BMW paint damage repairable?

[850tgul]

Hi All,
Long time lurker, first time poster. Been detailing my cars for over 10 years with my PC. Looking to possibly pick up an '08 3 series that appears to be in good shape with the exception of some paint damage on the driver side front fender. Trying to determine if this looks to be repairable with my PC/pads or if it is beyond repair and will reqire a respray. Have not yet seen the car in person, only going by the pics. Was hoping that if it was only the clearcoat I may be able to wet sand/polish it away. Any input wold be very much appreciated!! Thx

Side note. Owner claims he is unaware of any body work or accidents. Does this damage indicate to anyone that the fender was definitely painted (obviously poorly) or is it possible this could be some other damage?

[Mizzoutiger]

If this is only area which appears to have paint damage, I'd be asking owner why that is. Either it's been repainted (check carfax, assuming reputable repair shop did work) and/or someone used harsh chemicals/technique on it w/o sealing/protecting. Before I'd buy, I'd have a body shop check/certify entire paint condition and mechanic check/certify car.

[93fox]

Car painter here.... That to me seems like "crows feet". Its the term used to describe all those little lines that look like cracks... Witch is what is happening and would need a respray... There are two reasons why that could of happened.

1. The fender has been repainted and was poorly prepped prior to painting. So the paint didnt fully adhere to its full potential and well as time passes it begins to fail...
2. It could be the same described above but it came from factory like that with a defect. It used to be more common back in the days from car manufactures where certain panels would just fail over time but it seems pretty rare to me that happened to a more modern BMW...

From my perspective... I believe it was repainted. That red is fairly easy to match so one way to tell if it was repainted is to compare the orange peel on the fender to the hood n door and see if its about the same or more or less. Good luck!

[swanicyouth]

That looks like a bad re-spray... Regardless of what the owner says - although he just may not be aware his car was repainted in that area for various reasons.

BMW paint is pretty stout. If you look right at the wheel well (unless it's an optical illusion from the photo) you can see how the damage goes from the fender to the bumper at the wheel well arch.

At BMW, the fenders are painted at the factory and the bumpers are painted off-site from the supplier (at least that is how they do it at the Spartanburg manufacturing plant). So, if it was a defect in the factory paint - it wouldn't extend to the bumper which is actually painted elsewhere. BMW paint doesn't really get those "crows feet" commonly as well.

The possibility also exists that some horribly corrosive liquid was splashed on the area...but, you should be able to rule this out if the margins of the damage stop at the body lines.

The only way to fix is a repaint.

[wdmaccord]

I'm with Swanic...looks like someone attempted a rattlecan re-spray. Looks like they just did the paint too...doesn't look to me like there is any clear on top of the actual paint.

[850tgul]

Thanks for the reponses everyone. I appreciate the insight very much.