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Re: Black Paint Problem

>   I have an 86 528e in Silver (Polaris Metallic) and I swear it is the best
>paint job ever!...
>Any other Colors out there that hold up?

My 'es is Delphin Gray Metallic, and it has held up very well.  It
looked like new after 110k of un-garaged, summer&winter snowbelt use.
That's with better than average, but not fanatical maintenance (on
the paint, that is ;-), which translates as washing when it needed
it, and waxing (Zymol) 2-3 times/yr.  I've got another 40k on the
repaint (also Delphin Gray, I only needed it because I totaled the
car :-(, and it seems to be holding up very well, too.  The color
doesn't show imperfections, doesn't seem to fade and hides dirt.

On the other hand, my 'iX has Diamond Black Metallic.  It shows
swirl marks from the previous owner, and blemmishes and water marks
seem to stand out more than on the 'es.  Gets dirty faster, too.
This isn't a serious problem, mind you, it still looks really sharp,
but in comparison there is a difference.

One more example, a friend's red '85 325 has faded badly and
unevenly.  He hasn't been very good about maintenance, but even on
those occasions when he did wax the car, the paint looked old.  I
read somewhere that red is one of the colors that fade the worst.
It's inherent in the pigments or something.

As far as chip & scratch resistance, I think that is more a
function of the brand of paint than it's color, and BMW seems to use
a very tough paint compared to other's I have experience with.  They
use good primers as well - chips through the color coat are more
resistant to rusting than with my other cars of similar
vintage (Blazer and Rx7).

rick
'87 325es
'90 325iX