Rock chip repainting/body work

[taylorxo]

Hi guys!

I purchased my Alpine White M3 back in January of 2023, and knew it had some pretty bad rock chip damage on the car. I got an estimate at a BMW Certified body shop to fix the rocker panel, quarter panel, front bumper, and door panel. They said all of it would need to be repainted. The price isn’t too bad. I have some worry about getting that much of the car repainted, does anyone have any suggestions on this?

Has anyone gone through this process as well?

[M3SQRD]

It sure sounds like more of your car has to be painted to properly blend all of the damaged body panels/doors with other undamaged panels/doors unless they’ve already accounted for that. Is it just rock chips or is there any larger damage? How many rock chips are there? You didn’t state the mileage. Just wondering if this is typical rock chip damage or something more excessive.

If it’s a top quality body shop then they’ll do an excellent job matching the color and blending the new paint into undamaged panels/doors. Good thing is you don’t have a metallic paint color which can be more difficult to match. However, down the road, the factory painted and newly repainted areas may show a color mismatch as the paint ages. I’ve had something similar done on one side of a car and you could not tell it had been repainted. After a decade the colors still matched but the car did spend a lot of time in a garage.

[N1rve]

Originally Posted by taylorxo

Hi guys!

I purchased my Alpine White M3 back in January of 2023, and knew it had some pretty bad rock chip damage on the car. I got an estimate at a BMW Certified body shop to fix the rocker panel, quarter panel, front bumper, and door panel. They said all of it would need to be repainted. The price isn’t too bad. I have some worry about getting that much of the car repainted, does anyone have any suggestions on this?

Has anyone gone through this process as well?

You can always wrap your car in white PPF if you don't want to paint it.

[taylorxo]

M3SQRD

Thanks for replying! It’s all just rock chips from the previous owner. It only has 52,000 miles on it, but hundreds of rock chips.

I do daily drive this car, so I would be putting PPF on it as soon as the shop says I can. I have some pictures on here just for reference of how many rock chips it is. Whoever owned the car also decided to paint over the larger rock chips, with the wrong paint color.

[M3SQRD]

Damn

The previous owner must’ve been one hell of a tailgater!! Also, must’ve lived/traveled on a gravel road at a high rate of speed and/or liked doing burnouts on gravel roads.

Did the car come with wheel spacers or wider wheels with a low offset (large frontspacing)? The damage along the bottom edge is typically due to tires that stick farther out of the wheel wells.

That would drive me crazy! I’d definitely get it repainted and then ppf’ed. Just take a lot of before and after pictures so, if you do sell it at some point, you can visually show them why it was painted.

[taylorxo]

M3SQRD

Right??? It’s on both sides all the way across the rockers, and side panels. The car was completely stock when I purchased it. So I have no idea how they managed to do that much damage.

I’ve had it for a year now, and I can’t stand it anymore. Just wanted to make sure I wasn’t making a bad decision getting it repainted. 😅

[M3SQRD]

Originally Posted by taylorxo

M3SQRD

Right??? It’s on both sides all the way across the rockers, and side panels. The car was completely stock when I purchased it. So I have no idea how they managed to do that much damage.

I’ve had it for a year now, and I can’t stand it anymore. Just wanted to make sure I wasn’t making a bad decision getting it repainted. 😅

IMO, repainting is not a bad decision. Value likely increases with a quality repaint vs. not painting.

[NWH83]

I'd definitely get that repainted, and as M3SQRD said if you ever go to sell the car just show the buyer why you got it repainted. I agree it will increase the value. With that said, have you tried using a clay bar, specifically on the front fender and lower door areas? Some of it almost looks like embedded dirt among the rock chips. It might make it look better for the time being before you get it painted, just a thought. Also, check out "CVR POV" on youtube, they have some pretty interesting diy fixes for rock chips as well, although as I said, I'd still get it professionally painted. Best of luck.

[jaylazy2020]

I’m in a similar position. 58k miles and front bumper and front of bonnet is really bad.

I have to admit it’s all my fault. I wish I had PPF when I bought it with 28k miles as it was in good shape.


Slipstreaming a 992 Gt3 that was slipstreaming a Lambo Svj on the Cannonball started it and then sitting behind a X4M on some back rounds really destroyed it!


I did fit carbon mud flaps which look oem. The week after I put 10mm front spacers.

I’m just learning to live with it and maybe get bumper. Wings and bonnet repainted next year.

[dezzracer]

Looks like damage from salted sanded, snowy roads. I had a 2004 Mustang cobra Terminator. I took care of how I drove it and where and do not live in a snowy state and even after 35,000 miles and 10 years paint looked brand new including the front end.

When I got my 2018 M3 CS within 1500 miles I started seeing Minor paint chips on the front end. I knew right then I would have to have it PPF and ended up doing entire front clip and quite a few other areas. Either BMW paint sucks or because of environmental requirements (especially in EU), the quality and hardness of auto paint has suffered.