Removed paint from rear bumper!

**tomhaney1** · 10-25-2010, 12:53 PM

So I'm polishing our BMW 550I using my Makita, a wool Solo pad, and 105. I did the left portion of the bumper, the center portion of the bumper, then moved to the right portion of the bumper. The left and center portions are crystal clear and smooth. After the first pass on the right side of the bumper a chunk literally came off the bumper! I have never seen anything like this in 15 years! Anyone have any thoughts?

Tom

Mike Phillips · 10-25-2010, 12:59 PM

Since this is your first post...

Welcome to Autogeek Online!

As to your question, I have never seen chunks of clear coat paint come off unless the car in question was already in the late stages of clear coat failure.

I did download and then upload and now insert your photo for easier viewing... it's in your gallery here on AGO

This looks like an isolated problem...

Maybe the paint was impacted in this area?

Have you seen any other signs of trouble with the paint job?

**tomhaney1** · 10-25-2010, 01:32 PM

Thank you so much for the help!
It made me gun-shy so to speak- something like this makes you lose your confidence and second-guess yourself... It's not just the clear but the entire thickness of the paint! You can see the scratch next to it but, no, I noticed no defect in the area. The front bumper has some minor chips but that's it. I don't want to have the whole bumper sprayed so I'll probably just fill it in and sand/buff it over but now I'm afraid to do that because I don't want more paint to come off...

Mike Phillips · 10-25-2010, 01:40 PM

I hear you on the gun shy when an unexpected problem happens...

Maybe some kind of corrosive chemical landed on it and softened it?

Good luck with it...

**AndrewBall** · 10-25-2010, 01:54 PM

BMW uses plastic bumpers. most modern cars do. These bumpers do not do well with the heat generated by rotarys and the vibrations. Its possible there was some contaminates on the surface of the bumper before the paint was applied and the buffer was able to just rip it right off the bumper. the other possibility is the vibrations and heat lifted the paint of the surface and the buffer then removed it.

a number of things could have caused this. even dropping something on it in the past could have broken the bond of the paint with the surface.

**RaskyR1** · 10-25-2010, 03:25 PM

Originally Posted by tomhaney1

So I'm polishing our BMW 550I using my Makita, a wool Solo pad, and 105. I did the left portion of the bumper, the center portion of the bumper, then moved to the right portion of the bumper. The left and center portions are crystal clear and smooth. After the first pass on the right side of the bumper a chunk literally came off the bumper! I have never seen anything like this in 15 years! Anyone have any thoughts?

Tom

I posted this a while back...

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/...t-wrinkle.html

**tomhaney1** · 10-26-2010, 12:31 AM

Thanks for the link

I was astonished as I have never seen that happen before. I guess I will never use my rotary on a plastic bumper again, which really sucks because that's where a good amount of correction is needed.

**ROMEO** · 10-26-2010, 12:36 AM

Was this the rear or front bumper?

If it was the front, is there any chance that the paint was chipped by a small rock on the highway and the buffer just finish taking it off?

**tomhaney1** · 10-26-2010, 12:40 AM

Sorry, rear bumper. There was no chip, scratch, dent, ding, etc. there. You can see the one scratch that was there in the picture but that area held tight.

I'm ordering some S34A to run with my Flex so I don't have to use the rotary. But I love the rotary