Candy Cane Black Stripes Peeling - anyone else? - Warranty?

[Michael Derby]

Well, came back from a spirited ride in No. Ga. mountains yesterday and when cleaning the bike up I noticed that my black stripes on my red/silver candy cane paint job are peeling. About 2 or 3 places the strips have peeled back from the paint and looks like the wind sort of added to the damage. Has anyone else had any problems? I purchased from Blue Moon here in Atlanta (my fourth Beemer and have rotated betweent the Atlanta dealers) and I will call on Tues. to see about warranty claims.

Any thoughts? Seems like this should be covered under warranty. I thought I saw something on this board about the newer bikes with this paint scheme have a gel coat finish on top of the stripes?

[dee jones]

There are some here that have had a problem. Hopefully they will chime in.

[ckcarr]

It's sure not unexpected. If you can touch it, feel it, and peel it with your fingernails it's gonna come off sooner or later.

BMW should repaint or replace the panels with proper clear coated ones. But will they? I sincerely doubt it.

I've been debating just repainting my bike if it gets real bad, like a nice solid red. I think that might look really good.

[Bob Hancock]

Interesting that your clear coated stripe paint is getting weak knees. My matt silver without clear coat did that within the first 600 miles and at this point I doubt if BMW is gonna do anything about it. The dealer has offered to replace the panel but what good will that do? I'd have to stop riding the bike to keep it from rubbing through.....that or put some tacky plastic stuff on it. Buckwheat solution imho. Seems like our newest bikes have the *****tiest paint. Prolly something to do with EPA water based paint. Welcome to the 21st Century.

[signit98]

....you were going to fast!... that'll ALWAYS peel the paint off!

[varmint]

this would actualy be a legitimate use of the bmw corporate phone number.


or you could just spray it with rhino liner.

[bikpaintr]

Originally posted by Bob Hancock
Interesting that your clear coated stripe paint is getting weak knees. My matt silver without clear coat did that within the first 600 miles and at this point I doubt if BMW is gonna do anything about it. The dealer has offered to replace the panel but what good will that do? I'd have to stop riding the bike to keep it from rubbing through.....that or put some tacky plastic stuff on it. Buckwheat solution imho. Seems like our newest bikes have the *****tiest paint. Prolly something to do with EPA water based paint. Welcome to the 21st Century.

I'd bet it has a lot more to do with the amount of clear coat BMW put on your bike then the solvent or water it is thinned with. Water based paints are only required in certain areas of the US, no idea what the German laws/regs require. As to the peeling decals I can tell you that the none clear coated decals on my Aprilia are still as new after 5 years. Considering what you guys are paying for these bikes I'm surprised how readily you accept the poor quality of the paint & decals.

[Bob Hancock]

John....my bike has NO clearcoat. About accepting the poor quality....what to do? I can squawk at the dealer but he can only mention it to the BMW rep who has rolled his eyes and hunched his shoulders and suggested a new center panel....which as I say...will do NOTHING as it'll just wear thru like the original has. If BMW decided to really do something, they would offer to pay to have my bike clearcoated....which it should have been from the factory but I won't hold my breath for that. (The side tank panels are also showing lots of wear.) I mention this in light of the fact that this is not my first dance on a BMW, so I know how they wear, and while this paint looks great, it is paper thin. (My 2004 Prep has 43,000+ miles on it and still looks great...decals and all.)

[Skoeter]

I had the same issue on my bike with the stripes peeling. The dealer in South Africa replaced the panels under warranty. However, I need to take it back because only the main two panels covering the tank now has clear coat. The other replacement panels still do not have any clear coat.

The bikes are now painted with the new environmentally friendly paint, water based. Seems like it is not as tough. I am contemplating to get the center panel and the panels below the seat painted with Ceramiclear clear coat. It is a newer type ceramic nano-tech coat that is a lot more scratch resistant.

Sad news is that these are not cheap bikes, and we're sitting with paint issues...

[bikpaintr]

Originally posted by Bob Hancock
John....my bike has NO clearcoat. About accepting the poor quality....what to do? I can squawk at the dealer but he can only mention it to the BMW rep who has rolled his eyes and hunched his shoulders and suggested a new center panel....which as I say...will do NOTHING as it'll just wear thru like the original has. If BMW decided to really do something, they would offer to pay to have my bike clearcoated....which it should have been from the factory but I won't hold my breath for that. (The side tank panels are also showing lots of wear.) I mention this in light of the fact that this is not my first dance on a BMW, so I know how they wear, and while this paint looks great, it is paper thin. (My 2004 Prep has 43,000+ miles on it and still looks great...decals and all.)

