What I will say through general knowledge and experience (many years ago) of working in car body repair shops, is that while (on paper at least) not impossible, it is VERY difficult to match paintwork exactly on a repaired or replacement panel. In my experience you are always going to notice (to some degree or other) at certain angles and/or in certain light.

Obviously I haven't seen your car to determine how noticeable I think it is, but as described, it sounds to me like yours really isn't that bad compared to many I've seen over the years.

Not trying to sway you one way or the other, but maybe temper your expectations of how good a match is possible if only painting part of the car.

Edited by badbusdriver on 11/05/2025 at 07:30

I'd go along with BBD. Modern bodyshops have computerised systems for colour matching, so the shade should be as good a match as your eye can detect. The shop may be correct that a polish will improve things, as you say the surface looks 'matt'. Don't forget that they are trying to match fresh paint with the original, which is now 3 years old ! If the two areas looked identical now, their appearance will drift apart over time anyway.

You mention a 'respray', I assume meaning the whole car ? That could cost a couple of grand, so out of the question I suggest. Also you know where the work has been done, so will be looking for any mismatch. Let the new paint settle in, and get used to it.

Edited by Andrew-T on 11/05/2025 at 09:29

A perfect match - or, at least, a repair undetectable to the human eye - is possible, but maybe only if you're lucky with your repair shop.

I was stupid enough to reverse (at a low speed, fortunately) my Mazda into a low wooden fence one wet winter's night and it made a mess of the tailgate. A couple of large dents/creases had to be pulled out and the thing resprayed. The colour is the popular Soul Red.

Knowing that this involves a coloured lacquer on top of the metallic red base colour, I commented to the manager, "Best of luck with matching that", to which he replied. "Oh, we do it all the time."

He was right. Even after cataract surgery (which did reset my colour vision, particularly of shades of red) I can't see a difference from the rest of the car. Maybe I was lucky.