so here's the deal.. i've been through 2 paintshops just to get my lipkit repainted. first time, it was darker than the car's color. second time, it was lighter than the car's color. both of the shops used oem paint and the paint code (nh643m type a) / anthracite metallic.

second painter says my car has been repainted because he noticed the tabs have been painted over on the front bumper. is that true? well.. my paint has been flawless (no orange peel) .. but just ugly bird poop etchings on the hood and a bit of touchup paint around the car here and there.

is there any way you can check if the paint is oem? would the dealer charge me to check it? disappointed results ..

i'd post pics but it's just too embarrassing to look at.

 

doesnt matter if its been repainted. a good painter is supposed to use tint and get the match right.

 

what I'VE heard.......

they make it orange peely from the start so that when you repaint it.. they'll know since its not orange peely ish..

 

That's interesting... never heard of that one before, but I guess it's logical.

To the OP, why not just take a look at your car next to a new car with the same paint color? You might be able to see it better that way. Or if you can find out which parts have been repainted, just look closely at a panel beside it (assuming the color matching / orange peel / etc... is that match different from original).

But in the end it shouldn't matter - the repaint for your skirts, etc. should be matched to whatever your color is, no matter if it's a repaint or not.

 

i agree with what all of you guys said above.. the front lip repaint was for $120 by a guy from [c-rsx].. really well known.. does a great job from what i've been hearing from everyone so i thought i'd give him a shot at it.. waited 2 weeks.. and i thought it'd come out perfect and it did (no orange peel + rockchip protection) .. but .. wrong shade of grey ..

 

Open the doors, and look for a seam on the inside where the weather stripping would sit. (on the pillar that forms part of the chassis) There are a ton of good places for a painter to stop there. If you can find a distinct lip in one of those corners, its probably been repainted? Good luck though, the guy who did my safety inspection thought my car had been repainted but I can find no indications of an accident on my car so I dunno. You need near perfect lighting to tell.

 

They should be able to tint the color or at least blend it.

 

Find better shops. Paint still hast to be mixed and sprayed. You can never get the exact same paint color and spray pattern. Good places will take the time to make test panels and find out if they have to reduce, how many coats, which direction to spray to make it match.

 

but yeah a good painter, you will never be able to ever tell that it had actually been painted (unless you are maybe another painter, so you deal with it on a daily basis)

and even then a BRAND NEW lip from the dealer, with it already painted will never be an exact match, ALL paint fades to one point or another, and have gone through different maintence scheadles/lives (idk what else is another good term ), so no two cars are ever going to be exactly the same (except for maybe brand new ones, right out of the paint booth at the factory)