Matte metallic finishes have a matte clearcoat as ALL metallic finishes require clear. The silver base coat is nothing but color & has no protective qualities, uv or otherwise. My guess is that you got one thin coat of clear in an area that should have 2-3 good coats. The matte metallic grey finish on my Futura has proven to be much tougher then the gloss finishes on other Futuras so its not a problem with matte finishes.

[MaineRoads]

What clearcoat?...I don't have the stripes peeling yet.... but the paint scratches to a dull haze where it comes in contact with anything. I have a Z-technik protector on the center panel which takes care of that area. I'm waiting for the recall...and waiting..........

[Bob Hancock]

Originally posted by bikpaintr
Matte metallic finishes have a matte clearcoat as ALL metallic finishes require clear. The silver base coat is nothing but color & has no protective qualities, uv or otherwise. My guess is that you got one thin coat of clear in an area that should have 2-3 good coats. The matte metallic grey finish on my Futura has proven to be much tougher then the gloss finishes on other Futuras so its not a problem with matte finishes.

Well....I'm not a paint guy but I'm not an idiot either, nor is the shop that normally does my painting, and we don't think my bike has ANY clearcoat on it. Just one molecule of silver paint over black primer. When I asked the paint shop if they could clearcoat it they said they could but since the color coat is so thin, they'd have to put more color on it first and then clearcoat it, so it'd be $800 to $1000. Since they've done some pretty sensitive things with expensive cars/parts for me, I listen to what they say. Another factoid....the K1200R Sport I looked at recently had a slightly different finish of the white aluminum metallic, which may explain why the dealer says they haven't had problems with this before. Not needing an argument here, but if you know a different way to fix this *****, please let me know, otherwise thanks for the comments.
PS....John sorry for coming across a bit short. Just a bit bummed out about the sorry paint on my $17500 bill. Not your fault I know.

[Steve Carlton]

Seems to me, if BMW is making the silver/red bikes with clearcoat on them now as a running production change, there must be a reason. I haven't heard of clearcoat being added to the solid colors, so I would assume it's because the tape stripes are peeling off. Why not request all your body panels be replaced under warranty? How hard could it be for them to supply you new panels that they're already making?

[ckcarr]

Hey Bob,

Just a heads up. After reading this post and others like it I took some initiative and called the BMW customer service number 1-800-831-1117 and explained the situation. My bike isn't bad, but I baby it and correct problems as they start to surface. However I should not have to do that. I told them that I was really disappointed in the quality of paint as compared to my 2000 R1100s FWIW. I also suggested that they read this board and the current thread as I think this is a problem that is going to surface over the next year.

They said (of course) that they had not even heard of the issue...

I think everyone should call.

(Post # 5,000...)

[Bob Hancock]

I will ck. Thanks!

[MaineRoads]

Called and mentioned the lack of clearcoat,... ..the info will be passed along. I wonder if they actually made a change and started adding clearcoat at a certain mfg date? Who here has the stripes clearcoated?

[Bob Hancock]

I just talked to them and they took all my info. Said that it's the dealers call along with the BMW rep. So, I'll need to talk to BMW Atlanta again and see what happens. Lesson learned is....make the call....be the squeaky wheel.

[Steve Carlton]

Get the grease!

[bikpaintr]

Bob - You've seen the paint & I haven't so I'll take your word on the lack of clearcoat. I'm shocked that any manufacturer would send out a metallic paint job with no clearcoat as it would not only wear through quickly but also break down rapidly from uv damage. If it was my bike I'd demand that the panels be replaced with properly painted panels in the matte silver or panels in another factory color that was clearcoated.

In order to paint over your panels the surface would have to be scuffed which would mess up the silver so more color would have to be applied over your silver as your shop advised. To me paying for a repaint would not be an option on a $17k bike thats almost new. The lousy paint is BMWs problem & they should fix it at no charge to you.

[DanGreene]

I sometimes wonder if these customer service numbers and the people on the payrole that take our calls are kind of like the thermostats in some modern office buildings. The temperature is really controlled by a central command and all the individual thermostats are not connected to anything. They are just there to make people feel like they have some control and input.

Maybe if all the public relations and customer service people were fired they would put the money saved in better quality paint jobs???