Off-Colored Door?

[Hermes]

^this. The 740 (Cosmos Black Metallic) has a mismatched passenger fender. It's only noticeable on clear sunny days, but it bothers me

[johnrando]

I've heard that, but then I've also heard that a straight black (non metallic) is easy to match.

[Junior2552]

My car has one accident on its carfax, the one that totaled it and made it a salvage title. But I think the same PO who crashed it sideways into a curb had previously rear ended someone in a minor accident that required a hood respray but wasn't reported. He referenced something like that on E46fanatics. Then as part of the rehab, the last PO bought a new front bumper cover and had it painted. The color match on both hood and bumper are good to my inexpert eye, but the paint on both doesn't seem to be as durable as the paint on the rest of the car.

Someday I'll get a respray but will probably just do hood, bumper cover, mirror covers, and side skirts, and hope the color match is close enough without blending.

Speaking of blending, how do they do it--sand off existing clear-coat, blend color, then respray new clearcoat? Or just blend over existing clearcoat then add new clearcoat?

They sand down the area that needs to be painted, but they OVERsand the area, meaning they make it much larger than it needs to be. This helps spread the paint strokes out so the paint lays a little less concentrated.

The sanding, as far as I've seen the lady friend do, is real heavy over the damaged area, and then fades to a lighter sanding toward the edge of the effected area. It gets primed, leveled, primed again, leveled, then sprayed with a base coat. If your body tech is using a single-stage paint, there is no need for clear. A lot of shops use this for small areas, then wet sand down to match it to the 4-billion stage paint that BMW uses. Exaggeration.

For larger areas, good old fashioned, sand, prime, sand, prime, base, second, (third), and clear. Sand again, final clear, sand, wet sand, polish, detail.

The second suggestion is what costs the shop money, so the price goes up. Also, I'll reiterate, if they're trying to save money by NOT getting the OEM paint, it'll be exceedingly difficult to match aged paint under a light, especially with metallic flake.

[Junior2552]

I apologize for that far-too in depth response...

[LivesNearCostco]

good to know--not too much detail for me! (Can't speak for OP). When the body shop did our minivan, they seemed to do a very careful job and it cost a lot of money, but the other driver's insurance was paying. Actually it turned out in the end after lots of back and forth, that the other driver was covered by the same insurance company, so really it was our insurance company paying for all the work!

[Newjack]

When I took my car to eurowerks after someone backed into my car they painted both fenders my hood and my bumper. My zhp is jet black. You can't tell it isn't OE paint on the car it matches that well. Part of it might be because black is easier to match (although some posts in this thread say otherwise). If your car is taken to the right body shop they should be able to match about anything.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

[az3579]

The color match on both hood and bumper are good to my inexpert eye, but the paint on both doesn't seem to be as durable as the paint on the rest of the car.

This is because BMW chassis' are dipped in an electrostatic bath that leaves the surfaces charged in a way that attracts the paint particles when the car gets painted. Then, when the cars are painted, the paint is baked onto the car in industrial ovens. Body shops use neither of these techniques, and as a result, the paint won't be as resistant to chipping.

[Avetiso]

This is because BMW chassis' are dipped in an electrostatic bath that leaves the surfaces charged in a way that attracts the paint particles when the car gets painted. Then, when the cars are painted, the paint is baked onto the car in industrial ovens. Body shops use neither of these techniques, and as a result, the paint won't be as resistant to chipping.

Some shops do, but it'll practically send your wallet through a black hole.