Color matching for bumbers, need comments!

I’m redoing the front and rear bumpers, as well as the top on a 90 348ts. These parts came out a shade darker when put on next to the other body parts, though the body shop says they ordered the right color, already mixed from Dupont. “Only one red for this car” they mentioned more then once, and said they were not sure what to tell me. They saw the color code and also took the gas door off for color purposes before they started. They also said that plastic shows a bit different then on the metal.

However, I haven’t had this problem with other cars, and I know re-spraying the front is common on these cars, with them being so low and scrapes, so a lot of you have been through this already and can advise me. Though it was sand blasted and completely full of stone chips before, the color looked about the same by memory, so I’m sure it can be done. Though I have seen this issue on some cars of other makes, even factory, many do not have it. One of my daily drivers right now is an Infiniti M45, another example of perfect matching over all surface types.

They removed everything and did a good job on prep, but this color issue is bothering me, and is magnified under artificial light much more then under bright sunlight. I feel they are one of the better places in my area, when I mentioned it, they said they were not sure what to say and would have the Dupont people look at it.

Any feedback would be appreciated, I plan to take this thread to them so they can see comments from other owners, instead of opinions from non-owners on what they believe may or may not be correct. Photos don't show many issues like this very well, or I would try to show them others as examples as well.

Thanks again guys, this forum is really helping me get this car to the next level.

 

I know many of you have done this already, no feedback?

 

My experience has been when matching paint unless the car is there and the painter mixes the paint, it will not match. I would not have used DuPont paint.
More than likely, the Dupont guy shot the body piece with their paint formula gun and mixed it from scratch. Also, depending on how the paint is applied will affect the color, spray pattern, color of the primer, air pressure, and distance.
I think Glasuit is what the factory used.

Tell the painter to keep trying until it matches.

my 2 cents
Charles

 

Went by again this afternoon, and wore them down some more to let them know I wasn't satisifed, owner said he has an idea. Will see what happens next week. At first they tried to say the shade, light angel, bumper material different then fenders, etc as reasons.

Any other experiences on front re-sprays welcomed. Want to here how it went for others. This is another reason I was considering doing the entire car, but that is always an option down the road I guess.

Oh, and they do have the car and not just the parts. I'm thinking they ordered the paint mixed already.

 

I had my 328 bumper resprayed a couple months ago, metallic black. The shop sent the paint back 3 times because the paint supplier hadn't got the right metal flake in it.

They removed and used the inner headlight housing as a comparison, not some paint chart, and sprayed samples to compare to it.

The result was phenomenal. You can't tell it was resprayed, except that it has no chips/nicks.

Red is extremely difficult to match. If they just went by the paint code, it will never match if your car has seen significant sunlight.

 

I cracked my LH lower side skirt pulling into a driveway 6 months ago. Around 2 inches of fibreglass was broken away. Just under the door strakes. My friend owns a local paint/panel shop. Probably the best shop here in town. He fixed the fibreglass perfectly, and repainted around the damaged area. He painted around 10inches along the side skirt to blend in the paint with the rest of the car. He done a WONDERFUL job. You cannot tell the damage was done and the paint matches perfectly. He did mention that it is a little harder to match paint on plastics/fibreglass/carbon fibre ect... But can be done. They do it all the time. Very good at his job. My suggestion is to let them have another go at it. If you are not happy with their results, tell them you will take it elsewhere and they can foot the bill to do the job correctly.

 

Thanks, Tomorrow I think this is one of the things I will mention:

“If they just went by the paint code, it will never match if your car has seen significant sunlight.”

As they keep telling me its the right color.

I wanted to tell them some comments I got from others with the same car. Shouldn’t be any different then painting anything else though. I’m a bit disappointed, they fixed some stuff on a truck for me that came out great, but with anything older, blending is important and they should know that, after all, it is 16 years old. I'm sure they will figure it out with time.

 

use sikkens paint they have the formulas for all ferraris as well as ppg and of course glasurit , or they should have put the car under the spectrum analyzer scope . sounds like A, your car has been repainted , or B they are goofballs who dont know what they are doing.. dupont is really good on chevy andford but not foriegn cars...

 

That there is only one red for the car isn't right. I found couple of rosso corsa shades. Some lighter some darker some with more orange some without. Depending on country, year, wish of the owner ...

But on a used older car the color is normaly matched on the car and then mixed with the base colors to the right shade. And normaly a good paint shop has computersystems to calculate the right paint mixture when the paint on the car is scanned by the system. That is common since some years.

 

If they are a professional paint shop, they should have matched the color themselves and not just gone off the paint code. Tell them to take the filler door or mirror to match the paint to.

If the paint isn't the same color, just have them do it again until it matches the rest of the car - their excuse is a lame one.

best of luck

 

Glasurit!!!

 

Car likely has had some paint work in the past, may just do the whole damn thing. I will know what is up again by Wednesday. The parts painted are A+ in quality, just the shades that bug me. Just want the darn thing back to start on the interior and drive it, but will wait until all is pefect.