Paint?

[OhBeWan]

Black 2002 BMW Z3 3.0 with 85,000 miles. Purchased a few months ago. 3rd Z3 I have owned, but first that I have done any work on. First 2 had less than 50,000 miles so I didn't need to do much. Have fixed a few small issues, mostly with help from this forum.

From a distance, paint looks great. When you get close, the paint has spots, not stone chips but circles (not exact circles) where it is not shiny. There is paint under the non-shiny spot. They vary in size but are mostly less than 1/4 inch. They are mostly on hood and trunk. Did not notice when I first owned because of the great wax job done by dealer where I purchased. My two solutions are frequent wax and a Turtle Wax product called Jet Black which is black wax. Neither solution lasts long enough compared with the effort.

Every dealership has a miracle man who touches up spots. I could track one down and see if he couldn't do about 20 spots on my car. I am not interested in repainting the whole car. Posting a picture probably wouldn't show you anything.

Any other ideas?

PS - thanks for the suggestions on seat bushings, repairing the woofer, various parts shops, locating the radio code, etc.

[Mr Bingley]

Sounds like something got to the clear coat--like it was parked under a tree or bird crap was left on it for extended periods. If so, they should buff out. Take it to a good professional detailer and have them look at it.

[JeffyD]

It might buff out, but it might not - there may not be much of the clear coat left to actually buff out. I have a spot similar to what you're describing on my 2002 M coupe, also black. Right on the hood by the headlight driver side. Mine seems to have some weird damage done to the coat, though - it looks like some sort of paint stripper had been dropped on it. Something that wasn't there when I bought it, and wasn't an accident I know about. Anyway, just a weird coinkydink.