Paint on vehicle after RTC - New repaired parts don't match

[mancuk29]

Hello

I am new to this forum and hope you can help

I was rear ended in may and my vehicle was repaired via the insurance at Nationwide Repairers

I had the vehicle returned the other week and thought everything was fine until I took it to the car people to look at trading it in and the sales person advised the rear door which was replaced didn't match the body

I have just returned the car to nationwide who advised the only slightly colour difference was in the plastic at the side of the back door and it is impossible to get an exact match

I hadn't noticed the difference until it's been pointed out - he said that paint degrades with time and that's why the back door looks much brighter is this right ?

Should I leave it a few months and see how it looks or get them to respray it again ??

I have uploaded the picture before the accident and the one after repair

The back is metal but the middle side parts are plastic

[mancuk29]

This is the repaired picture

[mmm-five]

Surely that's why they usually insist in 'blending' the paint into the surrounding panels?

Doesn't stop there being a difference between new & old paint, but makes it less noticeable.

My bumpers are body-coloured plastic and look slightly different to the metal panels.

[mancuk29]

Do you think I should ask them to respray or wait a few months to see whether the weather etc makes it more unnoticeable

[SteBrown91]

Not being funny but that looks miles out - the new paint is paler than the rest of the car - paint fades but it shouldn’t darken with age.

Don’t take this the wrong way but how did you not notice that on collection since it’s pretty obvious on a poor photo

[mancuk29]

I know I should have done 🤦‍♂️ I'll get them to respray it and if they won't then will get back onto the insurance

[Ninja59]

Certain paint colours are difficult to match silver, white and anything bright usually.

Certain colours will also respond slightly differently to UV rays and the pigment may be lightened. Usually what will be done is a match identified to get as close as to possible with the paint as it stands.

Paints of the same name from the same factory will not necessarily be 100% the same so there is a tolerance from factory, furthermore obviously the ageing process. So most will have these plus additional ones that take into account ageing.

Furthermore, blending should have formed part of it to look more uniform.

All in all it is just a lazy repair.

Edited by Ninja59 on Friday 15th June 15:26

[Ahbefive]

Looks a different shade to me.

As said, it either needs painting the right shade or blending in to the wings.

[designforlife]

Needs redoing...that's clearly a shade out in the photo so it's even more obvious in real life i bet.

if they can't match they need to blend into the surrounding panels.

Won't improve with time, so get it sorted now.

[Buggyjam]

I have a yellow car in a shade called “speed yellow”

I can tell you now I’ve had a lot of experience as a customer on how difficult yellow is for body shops. I’ve been to 4 highly reputable bodyshops and they all commented on it. I had some work done on some plastic underskirts and it took the painter a weekend of hand mixing, scanning and testing under different lighting conditions to get as close a match as poss. You’ll never get an exact panel match, especially with yellow. It’s why they use blending and back masking. But even then you can tell if the match isn’t close, or under certain lighting.

Even worse is plastic next to metal. The surfaces are totally different and there is never an exact colour match. My yellow Porsche has factory plastics that don’t exactky match the factory metals. They’re all the same. Look at any car.

In your case though the match looks way out and I think a body shop could do better. It does take serious effort though as using a paint scanner alone doesn’t touch the sides. But bodyshops like nationwide often just do a quick insurance job and want you out.

Edited by Buggyjam on Friday 15th June 16:13

[bmwmike]

I honestly cant see the difference!?

[PompeyReece]

bmwmike said:

I honestly cant see the difference!?

Look at the bottom right of the photo - definitely looks pailer on the boot

[bmwmike]

PompeyReece said:

bmwmike said:

I honestly cant see the difference!?

Look at the bottom right of the photo - definitely looks pailer on the boot

Got it -thanks. Had to zoom in on my phone.

[Cardinal Hips]

Buggyjam said:

Even worse is plastic next to metal. The surfaces are totally different and there is never an exact colour match. My yellow Porsche has factory plastics that don’t exactky match the factory metals. They’re all the same. Look at any car

This used to be due to using water based paints on plastic, and solvent based paint on metal panels. I did a year or so working with paint suppliers for a major OEM and sometimes the manufacturer of the paint would even differ for the two paints. Add in that the components will be sprayed completely separately, sometimes on site at a tier 1, body shells done in the factory along with bumpers, wing mirrors could be done elsewhere etc. It was a complete mine field. I used to look at the "ingredients" list for the paints and the differences in how they got to the same colour was vastly different. Especially metallic paint containing mica.

Not so bad now as most places have moved to water based for everything.

I can spot if a mile off, some cars are worse than others. Next time you see an early Nissan LEAF in the white pearl just look at the difference between the front bumper and bonnet / wings. Makes me cringe. That's before you get on to the orange peel on "premium" cars or panel gaps you could get your hand in. How some stuff gets signed off I'll never know.