Need new bumper, but dealer said paint is hard to match

[midnitz]

Recently, I hit a lamppost with my front bumper. The damage is not that bad, n I wouldn't fix it if my car was older. But since it’s still relatively a new car, I’m looking to replace my bumper. My car's a whiteout.

I got a quote n it's about $980 from my dealership’s body shop in Tory, MI, for the bumper only. But my concern is they kept telling me the colour won’t match n insisted I need to do the whole front end; at least the fenders if not the hood. Of course that’s more expensive, I think it was like $1800 to do the bumper n fenders. But the problem I have is I hate to mess with factory paint if I don’t have to.

I was just wonder if any white car owners have their bumper replaced/ re-sprayed (I’m sorry about your incident) n how it turned out. I do know that pearl white is harder to match, but I also believe a skillful body guy should be able to match it pretty good.

FYI, my car's a April production car, n it's been parked outside 95% of the time. So I assume the paints faded a little bit.

Also, although I now work in Michigan, I am from Toronto originally. So if anyone from the GTA area has a good body shop they recommend, that will be great.

[CBR600RR]

How did you hit a lamp post?

[whaap]

I handled automobile insurance claims for 25 years and have some advice for you. Don't think the body shop is good just because they're at a dealership. Not necessarily true. There are some high-end dealers around who don't have their own body shops. I'm talking about Lexus, Porsche, Merdedes, Rolls, etc. If you can find one of those in your area, stop in and ask them who they use to do their body work. Don't be surprised if it's some shop off of some alley. Go to that shop and talk to them about your problem. Yes, pearl (any metallic) is harder to match that regular paint but a good paint man can do a good job. It all depends on the individual man doing the work and not the shop or where it's located.

[midnitz]

Originally Posted by CBR600RR

How did you hit a lamp post?

Lol, I knew someone would ask that. Well, I was working late that night n when I went to grab my car, I was the only one left in the parking lot. When I got in my car, the windows were all foggy, but I took off anyways because I was really tired. I put it into drive since no one was in front of me (I like said, I was the only one left in the parking lot), but I didn’t notice the lamppost slightly to the front right of me n I didn’t see it because my windows were super foggy. The next thing was I felt the impact. Luckily, I only let go of my brakes half way, so I didn’t do any frame damage. N like I said it’s not that bad, u can hardly see it even from 5- 10 feet away.

But because there is a slight dent in the bumper, they will have to play with body filler to fix it. N I don’t like body fillers. So that’s y I’m looking to replace.

[midnitz]

Originally Posted by whaap

I handled automobile insurance claims for 25 years and have some advice for you. Don't think the body shop is good just because they're at a dealership. Not necessarily true. There are some high-end dealers around who don't have their own body shops. I'm talking about Lexus, Porsche, Merdedes, Rolls, etc. If you can find one of those in your area, stop in and ask them who they use to do their body work. Don't be surprised if it's some shop off of some alley. Go to that shop and talk to them about your problem. Yes, pearl (any metallic) is harder to match that regular paint but a good paint man can do a good job. It all depends on the individual man doing the work and not the shop or where it's located.

Thanks whaap! I also belive the best shops are sometimes those small body shops with one/two ppl. I just wanted a quote from the body shop at the dealer as a baseline, you know what to expect because i'm paying this out of my own pocket. my insurance record is too clean .

[Crewzern]

You can see the difference in color on the bumper vs hood/fenders on a brand new whiteout 86/FRS...panel shop also could not get the color match 100% when I had the TRD exterior bits fitted on. ..... think it has to do with the different surfaces plastic vs metal ....seems to only be the white that has a problem.

[diirk]

Pull the cover off and see if you can pop the dent out yourself. Then hide it behind a front license plate bracket.

[DjDATZ]

Shouldn't this be as easy as just ordering a new bumper in Whiteout? Sure the paint might not match 100%, but tbh, it'd probably be cheaper than getting it fixed and then resprayed.

Also, I doubt there's nearly as much fade-difference on a Whiteout vs a Raven...

[enjoi23]

Save your money and buy a body kit. Five axis would look nice.

[DjDATZ]

Originally Posted by enjoi23

Save your money and buy a body kit. Five axis would look nice.

The Five Axis doesn't actually replace the bumpers... It's just stick on pieces that go on top of your actual stock bumper.

[enjoi23]

Originally Posted by DjDATZ

The Five Axis doesn't actually replace the bumpers... It's just stick on pieces that go on top of your actual stock bumper.

Oh,i didn't know that. Well OP really did need a new bumper then.lol

[MISTERLUCAS]

I work at a Toyota Certified Collision Center and we work on most makes. A few things I feel you guys need to know.

You bumper doesn't match as it is right now. And I haven't even seen your car. You will never find a metallic or pearl bumper that matches. The way paint dries and lays on plastic is different than metal.

They are correct that 'blends' on adjacent panels will help. The reasons being: When painted at the factory they have certain settings for the air flow, which would differ at every shop. This affects the way a pearl looks. So even on a metal adjacent panel a pearl will look different sometimes even with a blend. Your eye will be cheated though because the bumper will blend into the adjacent panels but adjacent panels then may not match panels further away.

At the factory they don't paint your bumpers on or even with the car. They are painted with a close variance on a different line. They pick one and put it on your car.

What you need to do is find a trusted, well maintained and up to date shop. Look for Water-borne paint logos usually indicating that they are up to date. Have the painter come out and discuss the variant, ask him for a swatch so you can pick the match. But don't blend all those panels, it won't help in the long run.

OR

If somewhere can fix the bumper then the match will already be there. They can 'blend' within the bumper panel and you should be fine.

[gmookher]

Wifey scratched the car-lil nick

Had some work done matched up perfectly, havent had anyone tell me where on the car it was done to date...went thru the body shop attached to the dealership

[White Shadow]

A good body shop can match any color (including Pearls) even better than the original factory match. Actually, the factory match can typically be off a little because the front & rear bumpers aren't usually painted along with the rest of the car. It's not unusual to see brand new cars with front and rear bumper covers that are slightly off on color from the body of the car.

What a good body shop will do is spray a few test cards to match the paint against the body of the car. They're basically looking to match the specific metallic flake (which are actually tiny plastic chips, believe it or not) profile in the paint. Adjustments to the spray gun can make it look quite a bit different. And yes, this is even more difficult on a Pearl paint, but trust me when I say it can be matched perfectly. You just need to find a shop with people who know what they are doing. Here's a tip-- if you were to bring a new bumper cover to a body shop and ask them to paint it, they should insist that you bring the car to them as well. Why? Well, they have no way to truly match the paint on the new bumper cover if they don't have the car as a reference to get the perfect match.