Z4 paint oxidisation - help!!

J

JSz4

Member
I bought my silver 2003 Z4 almost 6 years ago and the paint work was in good condition due to it being garaged much of it’s life. Although I haven’t been able to garage it, and had to park in the sun at work every day, I have regularly cleaned and polished it and the bodywork is in good condition. However a few years ago I noticed white cloudy lines appearing down the bonnet and horizontally across the boot. This has spread across the whole bonnet and boot, A-pillars and the tops of the wings, and now the extreme tops of the doors. The surface of the paint in these areas doesn’t feel smooth but looks dry and gets stained by water marks and in some areas now contains many fine scratches which all go in the same direction.

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Could someone explain what has caused this? I’m assuming the clear coat has deteriorated and the cloudiness on surfaces facing the sky is oxidisation?

I tried claying the boot and using meguiars ultimate compound several times by hand last weekend and then a conventional polish and wax and it looks barely any better.

Is it likely the oxidisation can be removed using a cutting compound and a rotary polisher? If so, will this just strip off the top damaged layer of clear coat but, since the clear coat has failed, the oxidisation will just return?

Any advice would be really appreciated.
 
I'm no expert on these matters, but my first point of call would be to go to a trusted body repairer nearby, ask them for advice to rectify the issue, and find out whether or not its possible to compound the oxidation out. From the pictures, it seems to my inexperienced self that both panels have been sprayed before, for whatever reason i.e. accident or vandalism or a poorly prepped repair and some sort of paint contamination has occurred over the following years. I personally think it's worse case scenario, your going to have to get them resprayed, or replace them with 2nd hand panels in the same colour to avoid painting.
From what you've said above, you've already tried compounding. That alone would've removed most of your oxidation, small scratches etc leaving you with a visable improvement on the current status, as most compounds contain a certain amount of fillers to help smooth out the paint surface.
I'm sorry, I can't be more helpful. But your best bet is a body repair expert in this case.
Good luck and keep us updated on your findings. :thumbsup:
 
Yeah it looks like a bad respray sometime in the past. Unfortunately, there is no fix for that other than another respray.
 
Thanks for the replies.

I did try compounding the bonnet by hand last year before the cloudiness was so severe but didn't use polish and wax afterwards. It seemed to remove much of the the oxidisation (pic shows comparison to the wing) but by the following day it had returned.
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I was hoping the issue might be that I was compounding by hand and a rotary might work? Will see if I can find a bodyshop to ask their opinion as it seems unusual for the whole car to of been previously resprayed rather than just a corner if it was involved in an accident. I've spent quite a lot on it over 6 years and mechanically it's excellent but at 117k miles couldn't justify cost of a repsray sadly
 
My bright solid red Z started to get lacquer peel in places - not major - just door handles, wing edges etc which I could live with. Then over a period of 6-8 weeks I started to get white patches appear on the boot lid, bumpers and rear wings but mostly when the atmosphere was damp.
I ended up getting a full respray which was expensive but dont regret. The bodyshop told me that red is the worst for fading and lacquer peel but have since seen the same issues on black and grey cars - not so much on silver?
 
Thanks NS66, that's interesting that it was when the atmosphere was damp, I really noticed it start after a trip to France where it was parked in the sun for about a week in high heat. I haven't seen similar cloudiness on any other silver Z4 though.
 
Sadly it will need a repaint or replacement panels the same colour. As others have said a poor paint job in the past .
 
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