Just had the rear hatch and bumper professionally repaired after some damage.
Sounds like a daft question but how well should I expect the paint to match in these days? What's the experience out there?
The original is a metallic gunmetal grey colour on a 2 year old car. To my eye the hatch and bumper are now just very, very slightly lighter and more silver. I don't think most people would notice but I can especially now I'm aware of it.
So was wondering if that's about par for the course? Am I just being unrealistic and should accept that a repair will always show? If not would putting it right could cause more problems anyway?
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Id want it as original, infact id insist upon it.
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A 'proper job' might have used OEM paint with the correct maker's code. Did that happen?
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In my experience it is impossible to get an exact match with a metallic paint, OEM or not.
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A 'proper job' might have used OEM paint with the correct maker's code. Did that happen?
No don't suppose OEM paint was used, not as far as I know anyway. Didn't know they used it. Years since I had any paintwork done apart from a few stone chips and not something I know anything about.
stunorthants26, would that mean you shouldn't be able to tell the difference at all? It's not way out but not a perfect match.
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Well the best bodyshops can make it so you cannot tell the difference, but the bodyshop I worked for did the work for our Rolls-Royce branch and you didnt dare hand back a car with so much as a spec of overspray.
My van went back 5 times after its rear end shunt as I wasnt happy with the work. They hated it but I kept on until it was right, but then Im picky.
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It is impossible to get a perfect colour match, and variation is more likely with metallic colours, or with flat red (which always tends to fade a little over time). Paint can be mixed to match with the original colour but cannot be 100% perfect. Ever.
Ask one (or more) of your friends to see if they can tell a difference, and if they think it is obvious it may be worth asking for a professional opinion. If they can't really tell the panels apart then you're probably not going to get too far.
With a respray I wouldn't try using a polishing compound on it for a couple of months until the surface is 'cured', although wash/wax should be fine initially.
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Some colours are more difficult to match than others.
10 years ago I had an Audi in panther grey metallic (charcoal grey/black) which some kind soul ran a key down the offside. Getting a match on that took three attempts to get close using Audi supplied paint.
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I would expect it to look perfect.
Years ago, I had a zinnober red BMW and had half of it resprayed by CJ Bull and the colour match was perfect and he told me he had sent the paint back 4 times to have it adjusted.
I later had a Polar Sea Blue Omega which I think was pearlescent blue.
I had the rear bumper replaced and painted by a Car Clinic+ and the colour matched, but the finish was awful and the paint started to sheet off after a few days. I eventually sued the insurer and took it to CK Bull who stripped it with a pressure washer and repainted it and the match was perfect in my eyes.
One day someone hit the back a second time and G B Flint replaced and painted the rear bumper and it too was a perfect match.
The next time, I ran into a chain across a courtyard entrance and caused a lot of cosmetic damage to the bonnet, wing, pillar and roof and broke the windscreen. I went back to G B Flint who did an amazing job of the paintwork, I simply couldn't tell where they had blended it on the roof even with the sun shining on it.
On my next car, a Pulsar Silver VW, I had the rear bumper half repainted and around the rear wheel arch after someone rubbed their car against mine. I went back to CJ Bull and he just did a localised repair. The match is yet again quite amazing, the colour and finish and metallic effect is perfect and I can't see the blend in any light.
I have a keen eye for such things and easily spot other cars even very new ones on the road with the telltale re-sprayed panels or zebra stripes, so I do notice these things.
Edited by Hamsafar on 26/01/2009 at 17:59
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To 'fool' the eye, what the spray shop should have done is to have overlapped the new paint onto surrounding existing panels and feathered it in to the original paint so the colour change is not so noticeable when comparing one panel up against another.
There is also an art in spraying metallic paint. Either you've got the knack of doing it, or you haven't. A lot of it is down to the amount of solvent used in the paint (not made easier by the introduction of water based paints), how much metallic fleck is used, and suchlike.
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 26/01/2009 at 18:10
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A lot of the problem is that some metallic paint is very prone to fade - even in 2 years.
Often the newly painted panel is perfect and the colour exactly what it was when the car came out the factory but the rest of the car has changed colour. Even out of the factory on some colours the plastics and metal parts are slightly different colour.
Only way to slightly resolve it is to part paint the ajoining panels so it blends in.
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That's exactly what they should have done. I understood it to be called "blending in"
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The way to check if a paint colour was a good match was to check it under orange street lamps. The colour match may have looked fine in daylight, but if it was slightly off it would have looked totally different under orange lights.
They say that with modern paint technology a good match is easier to obtain. The above check may be worth your while.
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