nightly and hasn't been exposed to any weird chemicals.

Tom has placed a call to MINI of Murray. We will keep you posted on the outcome. (And for clarification, we purchased Pig at Hank Aaron in Atlantan, but have since moved--Murray is our closest dealership.)

 

I talked to the dealer (MINI of Murray in Salt Lake City) on the phone today. They said that the roof paint is definitely covered under warranty, and that I ought to expect 2-3 days in the shop to repaint.

So, I'm taking Pig in next Monday (had to work my schedule for the 3 hr drive to SLC). I'll discuss it with the service guys there and see what they think happened (whether this was a post-factory thing, or what), and report back once I've talked to them.

As an aside, I've been very impressed with MINI of Murray overall. I've heard some horror stories on NAM about dealers, particularly in regards to service, but all me experiences with them have been positive (last service, they even put up with us test driving half the MINI's on their lot while waiting for ours).

 

Don't know about your schedule, but if you can swing it stay around until the job is done. This will allow you to ask to see the vehicle after the initial prep work (light sanding for adhesion of new paint) is done and before any primer is applied to the roof. If there was damage at the VDC then you'll be able to see telltale traces of body putty or filler.

I'd also make sure they paint the entire roof and spoiler, don't know why they wouldn't but you can never tell they might be thinking about a blend

Good luck

 

Just an update on this situation:

I took Pig to MINI of Murray (in Salt Lake City) today.

The service advisor looked baffled. He called the service manager. The service manager broke out the paint thickness measurement gizmo, and pronounced the paint original (not a re-paint job) based on the thickness of the paint. He also found some tiny particles of dirt under some other (nearby) parts of the white white paint. He thought that might be part of the cause.

Next they sent us off to the body shop they work with. The body shop manager said he'd never seen a MINI with "paint failure" (his words to describe the problem) before. He also said that he thought it couldn't be right that Pig's blue (under the white) roof paint had a shiny clear coat. He said he thought that either that coat should never have been applied (but wouldn't that have showed up on the paint thickness gizmo?) or that the roof should have been sanded after the blue, and before the white, and somehow the sanding got skipped.

Anyway, the upshot: Pig is at the body shop getting his entire roof repainted. The warranty covers this work.

MINI of Murray also provided a rental car (although they have no loaner MINI's, so they just contract with Enterprise). The only down side is that the only available rental cars were all giant SUV's, so I'm stuck driving around in a friggin' huge Dodge Durango until Friday (when I can go down and get Pig back).

 

Oh, Tom, I have this vision of you in a big @$$ SUV. You go to take your first corner, and although you slow down, the Durango still goes up on two wheels and you almost flip. Is that the hardest part about having the SUV? Taking corners differently???

 

Congratulations at least on getting it fixed under warranty. Even though logic said that it would, I am sure it has been eating at you that it might not be (at least it would with me). Must be a load off to get it fixed.

 

Puzzling issue - But at least it's being handled correctly! Sounds like something got hosed in the factory.

-Paul!