johnblaze78

Hi everyone Im really in need of some opinions here for anyone with this experience. I have to replace my whole front bumper because it was damaged. I have a used original grey front bumper (perfect condition) for my 05 Acura Tl which I will need painted pearl white. Now I've been to about 6 places to ask for an estimates and none of them mentioned blending my front fenders accept for one place. Now that one place also said they can paint the bumper only for $400 cash which was the average cost that I got from all the other places I went. Although this place did tell me that they highly recommend that I have the front fenders blended in because my color is pearl white and the color wont match up exactly to the new bumber paint. Does anyone here have any recommendation as to what I should do? should I just paint the bumper or do the bumper plus have the front fenders blended which will cost $600? Any feedback or opinions would help thanks.

Johnny
05 Acura TL

LiquidLunch

Ask them if they will complete a spray out panel- its basically a card with a bunch of different paint variances on it. They will us that card to match the paint as close as possible to the fenders. It may take 10 or 15 different combinations to get it eight, but a good painter who knows what they are doing will get this right. The shop may want to charge you an extra .5 to 1 hour of labor to do this, but its a good alternative to blending the fenders.

road_boy

iTrader: (1)

I don't know much about painting, but my last TL was a WDP. I purchased an aspec kit that was not WDP and had it repainted, not yet installed on my car. Upon its completion of being painted, the colour was a little too white compared to the rest of the car. Fortunately he kept the car for an extra couple days and he managed to blend it pretty close. He said WDP is a pain in the ass...

I think like the above poster mentioned, get him to match the color of the bumper to the panels versus blending the panels to the colour of the new paint on the front bumper. In my opinion, the less body parts you paint, the less headache/work you'll have in the future...

seoulja

my father and i have owned a body shop for over 20+ years.. so with tha being said.. pearl white is one of the MOST pain in the ass paints to match.. or any car w/ any pearl for that matter. my advice is this.. keep in mind that your bumper is made of plastic(polyuerathyne) and the pearl does not reflect off that as well as metal(fenders and hood). also if u ever noticed.. when you bought your car new NONE of the bumpers TOTALLY matched the rest of the car. they appeared a lil darker.

princelybug

iTrader: (16)

I can see your pain. Good advice!

Turbonut

iTrader: (1)

Sorry, but IMHO the base has nothing to do with the finished color. If that were the case, every WDP car would have a different shade of white on the bumpers, but Acura seems to be the only one that has a patent on that. Also, if the base were the problem, and the body shop sprayed the fenders and bumper together, the bumper would be a different color because of the base, but that doesn't happen as the finished color remains the same on the fenders/bumper.

To answer the OP question, the paint can be matched if test patterns were taken as stated in a post above, but most don't want to spend the extra time, so they would rather spray the fenders and bumper at once so the difference isn't noticed. One problem though, the adjacent panel would be a different shade, so one with an eye for detail could detect the paint shade difference. So you can have just the bumper painted as long as they guarantee a color match.

I've said this before, a fellow scraped the right front fender and bumper of our WDP, no dent, just rubbed off the paint. The shop, although not inexpensive, painted the front fenders (had the left fender painted because of a door ding) and bumper, perfect match as they take test patterns before spraying.

Turbonut

iTrader: (1)

Darn time out!
Just wanted to mention, the first 3 shops I spoke with would not guarantee a color match, but the fellow that did the job, not only guaranteed the color to match, but gave a liftime warranty on the paint work, and the shop has been in business for decades.

road_boy

iTrader: (1)

If your saying the bumpers on the WDP are all the same shade of white after being painted from the factory, then you're probably right, however i noticed on more than a handful of TL's the bumper colors are noticeably different than the rest of the metallic panels, including my previous 06 WDP(that's why i went NBP this time). I do agree that if he messes with the side skirts, the adjacent panel will be off....

Fred99x

I had to have my front bumper replaced and they just painted the bumper, no blending. The color matched up really well. I wish my back bumper matched the same way. They should be able to match the bumpers pretty close. Take it to a place where they will assure a close match up.

Fred99x

I just remembered that when my car was 3 months old I put a scrape on the rear wheel fender lip. The shop that fixed it, matched the paint perfectly. I don't see why other shops shouldn't be able to do the same.

kidrocking79

This bumper issue w/ WDP really pissed me off. If a body shop can get it right, why can't Acura get it right from the beginning. I LOOOVE my Type S... but hate the fact that my rear bumper looks like $hit !!! mine is soooooo noticable.. looks like an aftermarket bumper that got a bad paintjob.

Adobeman

I going to say no blend. I've never seen a blend I like after a few years. Some I hate immediately. Others expose how bad they are the first time the car is parked under any kind of light at a shopping center. Just do the bumper cover. If you don't like the match when the job is done that will be easier to deal with. If you blend as well you may end up with even more problems.