OCD about my bumper!!

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Deadstockpomp

New member
[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]I kind of have OCD about this and I want someone with some experience with this to chime in. One person told me my bumper looks like it was sprayed and another said it looks like it was removed. So I removed the bumper to investigate. The inside on the bumper has the same date as other plastic trim pieces written on the inside with what seems to be a carpenter crayon. It also has the green sticker on the underside. So I'm ruling out that it was a replacd bumper. I did however find a small spot with paint rubbed off on he bottom end of the bumper beam but it does not appear to be a hit or anything. Now I understand paint on metal vs plastic appears to be a bit different. But the color shift I see sometimes plus the different orange peel, plus it looks a little hazy compared to the body, plus the comments made by people was making me second guess the whole thing. Someone with some paint work knowledge chime in please. [/COLOR][COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]
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I remember hearing that the bumpers are painted separately from the rest of the vehicle and a slight color mismatch is fairly common. Every bumper that came through the body shop I worked at was painted off the car and no blending was done. Weather or not this is normal practice I dunno, just sharing stuff I've heard. Look at some other cars and you may notice the same thing.
 
ShaneB said:
I remember hearing that the bumpers are painted separately from the rest of the vehicle and a slight color mismatch is fairly common. Every bumper that came through the body shop I worked at was painted off the car and no blending was done. Weather or not this is normal practice I dunno, just sharing stuff I've heard. Look at some other cars and you may notice the same thing.
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^ Agree.
 
Not painted by the same robots that painted the rest of the car. Only way to get a consistent finish on an entire vehicle is to paint it all at once
 
Right. I'm unaware of *any* regular production vehicle that has the bumpercovers painted at the same time/facility as the rest of the car. Different paint, different process, no surprise that they, well....look different.

My guess on the missing paint is that it's the same thing that's always caused that for me- loose-fitting stuff moving around during normal driving/use. More common on affordable cars than on really high-end stuff, but it can happen on most anything when you have friction-fit stuff that can rub together.
 
ShaneB said:
I remember hearing that the bumpers are painted separately from the rest of the vehicle and a slight color mismatch is fairly common. Every bumper that came through the body shop I worked at was painted off the car and no blending was done. Weather or not this is normal practice I dunno, just sharing stuff I've heard. Look at some other cars and you may notice the same thing.
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I wonder if mass producing and painting metal and plastic parts has differences in production. It seems like it would, whether curing temperatures or amount of paint per area.
 
ec90 said:
I wonder if mass producing and painting metal and plastic parts has differences in production. It seems like it would, whether curing temperatures or amount of paint per area.
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That's what I'm trying to understand. So if I compare it to another car same color and all. Can our bumpers still be painted and look slightly different????????
 
The only cars I see who have large plastic bits that match paint well with the rest over the long haul are Mercedes and Porsche. Even BMWs seem to match really well at the start, but over time the clear on them shows age differently than on the metal.
 
marlinspike said:
The only cars I see who have large plastic bits that match paint well with the rest over the long haul are Mercedes and Porsche. Even BMWs seem to match really well at the start, but over time the clear on them shows age differently than on the metal.
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Well my cars fairly new. 2 years going on with 15xxx on the odo. Maybe I'm just driving myself crazy over this for absolutely no reason. It's things like someone telling me it looks like it might have been sprayed and the little scuffs on the beam, but clearly it being and original factory bumper completely throw me off. Haha
 
Deadstockpomp said:
That's what I'm trying to understand. So if I compare it to another car same color and all. Can our bumpers still be painted and look slightly different????????
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I would say absolutely, formulas can change depending on suppliers or time of the year. And even if it's the same, when you get into tri-coat paints that have a third tinted layer of clear coat it can be very difficult to match or have the same exact color all the time.

I would say though, this may be something that just isn't worth chasing.
 
ec90 said:
I would say absolutely, formulas can change depending on suppliers or time of the year. And even if it's the same, when you get into tri-coat paints that have a third tinted layer of clear coat it can be very difficult to match or have the same exact color all the time.

I would say though, this may be something that just isn't worth chasing.
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Your probably right 100% about not worth chasing haha. I went as far as purchasing a paint thickness gauge, but then I realized it does not read on plastic. For xxxxs and gigs I did check the whole car and it checked out ok metal wise. its just that when someone makes a comment about something it gets me thinking and it spirals into an investigation on the topic... In my case at least, some people wouldn't give a damn. But then again I am the relentless perfectionist type. Sometimes I wish I was a turn key and go bandit. Hahaaaaa
 
Don't really want to bother anyone haha. Just want to see what people think about the paint on the bumper, and that smudge on the beam
 
Deadstockpomp said:
Now I'm wondering about that rubbed off paint on the bumper beam. What the hell would cause that
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Something rubs against the paint there. It looks like the sort of damage that occurs over a period of time. I'd have to see a bigger picture-shot to put it into context before I could hazard any guess past what I posited in Post#7. Sorry, I'm just not that familiar with today's Subarus...depending on where the damage actually is, it might've even been from being tied down during transport (strap rubs against vehicle).
 
Accumulator said:
Something rubs against the paint there. It looks like the sort of damage that occurs over a period of time. I'd have to see a bigger picture-shot to put it into context before I could hazard any guess past what I posited in Post#7. Sorry, I'm just not that familiar with today's Subarus...depending on where the damage actually is, it might've even been from being tied down during transport (strap rubs against vehicle).
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It's on the rear bumper beam below the actual beam on a pinch weld. It's much further back than the actual protector part of the beam. I'd say an inch or so behind it but attached
 
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