Orange peel... Factory paint? Can you get a pic? I used that color on my doors for the R53... Its only available in a waterborne base coat, and needs a special additive. For the half pint of base plus the additive, I wanna say it was roughly $80 my cost, when all the other colors I used where around $20 for the same amount!
Unfortunately many mini's have a bit of orange peel.... Mine included... Know mine was made just after the paint shop was expanded in late 2004 when mini cranked the volume up... I'm guessing they had a "bad" day when yours was made... Heck the dealer offered to reorder my car back on Christmas's eve 2004 when I took delivery....but another few months(I had waited 6 for a delivery slot) was too much for me so I took delivery anyway.
Yeah, there is a very slight peel to my Countryman, but the factory paint on both my R53, and the R50 was pretty much flawless. The R50 (Jet Black) was so perfect after all the buffing and waxing the body shop had to redo their work a few times just to match it! It was literally a black mirror... Eventually I will get the R60 to that level of shine.
I will attempt to get one tomorrow but it is pretty much the entire drivers quarter panel. When i noticed it i checked and rechecked the carfax to make sure it wasnt due to an accident and poor paintmenship at a bodyshop....since we bought the car used with less than 6k miles on it....holy cow that is expensive.....