Paint matching

P

paulmac

Member
Hi all,
I have an 04 Z4 in sapphire black.
Ever since I've had it, I've wanted to get the front bumper resprayed as it had stone chips.
I didn't do it as I was nervous the colour wouldn't match.
Anyway someone rear ended me, so I needed to get the rear bumper done, while it was in I thought might as well get front bumper done as well.
Well my worst fears were realised.
When I picked it up, it was all dusty, but looked ok.
Now I've got it home and cleaned it all up, its clear the paint doesn't match.
It looks darker and hasn't got as much metallic fleck in it
I'm going to phone the sprayers tomorrow, but am I being too fussy, how close a match should it be.
Anyone else with a black Z, can you see a difference, where the top of the back bumper meets the rear quarter.
Why is it always me!! :x
 
It's more difficult matching older paint. My local bodyshop has been able to spray my skirts and new bumper to perfectly match my 9 year old paint.... not black though, but can't see why that would make a difference.
 
I've recently had the front bumper, bonnet and wings resprayed on my sapphire black coupe. The colour match is perfect, it's impossible to see where the new paint has been blended in to the old on the wings so it can be done. I wonder if yours is more noticeable because there is no blending and it's old and new paint right next to each other, particularly with one being on metal and the other on plastic.
 
Rydal said:
I've recently had the front bumper, bonnet and wings resprayed on my sapphire black coupe. The colour match is perfect, it's impossible to see where the new paint has been blended in to the old on the wings so it can be done. I wonder if yours is more noticeable because there is no blending and it's old and new paint right next to each other, particularly with one being on metal and the other on plastic.
Click to expand...

Mine wasn't blended, as they painted the skirts off the car... it may be that the older painted areas need some paint correction to bring the finish back to life...
 
I had the same thing when I got my front bumper resprayed late last year. Even though they use all of this colour matching technology it seems that without blending the difference in colour between panels is just too large. In addition apparently the way metallic flecks sit on metal panels is always different to plastic ones.

I do believe that in the case of my car the problem is that the clear coat has yellowed very slightly, thus why the old paint has a subtly greener colour. I too wondered if paint correction could fix that but was advised that the yellowing would be through the entire clear layer and thus nothing could be done about it :(

So I guess in future it would be safest to always get blending done...
 
Sorry to hear about your pain with the respray.

I too have a Sapphire black roadster and had the front bumper resprayed last year. The colour match was perfect, no problems with colour matching whatsoever. I was very pleased with the final result. Have you spoken to the paint guy?

Edit: P.s. I can't tell much from the photo above unfortunately. But my thinking is with metallic paint and the Sapphire black, the professional should be able to get a very very close match. It's not as if it's primary red or another colour which fade and 'tarnishes'. Just my thoughts.
 
Sounds like a good idea. Stand up for yourself. Regarding the options, ask yourself would you trust him to do a respray and do a good job of it? Otherwise, think about asking for a partial refund because you will *need to have it redone elsewhere. When I had mine done, even though I provided the name of the colour, the guy said there was a 'serial code' on the car that he would look at to get the true colour match - did your guy do this?

How is the front bumper?

Depending on where you live, I could recommend my guy. Very reasonable cost. Good luck tmrw.
 
Front bumper is just as bad.
I feel like such an idiot taking it.
Its just they had it three weeks and I wanted it back, thought that once I polish it all would be ok.
I've already paid them £200 for the front, the back if though insurance.
I suppose I could phone the insurance and tell them not to pay.
The car still has to go back as the reversing sensor don't work either!
 
Rejected my car twice last year for paint match I was unhappy with.
3rd time lucky though and I'm now pleased with the result.
 
It is slightly visible from the photo.
However if it's close, I would rather live with a slight mismatch rather than have the body panels painted to blend in.
I'd be more concerned if the metal panels were mismatched.

Unusual for a body shop to hand over a car to a customer without making an effort to clean the car first.
 
The problem with bumpers is that they are plastic, while surrpunding panels are metal.... That being said i a new front and rear bumper painted and the bodyshop which did the rear literally used a bottle of spray and some cards which different shades of sapphire black.

Came up perfect... Even with the little paint flecks.

So def take it back to them.
 
I work in motorcycle accident repairs, not painting myself, I'm a damage assessor, however my painter comes from a car background and we have these kind of discussions daily.

You will find that all of our colours, not only Sapphire Black, will actually have many slightly different shades from manufacture. Basically no 2 tins of paint in the BMW factory paint shop are identical, therefore when you come to have a respray/repair done, the painter will have to choose from approximately 6-8 different shades base on formulas given by the paint company (most likely Lechler). My colleague has a 320d saloon in Steel Blue, our painter carried out some work to it after finding out there were 8 different shades of Steel Blue!! If you were to put 2 cars together, you wouldn't notice the difference, but on the sprayed swatches the difference was night and day!

No paint company will know exactly which shade of Sapphire Black was used on your car originally (unless you send a part off to Lechler who will analyse it and give you the formula for a match), therefore your painter will get all of the information together for the formulas off a database, make some colour swatches, and offer them up to the car. You will find that the last stage before painting will be done by eye. Of course the biggest problem with this is how good your painter is at doing that. It's one thing having the skill to be able to paint properly in the first place, but another skill all together to be able to correctly match paint. There are different environmental effects to take into account as well. By that I mean lighting - Most paints will look the same under certain lights, but different in others, i.e natural light and sodium lighting can throw up vastly different shades.

If you're not sure when getting painting done, ask to see the swatches before the item gets painted and offer them up to the car under different lighting conditions. That way YOU can choose the paint that YOU are happy with.

Of course I don't need to tell you this, but make sure you use a painter with a good reputation that have had a lot of recommendations by people you know have had work done by them. Anybody can claim to be a painter and stick a spray gun in their hand - but proper tinting is an art which is only gained with years of experience of dealing with different paints, finishes and technology.
 
Had my front bumper painted recently in sterling grey. Again Colour match not 100%. Keep looking at other cars and noticing that the mismatch between body and plastic bumpers seems the norm. Body shop just said that paintwork on car is not good :(
 
Good post Cibbers. Agree with all of that.

My car is in for a bumper spray right now. Fingers crossed. Pretty confident in my mates work. He knows how fussy I am to the point where he will also attempt to match the orange peel texture to the existing paint.

Colour matching is an art, and accept that there are so many variables, I'll be content knowing he will try his best. It will be a bonus if it's close.
 
Phoned the insurance company this morning, they are holding payment.
They have advised me to take car back to painter, and if I am not satisfied they will step in, so quite confident at the moment.
Just to clarify, this body shop is one of the specified shops that deals with my insurance, they are a huge company, so not some little back street shop.
I have contacted them, and have got to take it in this afternoon, so fingers crossed.
 
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