Hi,

I have 2006 anthracite TL and its in the shop because the valet hit my car. The dealer suggested to blend the paint from the bumper through the quarter panels to make the bumper match the rest of the car. This is my third bumper (People love hitting my car =( .....)and I have never blended the paint from previous work on the bumper. I dont mind having them just paint the bumper. I just dont want to risk having another fender bender and then repeating this cycle of blending, blending and more blending. What should I do?
Thanks

 

Quick answer is no. You can choose too do it, but I wouldn't recommend it. A highly skilled painter with a quality paint system can color match the bumper with acceptable results. Anthracite is tough color to match. Some shops don't want to spend the time, don't have the diligence, or have the wrong approach. If the color needs a bit of adjustment, there is a lot of time that can be put into spray testing. A good shop will communicate this, if it's needed, and most likely include a fee. Generally, most good popular paint systems will have a color variant that should be acceptable with minimal tint adjustment, or none at all.

A heavy metallic like AM,, can also flop at different angle, in different lighting. The bumper does not sit flush with the adjacent panel, like a door to door, door to fender edge. Even if they use the same paint, with the same additives, the metallic color can flop differently creating a slightly viewable color difference effect.

Painting the complete quarter panel means going into the door jam. Not worth having a tape line in the jam, for a bumper refinish. You don't want them doing a partial panel clear blend either. If the QP is painted, the whole part should be cleared all the way to the front A pillar. Again, not woth it for just a bumper refinish.

Here is a few pics of my work recently. I'm not a auto painter anymore, so I don't have the ability to use a paint system to tweak the tint formula. I can only pic the variant I want to use.

Before - Unacceptable match. The car had a repainted OE rear bumper when I bought it. Not much worse than some of the factory originals I've seen. The bumper was too dark and green.



After - Acceptable match. Last weekend I painted the rear bumper, and Type S A-Spec lip. The color is way closer to the QP's. Not 100% perfect but completely acceptable. All pics are raw, just re-sized.

 

I'm going to make the wild assumption that you went to GaTech?

and to answer your questions, I probably wouldn't blend it.

 

Lol wild assumption is right. But hey, ya never know.

Nope. I didn't go to a formal type school for autobody. I do have ASE cert, I-car refinish cert, and BASF cert. I was smart and sort of lucky, another path came my way and I got out of the auto industry. Never lived in GA either.

 

how bad is the damage? Some lady rear ended me and all the bodyshops here quoted 600 for a bumper and paint. Instead I'll probably get the rear aspec kit to cover it up and so it's all OEM parts.

 

^ Agreed. I had a hit and run while parked in a garage. Unfortunately too high on the bumper to cover with an a-spec. Cost me around $600 for a new bumper/paint. A lot of the colors have issues with color matching between the plastic and metal body parts. My [then] newly painted rear doesn't exactly match the rest of the car, but no more so than before. With the bumpers, I don't think blending is really going to make a difference on these or similar cars. If it was your hood or other body panel, it would be different.

 

sorry, was talking to the OP. Was referring to his user name (GT student ID #)

 

I had the same problem but i was at court and I was quoted about 600 too but the bumper is only 300 so im gna try to get a friend to do it for me

 

Thanks guys for all your advice. I got it back from the dealer body shop and it looks pretty good. Matches pretty well with the rest of the car. Even the estimator was surprised. I decided against blending and asked them to only paint the bumper. I think they were against it in the beginning bc they were trying to hit up the insurance company for more $$$.

yes. I am a tech grad. class of 02. Not very creative with my tag name..

Thanks again.

 

yea u dont needa blend..the bumper will never match 100% due to the material. But im on my 2nd rear and the shop put some special primer on it so now its reallllly close match but never 100%.