Hello everybody - I could use some help.

My 02 S2000 was rear-ended recently (I think people driving and talking on the cell phone should be lined up against the wall).

The rear bumper was scratched up, and I had a local body shop repaint it. Unfortunately when I got the car back the paint did not match. (ugh). It's really really bad.

The body shop I used is one that I've dealt with before, and they are willing to try to repaint it again. From what they tell me it's impossible to guarantee that it will match exactly. That it will always be a little off. They told me they used the paint code specified for this car... They told me that they can try another process by which they can try to match the paint that would not use the same original paint, but it would probably match better.

Does anybody have experience with any of this? Is this true? Is it in fact possible to match paint exactly? Any and all help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

of course it will never be EXACTLy the same... your paint probably changed color slightly since you bought the car since its not new paint anymore, but i'm sure they can do a much better job. i recently got a lip painted and you'd think the car was painted all at once with the lip. even in different lighting i cant notice a difference. they did a good job and all they did was take my gas door to paintmatch

 

They should blend it into the other body panels. That makes the difference in color less noticeable.

 

blending helps make it less noticeable giving it almost a gradient transition, but it doesnt change the fact that the body panels arent the same color. i was only saying that in my experience, it is possible to have a near perfect match without blending.

 

Not true on a bumper cover repaint. The color of a bumper cover (esp. on silver, red, and yellow) will always look slighty off of the quarter panel color. Check out brand new Audis, Toyotas, and Chevys (the worst offenders) and look at to color match from the factory. Blending only needs to be done on certain panels.

Yes, it can be done. A body shop paint supplier has a tool that "takes a picture" of the paint and finds the closest OEM color match. Then they mix up the color and send the body shop the paint.

Seeing that your car is silver, it is very possible that the painter who mixed the paint may have tinted it a little wrong (which is easy to do). Have them respray the bumper and see if they can match it any better, also accept the fact that it might be a shade off.

side note: I'm from the northern Jersey area, I'm just curious, what body shop did you bring it too?

 

I live in Morristown, but I prefer not to mention them by name, this email thread may give them a bad rap, which is not at all my intention. They are nice people.

They did mention that there was an option of taking a picture and trying to get the paint just right. So I'll probably take them up on it. It really really is terrible right now, which is very sad for me. I tried to keep this car spotless for 5 years, and it's been that way for the most of it!

Thanks for your input.

 

taking a picture is a bad idea. cameras arent always true to color, flash overexaggerates metallic flake, the computer you display it on most likely does not have a color calibrated monitor, etc. unbolt your gas cap door and give it to them.

 

the body shop should be blending your paint. I dont know what you guys are talking about taking a picture. the camer will take a picture of the paint at THAT point of the day, so there will be a different tint or shade of silver depending on lighting and reflection.

They should use the original paint code on the vehicle and blend the paint into the body panels. If they use some other paint that is NOT original to the paint, that paint will fade just as your original panels have but it will fade differently because it is not original paint and it will look worse than ever before.

My suggestion would be to get them to blend the paint and then you go get a really good detail and have someone throw some compound and a good glaze, polish, and wax on the old panels to possibly bring back some of the color. apparently your paint was not taken care of too much and the uv rays started to fade it.

 

they should have used the paint code to get a number of samples which they then match against your color to ensure a good match. apparently someone didn't take that part too seriously. they should do it in sunlight for the best match.

 

Not true. Good body shops and most paint suppliers have a camera specifically for this purpose, they work extremely well as long as the paint is a uniform color and doesn't have fading in certain spots.

Michael