Question regarding rear bumper - raven paint

[squall leonhart]

Hi all.


I did try to search on this, but...I'm apparently bad at searching on here.


Dumb question. Does the rear bumper paint on other Raven cars look a little different than the body? I didn't notice when I test drove it... apparently wasn't looking closely enough or the light was bad, or I was blinded by the fact that I was buying an FR-S after years of wanting one...


The Carfax is clean, says no accidents (or other cosmetic damage) reported. From looking up underneath the rear, I don't see any structural damage/noticeable repair, but I'm guessing it was involved in something regarding the rear bumper being re-painted.



Basically just looks like a little different spray texture than the body. But at the same time, areas with the 86 Pistons on the fender has pretty noticeable orange peel, and I'm pretty sure they haven't been re-painted, so I thought maybe it was just crappy factory paint job. (EDIT: Actually, after looking at it again to take a picture...honestly it looks kind of satin in some light compared to the body. It's not usually that noticeable...but it really does have a less glossy appearance. So I'm going to have to assume it's been re-sprayed...I guess this thread can be closed. LOL.)





Sorry, I'll try to get pictures...unless others say it's normal. Not that it really matters now...I'm just curious.


Also, if this should have gone in Cosmetic Mods or something, please move it.

[squall leonhart]

For the sake of pictures:


Picture from sale listing (looks pretty glossy):




Picture showing quarter panel/bumper area (looks mostly the same):



Picture with noticeable texture difference between bumper and trunk lid:



There was a week in between my test drive and when I picked it up. Part of me half wonders if something happened in the meantime. I didn't really look at the car close when I went to pay for it. But...truth is I probably just didn't notice when I test drove it. Most of the time it's really not as noticeable as it looks in the one picture.



Maybe after a proper detail it won't be as noticeable.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by squall leonhart

For the sake of pictures:


Picture from sale listing (looks pretty glossy):




Picture showing quarter panel/bumper area (looks mostly the same):



Picture with noticeable texture difference between bumper and trunk lid:



There was a week in between my test drive and when I picked it up. Part of me half wonders if something happened in the meantime. I didn't really look at the car close when I went to pay for it. But...truth is I probably just didn't notice when I test drove it. Most of the time it's really not as noticeable as it looks in the one picture.



Maybe after a proper detail it won't be as noticeable.

Bumper paint can always look just a hair off the body if you catch it in the right light. Like you said it is more of a texture thing since the bumper is plastic and the body metal.

[squall leonhart]

Hoping that's all it is!


I'm probably being paranoid, because my old Celica had undisclosed bodywork (and no accident history) that wound up showing very obviously a few years down the road (ie peeling clear coat on a few body panels, on a car that didn't get a clear coat from the factory).


But certainly it doesn't really look as obvious in person as in the macro photo. I'm usually not overly particular about stuff like that, but guess I'm just moody today.



I suppose I should put my energy into drying the car better next time...since we have (very) hard water and all.

[Jegan_V]

Looking at your two pictures regarding the paint not the picture of the whole rear. The first one looks fine, its the second one I think has been repainted. There should be a mild orange peel texture which is shown on the first picture and looks like the factory paint but the second picture its very unclear looking which is the sign of a respray. It should shine rather than glare. Touch that particular area, if its not smooth then yeah its not done well.

If that's the only area that looks this way then it looks to be minor accident with mere cosmetic damage and nothing to be paranoid about regarding the accident history.

Inspecting rental cars and the quality of body shop work done was something I did not too long ago. If I caught this, I would've requested research and if it was one of our vendor shops to re-do it.

These pics are more extreme cases of what appears to be your issue with this paint.






From your pics the area is very small, if everything else checks out then you could live with this minor cosmetic defect as its on the plastic bumper cover rather than the metal where perhaps there's more of a concern for the long term.

[WinnaWinna17]

Sorry, Its Totalled...

[bkharmony]

It's like, how much more black could it be?

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46kXH6GGtT0[/ame]

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by bkharmony

It's like, how much more black could it be?

Well they could take it to 11.

[Leonardo]

Black paint is the HARDEST to keep clean, maintain, and polish.


A local detailer charges 200 per car except black cars are 260. This is because of the extra steps it takes to buff out a black car perfectly.
(no swirl marks)

[squall leonhart]

Hi all, been without internet service for a few days.


So here goes...


Jegan_V: "Looking at your two pictures regarding the paint not the picture of the whole rear. The first one looks fine, its the second one I think has been repainted."



I agree that's how those pictures came out, but in person, the whole bumper has that whole bit of texture to it. It just seems to only show in certain light – more so in the area of the 2nd picture because of the curve of the bumper catching the light I believe.


With direct light, it's honestly not noticeable at all. I'm leaning back toward believing it hasn't been resprayed, and may just be the difference in bumper material and how the factory paint came out on my car.



Leonardo:

As far as detailing, yeah, I realize a black car is the worst. I have driven a black Celica for over 10 years. I didn't really want to buy the FR-S in black, but...beggars can't be choosers, and there weren't a ton of options over the months I had been searching (within a 250 mile radius). This was the best overall deal, and I decided I'd just keep dealing with having a black car (though I hope to take better care of this one). I just thought since all I did was wash it, and I'm unsure when it was last waxed/etc. that perhaps a bit more of a detail would help blend the panels/minimize the texture. Though really (with a more clear head), they aren't that different. I do need to find a way to either filter my water in the garden hose, or dry it better. I used a leaf blower to try to keep the hard water spots away...but didn't get rid of all of it. And my well water is VERY hard.



bkharmony:

I wasn't really commenting on the car's black-ness. Though it could be more black without the metallic flake. But at least this way you got to post a Spinal Tap reference...


WinnaWinna17:
"Washed my FR-S today. Totaled it."

[Jegan_V]

Originally Posted by squall leonhart

With direct light, it's honestly not noticeable at all. I'm leaning back toward believing it hasn't been resprayed, and may just be the difference in bumper material and how the factory paint came out on my car.

Actually its direct sunlight which is where you'll miss any paint issues, white cars in particular are awful for that, in that you could miss big dents even. Top tip if you get a car back from the body shop for paint work, inspect it either indoors or on a cloudy/shaded area. The only inspection outside in direct sunlight that should be ok is checking for colour matching by simply standing back and seeing if say a door was repainted...looks like the rest of the body. If you can still see bad paint work in direct sunlight without looking even closely at it then its an extremely bad job.


I can't personally say unless I see in person to conclusively say, only a educated guess based on doing thousands of inspections. Still, its only on the polyurethane bumper, of all the components to have been affected its of the lowest concern.

[squall leonhart]

Good to know. Really I had a hard time getting it to show up in pictures, and I can't see it at all in either A) dim lighting of my garage B) direct lighting. Only when catching it at the right angle of light does it seem to show. I suppose that helps explain why I missed it before buying.


When it comes down to it, I probably would have bought it even if I had noticed, even probably would've been happy paying the same price.



The sales guy is supposedly trying to communicate with the P.O. to see if they have any record of a respray, but I don't really expect to hear anything conclusive either way.