Is this roof repairable?

[BenWarr1]

Hello all,
Can anyone offer advice on how to recover the paintwork on the roof of my wife’s 2014 mini cooper please? It’s been parked outside, including under trees, since we bought it a few years ago. I’ve tried a clay bar and various products (meguiars ultimate compound, Hybrid ceramic polish and wax, Turtlewax color magic, all applied with a buffer) but none seem to have any effect on the damage.
Thanks in advance!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/203974946@N07/549900...

[fooman]

Someone more knowledgeable will be along soon but to me that looks like a knackered lacquer layer, so you might need to sand it all off without going through paint, which won't be easy. Then relacquer or t cut and polish if you are not bothered about retaining lacquer.

[Deep Thought]

As per above, thats through the lacquer.

You "might" be able to sand all the lacquer off and polish up the paint, in some way, but i'd be getting the roof resprayed, or living with it. Maybe a wrap...?

[DaveF-SkinnysAutos]

I'm a painter, its never easy to tell exactly from a single photo and poor light, but it looks like the lacquer has failed and therefore the roof needs a respray.

Paint is made up of a base layer which is the colour layer, then a lacquer coat, its the lacquer that does all the hard work, once that's failed everything underneath is being exposed to moisture etc so I would recommend you get it done. It's likely a result of UV and tree sap.

If you want to make sure you need to do the following:

Get some panel wipe and give it a good clean. While the panel wipe is 'wet' do the marks go away? If they do you stand a chance that there is still some lacquer on it, if you can still clearly see the pattern of the staining etc before the panel wipe has evaporated then it's screwed. It does look screwed!

Get some P1500 grit wet and dry and wet sand a small section to see if that removes the marks, then use some P3000 and wet sand the P1500 scratches away, then use heavy compound on your 'buffer', then a fine polish. That may make it look better if the contaminant is still on the top of the lacquer layer. If you have a good shine on the section you've tried then give it a go on the rest of the roof. Ultimately if its lacquer fail you cant really make it worse, but the right answer is take it to a bodyshop and get it resprayed.

[21TonyK]

Out of interest, what sort of ball park figure would it be to paint a mini roof?

[DaveF-SkinnysAutos]

21TonyK said:

Out of interest, what sort of ball park figure would it be to paint a mini roof?

Well obviously there is a lot of 'umming and aaahing' in answering such an innocent question!!

A paint job is always going to depend on where in the country you are, what the damage is, what the colour is, what panel, where on that panel, what dismantling and reinstalling is needed etc, etc, and probably, most importantly, what the customers expectations are!

Lets assume its a simple mini roof, no roof bars that need removing or masking, and that there is a bit of minor damage otherwise it wouldn't be needing a respray, and that you want a standard OEM finish for a standard mini colour. My ballpark would be £500ish. You would find a small backstreet garage probably as low as £350 maybe and you would find a dealer or large bodyshop going up to £1000.

In the OP's case its a bigger job as the whole of the roof needs sanding right back to ensure good adhesion for new paint.

[BenWarr1]

Thank you everyone, that’s really helpful. Sounds like a respray is in order. I will probably try sanding and polishing a small area myself just to satisfy my curiosity - although if it goes well I wouldnt put it past me to try and do the whole thing. Thanks again!

[DaveF-SkinnysAutos]

BenWarr1 said:

Thank you everyone, that s really helpful. Sounds like a respray is in order. I will probably try sanding and polishing a small area myself just to satisfy my curiosity - although if it goes well I wouldnt put it past me to try and do the whole thing. Thanks again!

I would ordinarily say be very careful when sanding as if you go through the clearcoat that’s it, there is no coming back, but in your case I genuinely dont think you have anything to loose. It does look like the lacquer has failed, but it could be all the contaminants from tree sap etc sticking on top, in which case being aggressive is the only way to try. You want the minimal grit to remove the problem, but remember you are also sanding away the clearcoat at the same time, so it’s a balance. Sanding will then leave scratch marks so you then need to work back out to P3000 to remove those marks, make sure you are wet sanding, then compound and polish will remove the 3000 scratch marks, but if it is lacquer fail then you can never provide any protection to the panel whatsoever by trying to polish the base paint layer.

Good luck.

[Glassman]

BenWarr1 said:

Thank you everyone, that s really helpful. Sounds like a respray is in order. I will probably try sanding and polishing a small area myself just to satisfy my curiosity - although if it goes well I wouldnt put it past me to try and do the whole thing. Thanks again!

Wrap it.

[Deep Thought]

Glassman said:

BenWarr1 said:

Thank you everyone, that s really helpful. Sounds like a respray is in order. I will probably try sanding and polishing a small area myself just to satisfy my curiosity - although if it goes well I wouldnt put it past me to try and do the whole thing. Thanks again!

Wrap it.

.... which would require the entire roof to be sanded back anyway, and then the cost of a professional wrap.

I'd be respraying it, personally.

[21TonyK]

DaveF-SkinnysAutos said:

21TonyK said:

Out of interest, what sort of ball park figure would it be to paint a mini roof?

Well obviously there is a lot of 'umming and aaahing' in answering such an innocent question!!

A paint job is always going to depend on where in the country you are, what the damage is, what the colour is, what panel, where on that panel, what dismantling and reinstalling is needed etc, etc, and probably, most importantly, what the customers expectations are!

Lets assume its a simple mini roof, no roof bars that need removing or masking, and that there is a bit of minor damage otherwise it wouldn't be needing a respray, and that you want a standard OEM finish for a standard mini colour. My ballpark would be £500ish. You would find a small backstreet garage probably as low as £350 maybe and you would find a dealer or large bodyshop going up to £1000.

In the OP's case its a bigger job as the whole of the roof needs sanding right back to ensure good adhesion for new paint.

Yeah, leading question. I'm just toying with a colour change from alpine white to pepper white. I thought around 500 would be a rough guide.

Thanks

[BenWarr1]

Thank you everyone, that’s really helpful. Sounds like a respray is in order. I will probably try sanding and polishing a small area myself just to satisfy my curiosity - although if it goes well I wouldnt put it past me to try and do the whole thing. Thanks again!

[TrevorHill]

Hard to tell from a single photo but if you want it to look right it will need a professional respray.