heyyy am currently trying to buy this car. its a 2004 . the car is 9k. it has 80k miles on it already. but am currently thinking this car has been into an accident. can anyone tell me if the bumber has been change. i feel like theres two diffferent colors. thanks

https://plus.google.com/photos/10587...46989590798386

 

Link isn't working.

 

That link doesnt work for me, but I can go ahead and take a stab at your issue. First off let me say that there were a few colors that came from the factory that didnt match perfect. The most common one is silver, then white. I have seen both of these colors come brand new from the factory with rear bumpers that are clearly off in color. They say its due to the different materials, but that doesnt make sense to me since every car made has different materials between the quarter panels and bumpers and other vehicles dont have color matching issues.
Now a good way to tell if its the original bumper or not would be to pop the trunk and look on the passenger side area of the bumper cover to the left of the tail light. If its original you should see a VIN label. If its not there then either the bumper has been replaced or its been painted and covered or removed all together. All the panels VIN labels are the first things I look at when buying a used vehicle.

James

 

Did you use the link from your personal Gmail account? Silly noob

 

hmmmmm now how do i post the pictures? sorry kinda new to all this

 

You have to upload the picture to photobucket or flickr, then copy/paste the IMG code in the text box.

 

use imgur to upload photos.

 

 

paint in rubber vs metal always will be a slightly difference!

 

Not true. This has been covered a zillion times in the last 9 years, but there should be no discernible difference between the urethane bumper cover and the body. Honda would have been better off getting some pointers from GM as the Cadillac white diamond bumper and body is identical, same as other manufacturers that produce a car that is one color, unlike Honda.

 

This is the problem with the bumpers not matching the body most of the time. First, they car isnt painted in the same station as the bumpers are, they paint hundreds of bumpers in another station and put them on the shelf untill they are needed for assembly. Second, these manufactures change theire paint all the time, they can spray with PPG in one period of time, then use Dupont or any other paint company in a second period if they get it for a better price. So if the bumpers have been painted with ppg paint, the cars at that time could be getting sprayed with DuPont or Sikkens. So not all paint companies have the same tints. Also, Honda isnt the only manufacture with this issue, its almost all of them. Nissan, Hyndaui, Subaru, Mercedes ect.. Even GM, in my opinion GM and Ford have the worst clearcoat finish, its too orange peely. And the White Diamond on the Cadillac is to blushy and not good at all.

And OP to anwser your ? you can sometimes tell if its been painted or repaired. OEM brings vin tags on them, inside and on the edge on top. Plus most of the time there a few nibs here and there that they didnt buff off..

 

I can't remember for sure but isn't it either additives or a different type of paint used for flexible surfaces to prevent cracking/flaking that causes the trouble? Acura did a good job matching my black paint lol.

Speaking of factory paint I didn't realize just how bad it was until my car got keyed when it was 2 months old (feb 13th of '06 I guess I should not have broken up with her right before valentines day lol) and the new paint job was so much better it didn't match. I'm not talking color or the gay blue sparkles, just the overall quality and lack of waviness.

 

lol @ the ex story

but yes what you are thinking of are what they call flex agents in the paint that can cause it to mismatch however good shops now can match them very well. I had my front end repainted a while back and am actually having it all redone again thanks to someone hitting my bumper..again. Anyways the first time I had it done they matched it so well I could not tell the difference.

My Aspec when it came from the factory however was horribly mismatched with the rest of the car. So to answer your question OP, paint mismatch does not always mean it was in an accident especially with our cars it is very common.

 

I've stated my position before as there is no excuse for having the bumpers a different shade from the body, period. As far as using different paint suppliers, this is a poor response as the WDP TL hasn't had matching bumpers since day one, regardless of the year. The substrate and also, the addition of flex, should not have any bearing if the mix is done correctly. Back 3 years ago, a fellow scratched our WDP on the right fender and bumper, just needed to be prepared and painted. Had the fenders and cover repainted and low and behold the front is finally perfect and they all match. It took many tests before the final pearl, but it can be done, but if not, just consider it poor quality.

 

JTS has a great point, always take note that paint dries differently on different materials; making it appear different.

 

That is the exact issue, along with my point; preparation

 

I've painted a few cars before, and I can say for sure that pearl whites are one of the hardest OE style paint types to match. There's so many variables. Paints from different manufacturers that are all supposed to be the same color can vary greatly. How the pearl stage is sprayed can also vary the color. Even things like how think the clear is sprayed can alter the color. If the clear is just a 1000th of an inch too thin or thick it can cause a mismatch.

Add to this the fact that at the factory, bumpers are not painted at the same time/place as the rest of the car, and it's really no wonder they don't match.

As for your car, you said the bumper and fenders were painted, which means that the painter almost assuredly blended the bumper into the fenders. Odds are the painter didn't actually get a "perfect match" but rather the blending fools you eye into thinking it's all one uniform color, as opposed to before where the sharp boundary between the colors on the fenders and bumper made the misatch more obvious.

 

That assertion might well have been correct, although difficult to see, there was no discernible difference between the doors and fenders, but in Sept 2011 a teenage deer ran in front of the car and committed suicide. The front cover sustained a crack just below the right headlight, so a new cover was installed and painted. It took the shop two times to get it correct, but can't tell the difference between the freshly painted bumper and previously painted fenders.

For the entire 4 year production, nothing changed, same disparity between the body and bumpers and as Honda hasn't taken any action to correct the condition, the 4G still has complaints from the owners.

As I've said before, poor, poor quality. Changes should have been made to correct the condition, guess they're pleased with the criticism.