Curious about repaint

[BMW335i]

Should a plastic bumper with flex agents look the exact same as a metal panel with no flex agents as far as the metallic nature of the paint (silver) goes? The back bumper was repainted. I noticed that my bumper doesnt have as much metallic pop in the sunlight as the metal panel. Its weird because my front bumper (which wasn`t repainted) looks the same when compared to the metal hood above..so I am guessing its normal? Should I demand a repaint?



I am obviously being more scrutinizing then I would have before it was repainted.

[BMW335i]

To the top.....the paint looks fine in shade but in the sunlight you can notice the difference in the metallic nature. Is this something I should be concerned about? I figured since the plastic has flex agent, it would never look 100% the same as the metal w/ no flex agents.

[aboh6leenz]

body panels from the factory sometimes are a bit different, especially plastics and metals. So I would say it`s pretty normal also usually when they repaint they blend it, unless you just dropped off your bumper and gaslide or something for them to match.

[xtremekustomz]

Good body shops should have been able to match it and it shouldn`t have left the shop until it was right. All the panels should look the same and flex agents have nothing to do with how the metallic lays out. Usually new cars are easy to match because the paint is new. There is a paint code that the painter should go by. I have known of shops to have trouble blending something because the mixing code wasn`t exactly right. If it doesn`t really bother you don`t worry about it, but if it does, ask for a repaint.

[BMW335i]

Good body shops should have been able to match it and it shouldn`t have left the shop until it was right. All the panels should look the same and flex agents have nothing to do with how the metallic lays out. Usually new cars are easy to match because the paint is new. There is a paint code that the painter should go by. I have known of shops to have trouble blending something because the mixing code wasn`t exactly right. If it doesn`t really bother you don`t worry about it, but if it does, ask for a repaint.



Then why does my front bumper, which wasn`t repainted, look similiar? If it should match perfectly irregardless of what panel/paint type it is I will take it back..there work is guranteed.

[Juniorss]

Flex agent does tint the color a bit but a good shop should still be able to match it.

[BMW335i]

Flex agent does tint the color a bit but a good shop should still be able to match it.



The color matches just fine. The thing that is weird is the amount of metallic.

[aboh6leenz]

is the metallic different sizes, has more or less, or the depth of it different? You say it doest pop as well so i`m not sure what you mean. If the color matches and just the metallic is different it shouldnt be hard to correct if its just the depth kuz you just have to change air pressure usually.

[BMW335i]

is the metallic different sizes, has more or less, or the depth of it different? You say it doest pop as well so i`m not sure what you mean. If the color matches and just the metallic is different it shouldnt be hard to correct if its just the depth kuz you just have to change air pressure usually.



There is just simply not as much metallic flake in the bumper as compared to the panel (i.e. the bumper looks more like a solid color). But the color is essentially the same.

[David Fermani]

Flex additives(which aren`t being used that much these days) doesn`t have an effect on the color of the paint or the metallic look. Most paints these days are very flexible and flex isn`t used much. Our company won`t pay a shop for flex additives for that reason. If you look at 99% of the cars on the road(even black), the plastic parts like the bumper covers and moldings don`t match the sheetmetal parts on the rest of vehicle. They are usually painted by different companies(vendors)with different paint(non-water based paint). The auto manufacturer require their vendor paint shops to color match within a certain variance. That variance can and is way off at times. It sounds like the shop that painted your car didn`t match up their test panel to the color of your car too good. They should re-do it in my opinion. The only way for the bumpers to match the rest of the body 100% is to blend color into the adjacent panels. Your insurance company won`t authorize this blending because your bumpers didn`t match the car in the 1st place.

[BMW335i]

Flex additives(which aren`t being used that much these days) doesn`t have an effect on the color of the paint or the metallic look. Most paints these days are very flexible and flex isn`t used much. Our company won`t pay a shop for flex additives for that reason. If you look at 99% of the cars on the road(even black), the plastic parts like the bumper covers and moldings don`t match the sheetmetal parts on the rest of vehicle. They are usually painted by different companies(vendors)with different paint(non-water based paint). The auto manufacturer require their vendor paint shops to color match within a certain variance. That variance can and is way off at times. It sounds like the shop that painted your car didn`t match up their test panel to the color of your car too good. They should re-do it in my opinion. The only way for the bumpers to match the rest of the body 100% is to blend color into the adjacent panels. Your insurance company won`t authorize this blending because your bumpers didn`t match the car in the 1st place.



Thanks for that.

[Accumulator]

BMW335i- Heh heh, yeah, in perfect world everything would match perfectly ;) I see a *LOT* of variation between metal and plastic panels though (probably for the reasons David F. already stated) so I`m usually not all *that* picky about it. But if it`s really bad, or if it`s like yours, then it`s redo time :D



One thing that may/may not apply here: when I had paintwork done on the MPV the metallic wasn`t right...the color matched but othewise it sounded like what you`re experiencing. I had it redone (by a better shop, Mike at Stoddard) with a different brand of paint and the metallic matched much better. Just because a paint is the "right code" that doesn`t mean it`s gonna match properly and the shop didn`t do their homework (i.e., the testing).

[Dan]

My concern would be that it matches the front bumper. I`ve read that using a different gun can make a metallic look different.

[BMW335i]

It`s odd because the front bumper looks identical to the rear bumper (which was repainted). There is a consistency is the amount of metallic they both have when compared to the upper metal panels which have more metallic. To be honest, the paint job itself is good, but there are also some random scratches in it (could be some kind of residue, but I think they might be scratches). How do you think they managed to put scratches in fresh paint? This body shop was reccomended to me..The only good thing they managed to do was keep out any massive holograms. I can`t detect any hologramming..



This ticks me off but honestly there was nothing I could of done to prevent it..I have no knowledge of body shops in my area and was going on a reccomendation and the place was new and the person was honest. I didn`t want to bring up the scratches when I picked the car up because I`m almost certain they would make it worse..:( Sometimes I ask myself why sh!t like this happens to me..I strived from day 1 to keep this car perfect but that`s apparently not happening due to idiots..



So to answer the post above me, yes the rear matches the front..oddly enough..

[David Fermani]

Hopefully swirls won`t appear down the road. Could the scratches be from the shop wet sanding the cover? Maybe they didn`t take them all out or had a piece of debri caught in their sandpaper.