Is it wrong to ask body shop to blend more?

A

asm505

New member
Okay I admit that I am REALLY picky with my car. I had to have some body work done. We went to pick the car up and it didn't match at ALL. They said the clear coat made the color darker. So they redid it and cleared the door in addition to the rear fender. Now that I have the car back, it looks 99% better but it is slightly off and with the space between the door and front fender, it makes it noticable. I don't know why they didn't blend it to a point that wasn't at a seam. Anyway, I know the owner and I don't want to be a pain in the butt; but I am not 100% happy. 99% yes, but not 100%. Is it wrong to call them and see if they can blend into the front fender so it isn't at a seam which makes it noticable to the eye.



It isn't real noticable up close but when you look at it from a distance you can slightly tell. Some of it may be because I know it was painted but it still bugs me.



Am I being TOO picky?
 
Is the paint metallic? It may not be possible to get a perfect color match that can be blended to where the difference isn't noticable. You have any pics?
 
After already trying to make it better once I think you may be treading a bit too far wanting more, especially if you are at all friends with the owner. I'm in the same boat after having my hood repainted for an insurance claim. They only painted the hood, and now it doesn't match with the fenders. But you really can't see it unless it's really sunny out, and even then I'm probably the only person that would notice. I just took it back this afternoon and they are blending the fenders, and I'll be happy with that even though I'm sure one look under the bright halogens will show where they did it. It's like polishing the paint, you just have to learn to live with a little imperfection. Besides, Murphy's Law says even if you got it to where you are 99.99% happy, you will end up parking at the local mall and getting a nice big door ding in the new paint from some moron next to you.
 
No the paint is not metallic. It is Zinc Yellow. I forgot to mention the first time we picked it up, the color was so obviously different that even the owner said that it was not acceptable.



My husband said about calling the owner tomorrow and just talking to him and asking how much of a paint it would be to try to blend the front fender it. They wouldn't have to paint, just clear coat because he told us the first time that it is the clear coat that is slightly making it a deeper yellow; I know they didn't paint the door just cleared it.



Again, I don't know what to do because I don't want to make him mad but I just wish they wouldn't have stopped at a seam.
 
Is the original paint clear coated? If so, I am not sure how the newly applied clear would affect the hue of the paint. Usually in a clear coated paint system, the color comes from the base coat and the shine comes from the clear coat. The newly painted area may look different because of orange peel or other defects in the clear coat. The big problem with body work is that rarely is the factory paint job matched perfectly. Shops that can pull this off are a rare find.
 
If you are 99% happy with it live with it. Chances are the shop can't get it any more perfect. Why take a chance of having the shop possibly make it worse and ruin a friendship over it. If there is an obvious paint flaw that is a different issue.
 
I think a large portion of the answer depends on the quality of the shop and the amount you paid.



Getting a $49 paint job at Maaco and expecting it to not show is an exercise in futility.



But getting a $2000 paint job at a top flight shop, they can, and should, match it perfectly.
 
asm505- I dunno if any of the following will be of helpful, but anyhow..



The "darkening from the clearcoat" is something they should've taken into consideration, simply part of the job; sounds like they botched the color-match. And the fact that they decided it was unacceptable *after* they were ready to give you the car back is a bad sign. Maybe they didn't realize that you really *do* know what it's supposed to look like and now they understand that.



IMO they should *not* have stopped at the hard line of the door, you're right, going into the front fender (or only part way into the door) would usually be a better approach.



Doing business with friends, especially body/paint business is always tricky. I've learned to keep business and friendships separate, not that *that* is of any help to you I suppose.



I ended up settling for imperfection on my (deered) silver S8, but only after they redid it numerous times and I was convinced that it was as good as they could get it. FWIW, the shop didn't argue about redoing it, as long as I could point out the problems they accepted that they needed to try again. Since yours isn't a metallic, I'd expect it to turn out to your satisfaction and some of the things you've mentioned make me think they can improve things.
 
