peeling bumper paint

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ollya

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May 13, 2007
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I have an obsidian black clk 320 w209 - late 03 model, it's covered a tad over 30K miles. Behind the rear wheels the paint has peeled off the bumper (pics to follow). Took it to the dealer, photographs taken and passed to MB. They came back with a point blank "No!".

I'm not settling for this - a car that must have cost well on the way to £40K with all the toys should not suffer peeling paint after 3.5 years.

My old cavalier was peppered with chips and the white paint on that stuck like sht to a blanket.....

Soooo..am going to write to customer services. Just wondered if anyone else had had the same problem?

Thanks
 
Paint only normally peels off after a bump that has distorted the plastic, there will be tell tail marks, if MB see this they will not cover it
 
We are talking about the place directly behind the wheels here. where the mud sprays up. The likley cause is paint chip letting water get under poorly adhered and brittle paint.
This is NOT accident damage. The only proviso to that is can't be certain the bumper was not resprayed in the first 3 months of it's live when it was owned by the Manager of the late Tooting Mercedes Dealership
 
I worked in the motor trade, body repair business, primarily as a paint sprayer for over 20 years.
The ONLY reasons paint will 'peel' off is poor preparation or incorrect materials. However, I would need to see pictures to comment further.
 
If youre fairly certain that this all stems from stone chipping, (just behind the wheel arch/often covered in mud etc?) then I dont see how MB would cover it.

Do you really want to bcome embroiled in a war with customer services over what could well turn out to be a sub £200 job? If it were me I would just pay a decent paint shop to carry out a quality repair then apply some of that clear plastic protector that you often see on such delicate parts of the body-work.

Portzy.
 
If youre fairly certain that this all stems from stone chipping, (just behind the wheel arch/often covered in mud etc?) then I dont see how MB would cover it.

Do you really want to bcome embroiled in a war with customer services over what could well turn out to be a sub £200 job? If it were me I would just pay a decent paint shop to carry out a quality repair then apply some of that clear plastic protector that you often see on such delicate parts of the body-work.

Portzy.

May not be as simple as that. If the paint is peeling because of a poor key. It will have to be removed completely first.
 
May not be as simple as that. If the paint is peeling because of a poor key. It will have to be removed completely first.

Very much true.

Still think though that a decent body shop could take things back to bare plastic and repaint to ''as-new'' for a modest amount. Far better than a pre-emptive strike on MB for something like, (although annoying and irritating), this.

Keep your powder dry for bigger issues I say, not that I am saying, (or tempting fate), that there will be any :eek: .

Portzy.
 
Very much true.

Still think though that a decent body shop could take things back to bare plastic and repaint to ''as-new'' for a modest amount. Far better than a pre-emptive strike on MB for something like, (although annoying and irritating), this.

Keep your powder dry for bigger issues I say, not that I am saying, (or tempting fate), that there will be any :eek: .

Portzy.

I would suggest going to an independent body shop and getting an estimate for remedial work. They should understand how bad it is and what steps would be required to respray as necessary. Make sure you allow for paint and materials and VAT.
You will now know the exact cost involved and can make your decisions based upon this.
Just my advice.
 
"Do you really want to bcome embroiled in a war with customer services over what could well turn out to be a sub £200 job?"

Yes absoloutely and I will - it's a relatively new car and the paint is crap - £200 - and the rest!!! I can't quite follow the logic for not chasing this with them.

There's a possibility it's a poor repair rather than MB original as I don't know about the first 3 months of its life. It was owned by manager of Tooting MB. I've found the original registration number so I'll contact the Merc repair shop in Brentwood to see if they have a record of it. I already know their workmanship is sub-standard though as they have resprayed the front of the car and the clear coat is not smooth.

Ok - took a pic - the paint is flaking, not peeling. It's dark so I can't study it but the paint is rough and peppered with tiny chips. Curiously it looks like there are tiny lumps under the primer (possibly indicating a respray).
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Flaking / Peeling, doesn't make a difference, caused by the same thing: Poor preparation / application or incorrect materials.

Difficult to see from the picture but it looks like the paint is peeling from the primer but the primer IS keyed to the plastic (assuming that the light area in the image is primer).
This could be because the primer may not have been prepared prior to topcoat (as also indicated by the lumps), but most plastics are painted 'wet-on-wet' assuming no repairs so that would indicate the use of incorrect products or possibly that they were applied incorrectly.

Whatever. The point is that unless that's a localised repair there is a good chance that if it is peeling there then there is every chance that it will affect the whole of the panel, i.e. lots of work. It's not unknown to REPLACE and respray a bumper as it would be a cheaper option than remedial work.

Sorry I cannot be of more help. It is very difficult without seeing the car in the flesh. For what it is worth, my gut feeling is that it is NOT original paint (which could also explain MBs reaction).
 
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