Just had my front bumper replaced. I actually chose to go with the Nismo front bumper replica, from Performance Nissan. Picked up the car after install and the front bumper is a couple of shades lighter than the body panels.

I all fairness, my car is Silverstone, which I have been told is a very hard color to match. The body shop wants to blend it into the hood and front fenders.

I need your opinion please. Should I go with the blending, or have them repaint, using a darker toner, since the bumper is to light?

Thanks!

 

Do not blend! That means they have to blend the hood and fenders so the front half of your car will be one tone and the rear half will be another tone. Regardless of how hard the paint is to match, it shouldnt be noticable to the point where its a few shades lighter or darker. If the bumper was ABS plastic or polyurethane then it would be understandable of the shade being slightly different because the surface of metal and plastic would make the paint color not match exactly but even then it shouldnt be that much of a difference. Find out what refinishing products your shop is using, color matching is all on how experienced the painter is and what products theyre using cause some product lines are easier to match than others. Hope this helps.

 

I had my front bumper cover repaired from a collision and a front lip spoiler installed. The color match on my car was great and my car is Brickyard (as far as I know, the hardest Z color to match). When they repaired the bumper cover they blended the bumper cover to the hood and to the fenders. The bumper cover matches better than it did from the factory. When I had the my lip spoiler installed, they butt-matched the parts and it still looked great.

Painting and color matching are very dependent on the painter. A good shop with a good painter is going to be expensive. Even if they didn't blend the panels, the color difference shouldn't be that noticeable. They should only be using blending to get a nice even color transition. A good blending job will look like one continuous tone. Blending shouldn't be used to cover up an obvious color mismatch. I would have that body shop re-paint it correctly. If they can't do it, take it to another shop. If you're trying to be cheap ... you get what you pay for.

 

What shop in SF did you go to?

 

White Oaks Autobody in Campbell, CA. They did a great job on my Z. The manager also owns a Z and did his own work on his car. They do quite a few exotics in the South Bay. The Ferrari dealer takes their cars to them. Other shops that I've had good experiences with are Car Care Autobody & Refinishing in Campbell, CA; Union City Autobody in Union City, CA (East Bay) and Menlo Collision Center in Menlo Park, CA (Peninsula). They are not cheap but they do an excellent job.

 

Oh, those are all South Bay shops, I thought you said SF.

 

practically All kits I've seen, are lighter. It'll never be perfect. Mine's a bit lighter, too.