I was rear-ended (evil soccer mom in a mini-van) and just got the Z back. They replaced the bumper cover and of course repainted it. My question is how picky should a person be with the paint matching?

Its silverstone (05). It seems like they put an extra scoop of sparkles in the paint! OK, I'm sure they don't actually do that, but thats what it seems like. Its really noticable at night when lights hit it.

The car is year old, but I would not have expected the paint to have faded that much...and don't remember it having such a sparkle to it when it was new.

Any thoughts?

 

My 2¢ is if it is a "match" then it should actually match. If you are not happy, then take it back and get it fixed. She damaged your car so DO NOT SETTLE....

 

Bumper covers are never going to match perfectly because paint on plastic is going to look different then paint on metal. If you look at a brand new car off the lot there will be a slight color varience.

 

Silverstone is real hard to match. I did my front bumper and my bodykit. The bumper matched good the kit was okay. I took it back they repainted it but it still did not match. I went too 2 more shops and they told me that was as close as it was going to get.

 

Like said before you will never get an exact color match with a bumper cover and quarter panel.

 

it's not going to be exact as stated above, but it shouldn't look like there's an extra scoop of metallic flakes either. Take it back, ask if they use ppg paint.

 

The color should be an exact match if the shop is good at painting. Typically the body shop will blend the paint on the bumper and hatch, quarter panels, etc. I believe they blend the paint because a bodyshop can't match the paint 100% so they blend the paint to trick the eye. That's what they did on my silver alloy and i can't tell that the car was painted.

It looks like your bodyshop didn't blend the paint.

When i got my brand new 06 the paint on the plastic matched the paint on the sheetmetal. I've seen 03 where the paint didn't match. I believe nissan began to paint the entire car at once and fixed this problem.

I believe your bodyshop will repaint the affected areas. I've heard that some body shops takes several attempts at painting before the customer is happy.

If i were you i would just live with it rather than taking the car back in and have them scratch or damage your car while its in the shop.

 

Thanks for everyone's response.

Guess I'm just trying to gage whether I'm being unrealistic or not in expecting a close match. I have had bumper covers, quarter panels done before and had a pretty close match...but not "simpler colors".

It was just the bumper cover that had to be replaced/painted. No other damage to the body. Insdie where the coffee was spilt, thats another story!

Suppose there is no harm in bringing it up with the shop. I have to go back anyway for the back-ordered parts to be installed (headliner). I expect them just to say that it will never match perfectly, etc. Hence I wanted to hear opinions.

 

best bet is talk to the shop, be reasonable, and I bet they'll have another go at it.

I can tell you from personal experience, Silverstone is virtually impossible to match, even if you try to blend, but if they are a decently experienced shop, they should be able to do a reasonably good job

 

The fruity overdoes of flakes would bother me enough. Take it back!

 

while some colors may be difficult for an exact match a good body shop should come damn close. close enough that you wouldn't be able to tell. i had a body kit done a month or two back and my shop did an awesome job matching and blending. the front lip and rear skirt were also molded on and the entire kit looks like it was part of the car when purchased from the dealer a year and a half ago. they did the side skirts and told me they went back and did them again b/c the match wasn't up to their standards. took longer yes... but why settle.

bottom line is if it's not right take it back and keep taking it back until they get it right. nothing against the shop... but eventually they'll learn.