5Series.net - Forums - Hood discolored on Jet Black 2008 E60. Heat?

Hi I thought I would write as I am a panel beater

The paint that you are speaking about on your car is a metallicpaint I think with a clear coat.

I like the Black metallic paints that BMW use.

BMW and European cars that are painted in Europe do not make aspecial paint for each state or country depending on their weather conditions.

Car makers do their best to use a paint system that will be the bestfor overall weather conditions.

That being said, California is pretty unique in beautiful sunnydays and heat.

The clear coat on your car is simply a few coats of clear paintover a black metallic base.

The bonnet is always more susceptible to heat as it is getting itfrom both ways. From the sun and from the engine. This combination breaks the cleardown added with years of polishing and abrasive shampoos and car washes andultra violet light attacking the paintwork

You can see on a lot of older Japanese built cars the complete topof the car looking much worse than your car as the clear coating breaks downand breaks away.

Polishing the paint can work if the clear is not too bad and somepeople have posted that a good buff and polish has returned their paint workback.

If they continue to keep a polish on the paint work to protect itfrom UVL they should have years of no trouble.

But sadly yours has gone too far now and you will need to have eitherthe clear coat removed and repainted or the entire bonnet stripped andrepainted.

If I were you I would have the bonnet stripped to metal andrepainted

I would also have then paint the top of both guards and blend thecolor and clear into the guards
This will ensure that the bonnet and guards will have no problemsfor the rest of its life but the same problem may appear on your roof and trunklid.

Also while you are there, it would be best to replace the noiseand heat shield under your bonnet.

It will look better and protect your paint.

Then keep a good quality polish on the bonnet and rest of the carto maintain the clear.