Eric Chadwick

Mod please don't move this to somewhere no one will look at it.

Unfortunately for me a dopey idiot managed to drive into the back of my sti while sat at some traffic lights recently. Now the car is repaired I dont think the paint on the bumper completely matches that on the boot, spoiler rear etc. It seems slightly too blue-ish a silver whereas the rest of the car has a slight yellow tinge more like a platinum. Admittedly the side skirts dont really match either and they are original but the spoiler seems a perfect match. If I complain and ask them to do it again is there anything they can do differently - do they actually apply an age modifier to the paint colour to allow for the slight colour change over time of the rest of the car?

I know some people can see colour differences where others can't but has anyone really fussy had a perfect paint match on a car a few years old?

mutant_matt

If you're not happy and you can see the difference then the chances are that you should be able to get it done again.

A good paint shop should apply the paint and then do what is required to match it up to the original. A poor paint shop will just spray the new part with the correct paint and bolt it on (which will often result in a close match, but not an exact match).

Personally, I wouldn't accept a close match, only an exact match will do.....

Matt

chiark

Chipsaway did a small repair on my bumper: it matches exactly...

rb5_336

When I was at my Gatwick Dealer a few months ago, they had a problem when some employee crashed into a customer's car. I think it was an M reg Mitsi FTO.

Anyway, they had the damaged wing resprayed to the correct colour, but the customer complained it wasn't a perfect match, obviously the other paint work had faided over time. So Subaru sent a sample to ICI to have some paint made up with the exact match, and all was ok after that

Sean

Sean

Stephen Read

I imagine that achieving a perfect match with mica or metallic paints is very difficult.

Not only have you got the issue of fading of the surrounding paint, and this will be partly do to the climate you live in and the exposure to bright sunlight but the patricles that produce the mica finish need to set just right to achive the same effect.

I beleive that some panels may need to be sprayed off the car to achieve the best result.

Assuming they get the colour match right on a three year old car, they might have to use a special tint of paint to match the slightly faded colour of the adjacent panels but how will this fresh paint fade over the next three years?

dnb

A perfect match is difficult, but achievable. I know of at least one company local to me that will analyse paint chips to mix a colour and not rely simply on colour codes.

If it were my car, I wouldn't be happy unless it was right!

Tim Caddick

I had my DBM MY00 rear bumper partially sprayed after a parking incident - Perfect match. However, the chap who did the repair did say that the most difficult colour to match was silver, & that an exact match was rarely possible.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

And I've heard the same thing up here about silver...............:
Alcazar

Eric Chadwick

The bodyshop manager has already said he'll talk to the bloke from dupont about it. I'm not holding my breath though

I've seen the same blue tint on new panel vs yellow tint on old panel before when I had a wing replaced on an uno. I think the difference lessened over time so that after a while you couldn't see it anymore.

Grrrrr!