When I bought the car back in May 99, the bumper was totally pitted and the dealership had it repainted before I purchased it. I noticed last year that an abnormal amount of chips were on the bumper. See Picture. That sure seems like a large amount of chips. I got a new hood this spring and it has like 20 chips in it now too. Is something wrong with the paint that BMW uses? I do mostly city driving, and hardly ever go on gravel roads.

My wife has a 99 Civic from new and she drives the same amount as me and she has 2 chips on her hood and hardly any chips on her bumper. WTF!! Has anyone wondered this as well?? TIA.

It happens the same to me in the whole front, bumper, nose panel and hood. I just hate stones.

yeah i have a similar problem, not as bad as your pic but close. my car is cosmos black so its even more noticeable

i'm looking for someone to airbrush it or something without having to go through a whole repaint

jeff

Yeah, my car has tons of chips. My plan is to get some touchup paint, clay the hood, touch it up them get it stonegarded.

It could also be that the paint didn't have the right amount of elastomer stuff added that lets the paint flex on the bumper. I get stone chips from the sand in winter but no where near what you have.

If I repaint it will be stone guarded with that clear plastic.

I am working on the larger chips on the hood, but I am leaving the bumper ones. How could this happen twice in this car's lifetime? Something is wrong with the paint used. I am going to find out why it is like that. Down the road, I will probably get an M3 bumper, so it isn't a huge deal, but it is still damn ugly up close...

There is a flex additive that is required when painting bumpers, if this step is not done correctly the paint won't flex with the plastic. Go to a body shop you can trust to paint the car, one that often does high end cars. Also prepping the bumper properly makes all the difference when it comes to paint durability.

>>There is a flex additive that is required when painting bumpers, if this step is not done correctly the paint won't flex with the plastic<<

Ive often wondered about this. On today's cars, it seems like my bumper is as rigid as is the sheet metal. What I mean is that, unless its in an accident, it seems to me that the bumper isnt flexing any more than is the fender. If I hit my bumper with my fist, where's the flex? And because its so rigid, why do we need flex agent? If its got to do with the relatively greater heat related expansion and contraction of the bumper components, then I can see it. But otherwise, flex just doesnt seem to be an issue to me. Can someone explain this?

whats stone guarded? is it that clear plastic that u put on the car?

http://www.stongard.com

Mine is the same, if not worse. Im going to wait for it to get really bad till i get it repainted and get some stone guard. You should look into that