[PERCY]

Does anybody in the MINI community own a pure silver Cooper with paint defects. My MINI will soon be investigated by BMW for a mismatch in paint colour between the front wing and drivers door. I have already removed overspray on the sill. Should I accept a respray? My first thoughts are definately not! Anybody had paint reworked on their MINI. If so could you see the repair?

[cjay]

Any other Pure Silver owners in MINI2 land have a really bad paint job? My car looks great until you you park it in full sun and appears to be worse at noon, when the sun is directly above it. The paint is uneven on the sides of the car and has light and dark areas and you can see bands in the roof which is also Pure Silver. I saw two other PS's with the same problem on the weekend. Has anyone had the same problem? has anyone taken it to MINI and had it fixed?

Maybe they never get sunny days in Oxford

[COOPERation]

There is a old thread here somewhere on this problem...my PS/PS MCS (June '02 build) has that problem especially on the doors. It is very visible in certain light, but almost impossible to photograph.

[swamos]

This can be a very common problem in light coloured metalics (particularly silver and light gold). Local American branded stuff has this problem 10x worse than Cjay's car. Having said this, some Japanese cars don't seem to suffer from it at all. The MINI seems to be somewhere in between

It is not in evidence on our EB car.

[cjay]

I'd be interested in seeing the old thread but can't find it.

It is possible to photograph the paint faults.... shame I could not get the Alloy Patina dash they would match !

[swamos]

Quote:

Originally posted by cjay
I'd be interested in seeing the old thread but can't find it.

It is possible to photograph the paint faults.... shame I could not get the Alloy Patina dash they would match !

Eewww. Maybe it should be called Impure Silver

[cjay]

I have a few others...

"PS" Patina Silver

"PS" Pure S@!#%#@T

[cjay]

Be warned if you thinking of buying a Pure Silver MINI!

According to MINI Australia my crap paint job is normal, they even offered to show me another Pure Silver MINI and a 3 Series with the same crap paint job to prove it.

The logic seems to be that if they paint enough crap Pure Silver ones we will not have to to it properly.... So if you buy a Pure Silver don't take it out in the sun, you will only be disappointed.

Go for a solid color and save the $600 (in OZ) it costs to get... crap.

[KenL]

Quote:

Originally posted by cjay
I'd be interested in seeing the old thread but can't find it.

It is possible to photograph the paint faults.... shame I could not get the Alloy Patina dash they would match !

Mine certainly doesn't look like that. I notice too that the picture shows the side of the car in the shade not the sun.

We don't get 40C temperatures in Scotland though, I wonder if that could be the cause?

[NED]

My paint finish fine, haven't seen anything like that before! I know someone who works in Quality control at the pressing plant - I'll ask if they know anything about this problem.

[cjay]

Thanks NED! I look forward to hearing what your friend has to say. I have made a formal complaint to MINI - BMW Australia and it looks like they are ignoring me hoping I'll go away... great customer relations. I'd love to hear from more PS owners if they have problems or if they have a good paint job.

[gscooter49]

Guess my ol eyes must be going bad - my pure silver looks just great to me. I expect that a car, even one built on current automated assembly lines and painted by automated spray machines, is going to have some imperfections. I have yet to notice any on mine here in Northern Virginia. 6 months 7500 miles and still motoring happily along.

Perhaps yours arrived in port with some need for a little touching up and someone failed to do the job right.

Anyone want to get totally scared away from all metallic colors just read about the variables that can affect colors. The list of variables is well over half a dozen. Those faint of heart should stick to solid colors.

[zgokart]

[quote]Originally posted by gscooter49
[b]Guess my ol eyes must be going bad - my pure silver looks just great to me.
____________________
Mine too. Eleven months and 9000 miles on the odometer. Cjay, maybe yours was a respray. I believe that Pure Silver, because of it's high reflectance, can look strange at times in bright sunlight. I notice that it looks best in the shade or with an overcast sky. Anyoen agree with that?

[cjay]

When I had BMW - MINI check it they said it had not been re-sprayed, I got them to check as when it was delivered it had some paint chips on the passenger door had been retouched (very badly)

I'm glad everyone else with a PS has a good paint job because it proves that BMW are full of crap, they are trying to tell me they all have it!

As for being better in the shade, it does not look as bad. But I'm afraid where I come from we have a lot of sun, maybe I should only go out at night

[gscooter49]

Understand what I believe you are concerned about. I do notice something somewhat similar - but personally I don't find that to be a fault. Metallic paints are going to pick up/reflect light differently from different angles. Even if it was considered imperfect by the pros - frankly don't find it at all intolerable or unacceptable. I find anything made by us humans even if we just build the machines that do the work - things are going to have variations. Stick to the solid colors if you don't like the metallic paint shading. Certainly that sound's like a glib answer that doesn't help when you already own the car; but, it isn't intended that way.

