M Roadster Inside of Trunk Color Question

[HEY32G]

I was told by a guy at CarMax to look at the inside of the trunk on BMW's and you can tell if the trunk lid has been replaced by looking to see if the inside of the trunk lid is the same color as the body of the car or if it's a flat black. If it's the same color, it has not been wrecked, but if it's black, then the trunk has been replaced at some point. Is this true? If so, I'm seeing a lot of M Roadsters out there for sale that have had the trunk replaced. I know the breaks are good, but do they all get rear ended at some point?!? Example is this blue one on the left that has 10,113 miles on it and a clean CarFax, selling for $31,900. The inside of the trunk is black. The CarMax guy showed me a red one (like the one on the right) they had for sale and how the inside of the trunk lid was red. The majority I see w/ black trunk insides have clean CarFax's. Hmmm...

[itdnwiwbp]

I'm confused. He was talking about the metal floor not being painted body color after being replaced? All I see in the picture above is carpet and lining.

Edit: Oh, you mean the trunklid/hatch (for a coupe). I see. Couldn't tell you for sure, though. Pretty sure mine is body color but I don't know if it's the same for roadsters.

[HEY32G]

Originally Posted by itdnwiwbp

I'm confused. He was talking about the metal floor not being painted body color after being replaced. All I see in the picture above is carpet and lining.

No, my bad, I didn't make that clear. The underside of the trunk lid.

[itdnwiwbp]

Originally Posted by GH32335i

No, my bad, I didn't make that clear. The underside of the trunk lid.

Sorry, took me a sec. I edited before I saw your reply. My guess is that the flat black is a more durable finish than exterior paint since there doesn't appear to be any sort of liner on the lid. I'm sure a roadster owner will chime in very soon to clear this up.

[psygnosis]

How the Z4 was painted

The paint section is 28 minutes in, the trunk is on the car and open when it goes though the process. The floor should be black because it's an installed piece and not part of the body (I think)

[HEY32G]

So that video seems to back up what I was told.

[silverfishZ4M]

I don't know the answer, but when you look at a blue z4m, the engine bay strut towers are also black. In a red car, they're red. Silver car they are primer color. Kinda wondering if only the red ones have the painted engine bays and trunks?

[Rated M Roadster]

Originally Posted by GH32335i

...but if it's black, then the trunk has been replaced at some point.

Then I guess every Z4 that is black or blue (possibly others as well) has been wrecked. The info you received is completely wrong. You can watch the video closer if you like; you'll see black and blue trunks and engine compartments finished in flat black.

[psygnosis]

Originally Posted by silverfishZ4M

I don't know the answer, but when you look at a blue z4m, the engine bay strut towers are also black. In a red car, they're red. Silver car they are primer color. Kinda wondering if only the red ones have the painted engine bays and trunks?

It seems that maybe lighter colored cars have a painted trunk and darker ones may not. I can see it done that way in an effort to save paint. Doing an image search for the Z4 trunk storage system is a great way to get pictures of trunk lids.

I tried to look at my own Toledo Blue car and the door jam? around the trunk is painted, but it's dark out ATM and hard to tell if the trunk lid is just primer black or unclearcoated dark blue.



EDIT: If the trunk lid was replaced, it probably would not have the BMW Assist sticker on it.

[Walkurie]

My Roadster's paint is Titansilber and the inside of the trunk lid (and the engine bay area) are semigloss light gray.

This was probably the biggest disappointment in an otherwise great car. Seems that for $60K, BMW should have done all visible surfaces in body color.

[XMetal]

Originally Posted by Rated M Roadster

Then I guess every Z4 that is black or blue (possibly others as well) has been wrecked. The info you received is completely wrong. You can watch the video closer if you like; you'll see black and blue trunks and engine compartments finished in flat black.

Agreed. The video does NOT appear to show what color the interior was painted.

[Jstic]

My Z4 is Monaco blue (dark blue) and the rear trunk is black on the inside, as well as the front hood. This is common for all dark colored Z4s. Only the first inch along the perimeter of the underside is painted on these panels, where the metal is folded over.

Obviously a way to save on paint without creating a contrast that is extremely noticeable to a discerning buyer. The Z4 is painted with a waterborn Glasurit paint that is super expensive. I can certainly see why they would want to save paint on the underside of hood/trunk panels. On the lighter cars they paint everything that could be visible.

[chickdr]

As already stated the Carmax guy is dead wrong. It varies by color but red cars have a flat version of red in the engine bay and trunk. The blue cars are all black in these areas. I think the white cars are like red in that they have flat white inside. In any event, don't use that as a measure of anything...

[antennahead]

I think he's got it backwards. My silvergrey had that primer/slate grey finish on the inside of the trunk lid. I got rear ended in December, and had a new trunk lid put on. The BMW bodyshop painted the inside of the new trunk lid to match the outside of the car ......... based on that info, "if" there was a correlation to this, having the inside of the trunk lid painted the body color would mean the lid had been replaced....... "if"

John

[HEY32G]

Thanks for the input. Glad he's wrong! Gotta love good forums.

[Huz-Z]

If you want to be absolutely sure, go to a site like eshine.ca and get a paint thickness gauge so you can find variations in the paint layer, indicating body work.

My blue roadster has it's original lid and the inside is flat black.

[HEY32G]

Originally Posted by Huz-Z

If you want to be absolutely sure, go to a site like eshine.ca and get a paint thickness gauge so you can find variations in the paint layer, indicating body work.

My blue roadster has it's original lid and the inside is flat black.

Cool. Thanks. I had heard that and then started seeing way too may trunk lids that were black on the inside.

[Taylorguy74]

Wouldn't it be just a base coat/primer coat anyway? Don't our cars have a multi-layering paint process?

[SD ///M4]

The underside of the trunk lid and the underside of the hood and the engine bay on my Interlagos Blue Z4 M Roadster is a dark charcoal gray/black and it's original.

[StickMon]

Yep. I have same car, same colors.
All original stickers.

Update:
I just removed one of my taillight assemblies, and it has blue over-spray on the housing.
Hmmmm.

[jdoublehcubed]

Maybe Red is the only one thats supposed to be body color? I have a red M roadster with an original trunk lid, and the inside is red (although its kind of a dull red, looks like maybe it gets the color but not the clear?) The inside of my engine bay is also red.

[psygnosis]

Originally Posted by jdoublehcubed

Maybe Red is the only one thats supposed to be body color? I have a red M roadster with an original trunk lid, and the inside is red (although its kind of a dull red, looks like maybe it gets the color but not the clear?) The inside of my engine bay is also red.

Blacks and dark blues, and maybe dark grays will have a black/primered/unclearcoated trunk and engine bay because you probably wont really notice, I didn't until this thread.

Lighter colors like white and red and lighter blues will have a painted trunk lid and engine bay.

If you're questioning if the trunk lid is the original look for the BMW assist sticker affixed to the bottom center of the open trunk lid.