I had both my bumpers painted last week, and let’s just say I'm not excited with the results. The front came out great! Can't even tell anything was done. However, the back bumper looks like a totally different color; not to mention when they put it on, the intersection of the plastic bumper and the tail light rub together causing the paint to chip off.

So, I'm going to take it back. But is this something I should expect? The guy was very cool, and told me it wouldn't be perfect, blah blah blah... but, this is MUCH different. He said it looked better than it did before, I disagree.

Opinions please!

 

damn! if a digicam can catch the color difference you got a real issue.

They really did not match the color well for the rear bumper. Front one is a little darker but not as pronounced.

The reason might be the flex agent, it darkens the color.

 

Yeah, tell me about it! I can live with the front, but the guy says it's the same as the back....

 

So this is what mine looked like BEFORE it was repainted. I'll post pictures tomorrow, but they did a tremendous job matching it to the rest of the car. In fact, now my factory side skirts look funny up against it.


Steve

 

How much did it cost to repaint

 

How come you had to have the bumpers redone? Too many dings?

 

So my repaint didn't cost me anything. It was done by my dealership for customer satisfaction. I pointed out to them the day I bought the car that I did not like the color match on the bumpers, but I WAS going to purchase a RonJon body kit, so it wasn't that big of a deal. When I couldn't find anyone to paint the RonJon for a reasonable price, I took it back and let them know that I wasn't changing the bumpers, and that I wanted the bumpers repainted.


Steve

 

I was thinking the exact same thing!

 

$650 including a rental car for two days.

(2004 Honda Civic with crank windows... this made me really love my TL!)

 

When I bought the car (used) it had a scratch on the front bumper from what she said was a shopping cart accident. Then, a rock flew out of a truck and hit the front bumper just below the headlight... which made a few nice chips. Then I took off the front license plate holder and found it rubbed away paint in several spots. And, it just had a few scrapes from where the car was bottomed out a few times... so I was planning on getting it re-painted from the day I bought the car. No big deal and I got a great price on this car so I decided to go for it.

Two weeks into the car, I back up into a stop sign. Yes, stupid, but in my defense it was the worst placed sign in the world. So bad in fact, the town took it down last week! (In a bank parking lot) I scrapped the right rear side of the bumper, just below the tail light, and got very lucky that I didn't hit the metal rear quarter panel.

 

It looks like my bumper when it was repainted. They redid it and said the color was the same but the paint flop on the bumper was different than the flop of the factry paint so the match was off worse than yous. So they re-painted it again after practicing flopping the paint on other damaged bumpers and got the match really good. It looks better than the factory paint.

 

So there's hope. What do you mean by flopping?

 

damn.....thats totally unacceptable. I even think you're fron bump. could be matched better.

 

I think the front looks okay; I do so much driving I'll probably have to get it done in another two years anyway. It's just the rear that's driving me nuts!

 

Theres a place that painted mine, and they matched it PERFECT!! The shade of black is right, the pearl is right, its beatuiful. In fact, they will be spraying the rest of my car soon

I wouldnt be very happy if I was in your shoes. People half-assing things these days really pisses me off. They couldve matched that by spending a little more time on it.

 

I'll give the guy a call tomorrow; hopefully they will make it right.

 

You can do a google search on paint flop to get a detailed explanation of it but in a nutshell, it has to do with the way the metallic flakes in the paint lay down when sprayed. If the flakes stand up in the paint when it dries, it tends to look darker,and if the flakes lay down, it will look lighter when the sun shines on it than the rest of the car. Any metallic paint will have the flakes flop in a certain way. It looks like the painter may have flopped the flakes in a different direction or angle than the way the rest of your car is painted. Here is a picture of my bumper when they flopped the paint wrong. When they repainted it, it matched very well. The funny thing with the bad flop is that at most angles it looks very off but at a certain angle or light, it looked like it matched.

 

Thanks for the info, I'll let you know what I come up with tomorrow.

 

Here is some more info about paint flop from the DuPont web site:

http://www.performancecoatings.dupon...more_flop.html