Some woman backed into my front bumper and cracked up the bumper skin which has to be replaced. A body shop indicated that I have two options.

A: replace and paint the new bumper skin to match the car color as close as possible. May not match exactly.

B: replace and paint the new bumper skin and blend the paint into the fenders so that the bumper will match the car color. This option will cost more (not an issue as the woman is paying for it)

At first I thought that option A was the best as I didn't want to paint over the factory paint on the fenders. The bumper not matching the car exactly is what I have now anyways from the factory.

Is it better to blend the paint with the fenders even though the paint may not be as good as the factory paint (as far as hardness, fading, etc)?

 

As with many things, it depends. In general, it's a good idea to leave factory paint alone. If you kept to this philosophy, you'd take option A and live with any mismatch in the paint.

If you go with option B, keep in mind that the secret to a good paint job is the surface preparation. In order to blend the paint correctly, the body shop will need to prep the fender surface, which means taking off the coatings, and some or all of the factory paint and primers. If the shop doing the work is a quality operation, the results will be practically factory quality. If the shop cuts corners, you may have a trouble with the paint on the fenders in the future.