Suzukaboy

Had a minor accident and the front bumper cover needs to be replaced. The collision shop said that it comes unpainted and they will need to paint it to match up with the Suzuka blue. I had hoped it came painted.

Is this correct info?

mosesbotbol

Yes, this is correct. I had my rear bumper cover replaced and painted, and it is impossible to tell. No worries, as long as they know what they are doing.

mbilderback

If they are replacing the part, make sure they blend. You cannot just paint the bumper and expect it to match. Use a good shop and it will look fine.

Suzukaboy

They mentioned a two stage finish process for the cover. I assume this is the blending you mentioned.

mbilderback

Nope, two stage is just fancy wording for paint and clearcoat. They need to blend the clearcoat into adjoining panels, if they only respray the bumper, you'll end up with a difference in color, more than likely the new one will be darker than the old.

They need to blend clearcoat past the new bumper and onto the hood and fenders.

abmusser

Although blending is the better way to go. I recently had to repaint my front bumper and i got an estimate with it blended and another that was just color matched and the price was a significant difference. It was like 900 to blend and and 360 to be color matched. I went with the color match and nobody would be able to tell that it was repainted. I guess if i had had 900 i would have blended it, but i was happy with how it turned out. just make sure they know what they are doing.

Suzukaboy

Thanks for the input. Helps to know what the deal is on this stuff. At least I will be able ask an intelligent question or two when I talk with them.

r_duff

it is not neccessary to blend mbilderback. a metalic color usually comes out pretty good.

blend might be neccessary on red, white, or yellow s2ks, but not silver, blue or black.

Suzukaboy

The body shop guy said that it is very hard to exactly match the color between the color on the metal and color on the plastic cover. He said they can get it it about as good as the the rear bumper cover match and they don't like to blend over undamaged paint unless they have to.

I think I got his attention by asking the question so thanks for the input. In my experience you always do better if they think you have a clue. I'll post again on how it works out.

skier219

Yeah, if they can do it without blending, that is a far better option -- it will leave the rest of the factory paint unmolested. They can paint and bake the new bumper off the car and it ought to have a pretty decent finish.

One of my coworkers had the rear bumper on her Accord repainted, and the color match is dead on (she has that green-metallic color). No blending was required.

Craig