Detailers/Body guys: Need an expert opinion on some clear coat failure (E46)

[fiveightandten]

A week ago, I noticed clear coat failure on the driver's side door on my car.


I've had this 2003 330ci for a number of years and have always washed/waxed the car religiously. It gets driven year round, but is rinsed after every snow storm. I know the hood has been replaced and sprayed, but there's no evidence of it being blended all the way back to the doors. That being said, i've never seen factory clear fail like this.


I picked up some touch up paint, and my plan was to pick out the lifted clear, use some 2000 grit to feather the edges, and drop fill new clear in. I taped off around the worst spot, and when I lifted the tape, it peeled up the clear in an area like 3 times the size of the original failure. There's clearly an issue here.


Is there anything that can be done about this? What's the best course of action in terms of damage control at this point?


This is the worst spot. It started out the size of the area you can see where I removed the clear. The painters tape pulled it up to the larger bubbled area.





I removed the rest of that clear. But I don't think it's going to stop, so this is where I put the brakes on things so I could get a professional opinion.





The rest of the spots look like this right now...

[BimmerBreaker]

Probably not factory paint in that area. Not a lot you can do as far as a permanent repair. Sanding it down to the edges and clearing over it would be a good short term solution

[Critter7r]

Either the pics are skewing the perspective, or that's a really heavy coat of clear.

Agreed that it doesn't look factory. usually clear only peels in circles like that when the surface wasn't perfect prior to spraying.

[mfan225]

I have the same issue on my E39 on the roof. Original paint as I'm the original owner. I think a respray is your only option here :/

[Cyrix2k]

respray unfortunately. The same thing happened on my '97 e39 and it's only gotten worse I'm pretty sure the paint is not factory on my car.

[fiveightandten]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I had a detailing and body shop guy look at it today. He put a paint meter on the car, and looked things over. He confirmed that it's factory paint. It'll have to be taken down and re-cleared.

[light351]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I had a detailing and body shop guy look at it today. He put a paint meter on the car, and looked things over. He confirmed that it's factory paint. It'll have to be taken down and re-cleared.

Maybe Factory paint, and not factory clear?

[fiveightandten]

Maybe Factory paint, and not factory clear?

The whole car was 4.2 to 4.4 mil. Except for the trunk, which was 9.3, and obviously got sprayed at some point. There aren't any tape lines, and the color match/orange peel match perfectly. It appears to be untouched factory base and clear.

[speedster]

thats a consitent number for that paint. i would have said respray myself as well. good luck with it.