dion

My wife's C300 has issues with the paint on the hood. I noticed an area on the hood where it appeared to be a streak of something like soap residue with bubble like impressions, except after I washed the car several times, it remained there. I finally went to scratch at one of these small bubbles and the paint flaked right off.

Anyways, long story shortened is, my wifes 2008 is at the bodyshop having the hood resprayed, and we have a 2007 c230 sport that has less miles on it than our car.

I just thought I'd share.

hyukki

I was about to say "Have you tried claying?" until I saw the paint flaking off part.

I hope respraying turns out well!

Krytech

sorry to hear that, I hope the new paint blends well.

how long have you had the car? Did you notice it right away or do you think it appeared after you got it?

chilledbenz

Paint jobs just keep getting worse and worse with all the regulations they are up against. I suppose the environment is more important than the paint on our cars, but at some point you have to draw the line.

I made a point of spending 15mins looking over my car before I accepted it. My salesman didn't even flinch when I told him to put on the order sheet "owner accepts his car upon approval of vehicle". Mine was flawless, except for that damn orange peel, can't really get away from it anymore.

Its quite surprising that the paint would bubble or flake off on the hood though. Usually see that sort of thing on plastics such as the bumper or gas filler door. Hate the idea of having a brand new car repainted, specially since I've heard that no auto body shop can paint the nano particle paint.

JimPap

Dion,

Where was yours built?

GDawgC220

I feel that MB's paint could be better.

My parent's '01 S500 had a few spots that are bubbling already. Left rear fender and trunk. Their '99 ML430, both right doors are huge bubbles. These are regularly waxed and maintained cars. Driving on the roads, I've seen a few w211s have bubbles in their paint as well. Not sure what their paint process is or perhaps just quality control.

Is MBUSA covering the paint job?

Baron Samedi

Back in the early 90s BMW started painting cars with orange peel purposely to reduce the appearance of acid rain damage on the horizontal surfaces of the paint. Don't know if that's still happening with all the covered transportation and storage that happens these days.

dion

I hope so too, I can only wait and see.

I think it's been there along, I just didn't notice it right away. PDI wasn't done well, but I decided to wait to have things addressed at the first service. We purchased the car when it was released back in August.

I looks like something was spilled/dropped onto the hood either before the paint process or after it was painted. ALmost like "fisheyes" but with really defined edges/borders. I think the "streaks" that I noticed were areas that were touched up with clear using a brush to prevent the paint from falling off. I don't know if this occured before leaving Germany or arriving at the port, or possibly at the stealership.

Japan....LOL...seriously, it is a German built car, which leads me to wonder how the SA cars will compare to this.

The bubbles in my paint are physically small but a large amount. Imagine three paintbrush strokes, about six-to-eight inches in length, with airbubbles trapped in them.

MBUSA is covering it.

Maybe the protective plastic covers did this to the paint?

MBfan21

I'm curious to see what this looks like. Do you have a picture of it? Do you know how much this is costing to fix? You mentioned MB is paying for the repair but just wondering how much it normally would cost to get something like this fixed.

RLE

<<Back in the early 90s BMW started painting cars with orange peel purposely to reduce the appearance of acid rain damage on the horizontal surfaces of the paint.>>

Mercedes and Porsche paint jobs have had the orange peel look since the fifties. My 24 year old Porsche has it. Other than color matching, (not a problem anymore) matching the orange peel (when present) is what defines a perfect repair.

I do love the BMW story, though. Sounds like sales department BS.

dion

I thought about taking pictures of it, but I didn't. I'd assume about 1K to do the repair right. No actual bodywork, just take the paint down or fill the spots with primer filler, respray the entire hood. I hope they don't try to "spot" the area.

MARK CUMMINS

Looks like the Hood was Re Painted at the VPC from Damage in shipping

Sounds like Solvent pop ....PUSHING The Paint with Fast Reducer

dion

It's definetly not a respray, the repair was hard to notice. The give away was the brushstroke looking streak on top of the bubbles.

schvamf

Was in the showroom a month ago and they had a CL63 AMG in the showroom and it had orange peel! I would think for a $130k car you would get a perfect paint job.

How does the Obsidian black compare to the regular black for orange peel? I'm rethinking the color I want to get!