For less than $5000 on a car like that with less than 100,000 miles, buff it out and forget it. The car is worth so much as a decent automobile that I would certainly overlook a minor paint defect.

The failure is the surface of the undercoat from UV damage beneath the clear coat, may be factory paint. Nothing will stand up to Florida sunshine forever! This is also the reason so many GM and Chrysler white paint coats fail -- the topcoat is SO thin it cannot protect the primer from UV degredation, and eventually it disintegrates, leaving the top coat free. Once it's cracked from thermal expasion or a stone chip, etc, it just peels off.

Proper repair will require sanding down the hood at least to the original paint and prepping properly for a re-paint.

I hate cheapo paint jobs, I'd personally MUCH prefer the sun damaged paint, it's considerably less hassle and expense to fix properly that the mess a cheap paint job makes!

I've got the problem on all of my current Benzes -- the 280 has a really crappy laquer job on top of the factory paint that is crazing and cracking through the original paint, ruining both. The TE has a similar mess on the hood, but I can at least correct that without major pain since it's only the hood, not the entire car. The 220D has a crap spray job (VERY thick paint) and it's peeling in places. Not a real problem since it's so rusty elsewhere, but an annoyance.

The worst is the 300D -- crappy paint job done cheap, the whole car except the top is so badly orange peeled it won't take a shine with good wax, all the black trim has overspray on it, and I will have to sand the ENTIRE mess off to fix it. Grrrrr!

We had very good luck on my brother's 75 300D by sanding down to the factory e-coat (not through if possible) and repainting with Dupont catalyzed enamel. I'm not fond of the color he picked, and he had terrible problems with it refusing to flatten (very wet and cold day when he painted it), but when it when on right, perfect. Lot a work, though, and I'd not expect to spend less than $3000 to get a similar job if I removed all the trim, etc, before sending the car to be painted.

Peter

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1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!