Accumulator,



Thank you for your reply. I am not "technically" friends with this guy but he is in a few of my social circlesHe is also involved in a networking group that I am part of so I would think he would want to go "above and beyond" to make me happy. I know at my job, if I know the person, I work a little harder to make them happy "first".
 
asm505 said:
Okay I admit that I am REALLY picky with my car. I had to have some body work done. We went to pick the car up and it didn't match at ALL. They said the clear coat made the color darker. So they redid it and cleared the door in addition to the rear fender. Now that I have the car back, it looks 99% better but it is slightly off and with the space between the door and front fender, it makes it noticable. I don't know why they didn't blend it to a point that wasn't at a seam. Anyway, I know the owner and I don't want to be a pain in the butt; but I am not 100% happy. 99% yes, but not 100%. Is it wrong to call them and see if they can blend into the front fender so it isn't at a seam which makes it noticable to the eye.



It isn't real noticable up close but when you look at it from a distance you can slightly tell. Some of it may be because I know it was painted but it still bugs me.



Am I being TOO picky?
Click to expand...



If the paint is faded/discolored from aging and the finish is neglected, you'll have to re-clear the entire car for it to match completely. Color matching is one thing, but matching a freshly painted and shiny finish to a dulled one is impossible. One finish is aged and the other is new. I agree with the shop's explanation about the clear coat making the color darker and by them blending/clearing into the door helped, but the whole side needs cleared for it to somewhat match. Depending on much of the horizontal and vertical planes butt up, the side might not match the tops either. When is enough enough???? I've never seen a shop not able to color match a job when blending into a large panel like a door. It's almost unheard of to blend a whole side just for color matching, especially on non metallic yellow. It really sounds like a condition of finish issue.
 
Thank you for your reply. My car finish has been taken care of exceptionally well and it is not dulled or neglected. My car is a few years old but isn't that why they blend so they can blend the new paint w/ the old paint so it isn't so noticable?
 
It obviously sounds to me like you are truly in tune with your cars finish like all of us here. I think you really are never going to be 100% happy without repainting the entire car. I mentioned that I had my hood repainted for a scratch and it didn't match either. Well I just got it back last night after they blended in the fenders. Inspecting it under my halogen lamp I can tell where they blended it in, so it will bug me a little bit but I'm good with it. I know for a fact that no one else but me will be able to see it, and under normal lighting conditions I probably won't even see it. So I'm going to be content with that because it's not worth the headache to try and get it better.
 
asm505- OK, sounds like the shop has every reason to try to make you happy, let's just hope they can do it (practically-speaking, the "can'ts" aren't all that much better than the "won'ts" ;) ). Yeah, you'd have a few reasons not to send business his way if he can't get this right.



David Fermani brings up a good point, but I bet this is simply a case of their not having color-matched correctly. Too often a shop just gets "the right color" from the paint line they're used to, whether that's a good way to go or not. E.g., the "Mazda silver" on my minivan matches slightly better with Glasurit brand paint than with Spies Hecker, and both of those match a lot better than whatever another shop used on it a few years ago. All those paints are "the right one" but they're still all different-looking (and even the Glasurit needed a little tweaking to make it match just right).
 
Accumulator said:
E.g., the "Mazda silver" on my minivan matches slightly better with Glasurit brand paint than with Spies Hecker, and both of those match a lot better than whatever another shop used on it a few years ago. All those paints are "the right one" but they're still all different-looking (and even the Glasurit needed a little tweaking to make it match just right).
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And just how many times has your Mazda been painted? Gee, it's starting to sound like it's been in the shop almost as many times as my Chrysler. Of course, all the times my Chrysler went in the shop were in the span of less than a year. :o I had good luck with the blending job on mine when they used Sikkens paint, but since I've finally found a body man I feel confident about I should probably attribute most of the results to his skills, not the brand of paint.



P.S. It's nice to see someone who knows the difference between "e.g." and "i.e.". ;)
 
velobard- Well, I didn't go as far as my father (he studied Latin "for the mental exercise") but I do know a few things ;)



Yeah, *all* of my vehicles, except for the RX-7, have had some paintwork :( The minivan's been to two shops over four separate occasions..ah, the perils of being the family beater. I can point to each repair and say which paint it is, what the flaws are, etc. It's sorta turned into a learning experience for the shop that's doing the work on it these days, not that they want to be experts on Japanese minivans ;)



And yeah, a good painter can often tweak the color/texture enough to make it work, but if the metallic is way off it's pretty hopeless. Funny about the Spies, it matches a lot better sprayed on *metal* compared with where it's sprayed on *plastic* and I can't help but suspect the flex additive factored in more than expected :nixweiss The Spies *does* blend better with regard to the clearcoat though, really melts into the original stuff to where I can't find the fade-out point.
 
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