Orange Peel
 

Pre game question. How much orange peel is acceptable in the paint.
I was looking at my 2011 today since it was nice out and boy
the paint quality sucks. Scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the worst i would rate it a solid 7. Just wondering what others are seeing. BTW color is space grey and my 2008 didn't look as obvious.

My 2007, 2008 and now my 2011 E70s had and have MORE orange peel than any other car I have ever had (and we've had A LOT). It is just something, I overlook on the E70...but the orange peel is SO bad. At certain angles...my ENTIRE 2011 X5 is covered with orange peel...every surface, every panel! Luckily, when clean and waxed and in most light...the paint is really shiny and glossy, but holy sh*t, at certain angles, the paint job looks home done!

Funny, just today (after 6 weeks of ownership), I was locking the car using CA and just happened to notice the orange peel. It doesn't particularly bother me so I never went looking for it, but today the angle was just so I suppose. Platinum Gray...

BMW's are notorious for orange peel worse than the cheapest Ford, Chevy, or Chrysler.

My Ford Focus pain was virtually zero orange peel.

I have my delivery this week - what to do in such a case? Do we take delivery, refuse delivery, asked it to be fixed, can it be fixed?

Can someone post some pics so I know what I'm looking for?

Heres a link to a thread on orange peel. Crazy amount of work to get rid of it but looks great when its done.

The Life of My 2008 E92 M3 - BMW 3-Series (E90 E92) Forum - E90Post.com

Wow Orientexpress, that came out great.
Awesome!!!

again - in case of orange peel, do we take delivery or have it fixed before delivery? My X5 delivery is later this week.

Since EVERY E70 has been, and is like this since 2007....What do you want or expect the dealership to do? In most lighting and situations, your paint will look rich, glossy and super shiny (and the quality of the paint used is great!). It's just the application and/or equipment used that is below Mercedes and FOR SURE below Audi and Porsche (their paint jobs are near flawless!!).

The E70 does SO much right and has SO many amazing, wonderful qualities...you just have to ignore & live with the Orange Peel. The dealer and/or BMWNA will NOT help you on this one.

So we can't do anything? Not even asked it to be wetsanded etc?

Nope. That's just a characteristic of BMWs. That said, some are worse than others, so you might get lucky.

Most casual observers don't even notice orange peel in paint until you point it out to them. Sometimes ignorance truly is bliss.

Rest assured that very few other people will ever notice the orange peel on your vehicle.


If you want to avoid orange peel, you need to buy a Ford, Chevy, or Chrysler product, as they typically do not have orange peel in their paint jobs.

hahaha i like the "to do list", take gf to the palm

but amazing job! wow i wish i had those skills

BMW paint sucks. Consumers are to blame. It disgusts me.

how did I know from the start they're in CA? Imagine elsewhere - they do all that work and then have the weather screw it up the very next day...

Interestingly I was painting a trim piece Space Gray today, and it looked perfect until I applied the BMW clearcoat. All of a sudden, god-awful orange peel, so I would surmise it is down to the clearcoat hence why it can polish out so well. Claying, polishing and waxing are the solution I suspect.

BMWUSA won't do anything for such an expensive car? My delivery is this week, let's see how much orange peel is in store for me.

If I can't do anything about the orange peel, why waste time in complaining to the dealer.

They CAN sand the color coat and re-clear coat it.

They WILL NOT.

They will say "it meets our specs" which, when you use the BMW decoder ring means "there are plenty of customers who will not complain".

It is worth complaining, it will do nothing for your car...maybe let BMW know that we know....and that some customers demand mroe

I will definitely complain but will BMW do anything other than a Customer Service Rep telling me - thanks for calling.

Oh man I'd love to see their reaction if you asked them to fix this before delivery. I bet that would be classic. I guess if enough people complained about it something would get done. Squeaky wheel and all that...

While I don't like the orange peal, I guess I'm one of the "complacent masses" that's going to "buy them anyway".

You could probably get this fixed by a good detailer with a "paint correction". It would take 12 hours or so and cost you in the neighborhood of $1000.

Do I "squeaky wheel" with the dealer or BMW NA. Is there a threshold after which I should refuse delivery.

I didn't spend 55K for a crappy product. I never expected orange peel to be on a BMW, this is my first "expensive" car and I can't imagine spending 1000 dollars to "fix" the damn paint on it. LOL

I assume you looked at all the BMWs on the showroom floor before ordering and didn't notice the bad orange peel in their paint? Virtually all BMWs have bad orange peel, so you must have looked at it, but not seen it.

Pretend you never came to this board, never heard of orange peel, and you'll be happy. Most people do not notice orange peel in the paint.

See now this is really sage advice. Besides you're going to have a hard time seeing the orange peel through all the swirl marks the car wash kid in the back of the dealer is going to put in "shining" it up for you. :p:

Seriously, orange peel is one of those things you'd probably never notice unless someone pointed it out to you. Its like the screen door effect (SDE) in your plasma TV. Most people never even know its there.

Yes, true...which is why BMW does it.

And I am pretty sure $1000 for a 'paint correction' will not remove orange peel.

In case of orange peel, with whom do I waste my time squeaking - the dealer or BMW NA?

Seriously...do not even bother wasting your time. BMWNA and/or your dealer are NOT going to do one thing for YOU, considering there are millions and millions of BMWS on the road today, with the same quality of paint as your ONE car.

Dude..time to just give it up!!! :stickpoke

It doesn't really bother me honestly. What bothers me more is if a paint shop repaints your car after an accident without orange peel. It's what makes a BMW a BMW!

I get the point.

Yeah, when I had some work done on the Z4, the paint guy said the trick was not to provide a smooth paint job, as that was easy for him. The trick was to get the same amount of orange peel in the paint, so that the newly-painted areas did not look different.

I wonder if the paint jobs have gotten 'worse'/less good than they were on the older E53s? My '01 does not have any orange peel anywhere on the body panels...maybe it's all worn smooth from 9 1/2 years of rubbing Zaino on & off it. :dunno:

Maybe the newer paint(s) and process(es) are more prone. No biggie, jes'wondering.
GL, mD

This orange peel is one of the reasons that I had Phil's DetailersDomain team give my brand new X5 the "clay and wax" treatment when I received it. Now I'm not bothered by the orange peel at all -- not saying it's gone but I don't even notice it...

I think the orange peel got a lot worse when BMW decided to be "green" and switched to Aqueous from Solvent-based... solvent-based has much better flowability and self-leveling, from what I have heard.

BMW is probably using a high-solids aqueous clear-coat process to minimize waste products.

That was sort of rattling around in the back of my ol'gourd too, Penguin; I recall reading of BMW's and other car mfg'ers, going 'green' in the paint booth.
Thanks...
BR, mD