Recommend that anyone concerned about metallic paint inconsistency do some reading on the topic - the challenges for body shops in color matching and that will give you some perspective on the problems. It is remarkable that shops can match the metallic colors at all.

A number of years ago I was waiting while work was done on my car and found a paint shop magazine (Not generally intended for the public). In it there was a discussion about the headaches of paint matching during a repair job. Here are the things I recall that will have a significant on how colors will appear. Remember that the metallic particals in the paint will naturally sink to the bottom of the surface. On horizontal surfaces I can't imagine what will happen. Anyway here are the factors I can recall.

Pigment color match (Assuming exactly accurate then...)
Paint viscosity (Thickness)
Ratio of paint colorant to metallic material
Shape of original paint metal material vs that in new paint
Air temperature
Speed of drying /Drying method (e.g. UV Light Room vs Vented Unheated room)
Thickness of application
Undercoat/Primer color shade

As I mentioned after reading this article I suddenly found myself very fond of solid colors on my cars.

I'm not sure if this has been brought up before but I thought i'd let you all know what has happened to my mini since i've had it.

I picked it up about 6 weeks ago now, looked amazing (still does) and i couldn't have been more pleased with it....

the second time i washed it (which was probably only a few days after i collected it. hehe ) i noticed that the paint on the doors and rear panel looked a bit strange.

from certain angles and in the right kind of light, it looked as if there were shadows on the doors. i moved the car thinking that perhaps it was a tree casting its shadow on the door, but infact the paintwork itself was very slightly 'patchy', dark in some places and lighter in others. It really isn't obvious to anyone other than me and people i tell, but after you know its there it becomes even more annoying.

Cutting a long story short, it went in to the dealer today to be inspected by someone from BMW. What they have told me is that this is not an isolated case and infact there have been a number of similar cases, and that they have a problem in the factory for some reason with some silver mini's.

they know that the problem is only with silver mini's, but at the moment they do not know what is causing the problem.

they are currently sending the report back to BMW GB to be processed, however the manager at the dealership has told me really there are three options...

1. Wait until they know what is causing the problem and then build me a new mini (they can not do this currently, because they can not guantee that the same problem will occur again)
2. I choose a different colour and they build me a new mini
3. They respray the car.

has any one else here had a similar problem? or heard about one? What do you guys think i should do?

James.

p.s. i'll try and get a picture of it tommorow, although i'm not really sure it will be visible on the camera...

[suprchrgdmini]

The 2 guys i hang out with have pure silver minis. I see the same problem on ther cars. i thought it was just the shadow but i guess it isnt. I m going to show them tomorrow.

[JugMan]

Cjay has also experienced this problem. It was QUITE visible in the photos he took of it. BMW did tests on the paint thickness, and the paint thickness is uniform, so there's nothing there. There's even a thread on this in Faults and Fixes. Might help to look there.

Jug

[KenL]

Compare your build date with cjay's. He has been getting nowhere with MINI in Australia. Hopefully your positive response to there being a real problem will help his cause.

If I were you I'd take the offer of a replacement assuming it will be at no cost to you. Don't be put off getting another silver car as I'm sure the chance of it happening again is VERY small.

It's disappointing that these cars are making it out from the factory. Are the paint QA people asleep on the job?

My Silver paint is beautiful BTW.

[bobnobski]

Quote:

Originally posted by adrenmini
I'm not sure if this has been brought up before but I thought i'd let you all know what has happened to my mini since i've had it.

I picked it up about 6 weeks ago now, looked amazing (still does) and i couldn't have been more pleased with it....

the second time i washed it (which was probably only a few days after i collected it. hehe ) i noticed that the paint on the doors and rear panel looked a bit strange.

from certain angles and in the right kind of light, it looked as if there were shadows on the doors. i moved the car thinking that perhaps it was a tree casting its shadow on the door, but infact the paintwork itself was very slightly 'patchy', dark in some places and lighter in others. It really isn't obvious to anyone other than me and people i tell, but after you know its there it becomes even more annoying.

Cutting a long story short, it went in to the dealer today to be inspected by someone from BMW. What they have told me is that this is not an isolated case and infact there have been a number of similar cases, and that they have a problem in the factory for some reason with some silver mini's.

they know that the problem is only with silver mini's, but at the moment they do not know what is causing the problem.

they are currently sending the report back to BMW GB to be processed, however the manager at the dealership has told me really there are three options...

1. Wait until they know what is causing the problem and then build me a new mini (they can not do this currently, because they can not guantee that the same problem will occur again)
2. I choose a different colour and they build me a new mini
3. They respray the car.

has any one else here had a similar problem? or heard about one? What do you guys think i should do?

James.

p.s. i'll try and get a picture of it tommorow, although i'm not really sure it will be visible on the camera...

Yes - our car looks as if it was same build week as yours WEEK 8. And yes it has exactly the same symptoms? Should I go back to the dealer? after all when I picked the car up, I signed a form saying we were happy with the condition of the car??