So I recently bought a 2003 DB 350Z with 33k miles. Carfax came out clean, but I, as well as others, have noticed almost two slightly different colors on the car. It is extremely noticeable on the gas-cap, and just ever-so annoyingly noticeable from the hatch to rear bumper.

edit: oh and I forgot to add my question, lol... is this normal or is it possible the previous owner bypassed Carfax? (Im sure that's relatively easy)

It's pretty obvious in the first pic, and no its not the angle. its like that at every angle. I tried to capture the coloration as best I could in the second pic.

pictures to judge:

 

My Z that i bought new is two different colors. The front and rear bumpers are a different shade than the rest of the car. I always thought it might have been the changeover from Silverstone to Carbon Silver in 2007 caused my car to get some old SS bumpers while the rest of the car was CS

I had a Honda Civic that was in two separate accidents where both times it was fixed under insurance, was broken into and ransacked in college, and had a broken odometer that was replaced by me.

To this day it still has a clean title with 0 accidents and no history of odometer rollbacks and i never tried to "bypass" anything, carfax just sucks

 

I've never seen a gas cap with as much color difference as your's has. But, I have noticed a slight color difference with virtually all the Z gas caps. The gas cap is made of plastic. I suspect your color difference between the hatch and the bumper is also because the bumper cover is made of plastic. You could probably switch the gas cap with one that matches better. You might try buffing the hatch to see if you can get a better color match.

 

The gas cap on Z is plastic while the rear quarter panel is metal. That alone will mean that these two pieces will have different shades of DB simply because the same exact paint will adhere differently to plastic then to metal.

In other words, you will usually find (esp in the case of repainted bumpers) that the bumper and all plastic pieces on the car will never EXACTLY match the metal parts. Also, the paint on your bumper contains a flex- additive that allows it to flex when the bumper flexes and not crack. This additive is not added to the paint on the metal portions of the car.

 

Very common. Panels are made of different materials and will absorb and reflect paint differently.

 

hmm ok. Thanks very much for the help guys!

 

True... I had my rear bumper resprayed by nissan and it didnt match 100%...