Pre-painted any hope of matching?

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AlanD

Active Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2011
Messages
609
Location
London
Car
CLS55 AMG IWC
I'm trawling the breakers yards for a front bumper and many of them offer to spray to your factory colour for £99 extra. It's a gamble, but what are the odds that Cubanite Silver pre-sprayed in this manner would match a 10 year old car? It's £300+VAT to spray professionally.
 
If they're offering to spray it for £200 cheaper than any proper paint shop, I'd be skeptical of the finish and longetivity! Also, silver is one of the worst colours to match!
 
If they're offering to spray it for £200 cheaper than any proper paint shop, I'd be skeptical of the finish and longetivity! Also, silver is one of the worst colours to match!

I guess if you're not taking the time to colour match at all and just mixing it up on guesswork it's a good bit cheaper. I do have my doubts about it being original MB paint with a decent protective coating though (on top of the likelihood of it actually matching!).

Wasn't sure about silver being good or bad (albeit silver/gold type "cubanite" whatsit ..). Always figured red was the worst .. ;)

£450 to spray and fit a bumper does seem high however bearing in mind I have to add the cost of the bumper .. :eek:
 
I am assuming they will use a mix of paints to match the MB colour code for your car, there are tables and software for this and it is a common way for body shops to achieve the base colour from which they can match the exact colour on the car.

So there is no reason to assume they won't do a proper job of painting the bumper, albeit without actually matching it to the car.

If you do want to have the bumper perfectly matched (as you should), then simply shop around - there is no need to accept the first quote of £300+VAT

Where abouts in the UK are you?
 
NW London .. just a paintshop I've used before under insurance and they did a good job (do a lot of high end cars). I'll try another place I've used before to compare.
 
Silver (metallic) is always a bit of a pain to match and normally needs blown in to the adjacent panel
 
I have in the past trawled around yards until I found a car the same colour as mine - in my case it was a Diamond Blue 190E ( which is a very light metallic blue ) - and then bought both front wings ( for £15 each ) .

Besides that the rust free replacement wings were always going to look better than what I had , I was pleasantly surprised to find that the colour match was perfect , viewed from any angle !

It won't work that way every time , but you can get lucky .

Since silver is one of the most common colours , if you can afford to bide your time until a car turns up in your colour ( I waited a few months ) then it can work out .
 
It's cubanite silver, so a rather uncommon colour! It's that one that looks more gold in the sun and silver in the shade. It's also turned out to be impossible to get parts from a breaker to match, so an "insurance approved clone" bumper may turn out to be the only sensible option .. which then needs paint.
 
Most paint suppliers and some motor factors have colour swatch cards which can be used to get a very close match to your existing paint. They will then produce several aerosol cans in that exact colour shade for you to spray any second hand bumper yourself. Because with a bumper you can do this off the car in any orientation its much easier than spraying say a vertical panel on the car itself. You won't equal a professional finish but you will achieve something quite presentable. Its really down to how much you can afford. If you are a complete novice to the joys of aerosol can spraying then leave it to the pros.
ps I should add that many of the dent/scratch repair companies use these custom paint mixing facilities to sourcs their paint. They will of course have superior equipment to apply it and lots of experience to boot. The £99 sounds about what one of these repair companies charge per panel for remedial work. I would imagine the breaker will have an understanding with one of these dent/repair guys to do the work?
 
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Yeah, not about to tackle it myself! Spraying isn't all that easy and a bumper is an intricate shape. It's basically down to a £99 gamble that it might match, with £300 extra to sort it if it doesn't. Made up (unsprayed) bumper is under £200; MB one is £1500.
 
If you do decide to get this done at a body shop, I suggest you talk to Andy at:

http://www.tonyfowkesautomobiles.com

They did a fantastic job respraying my bumper last month - highly recommended. They are based in West London.
 
Yeah, not about to tackle it myself! Spraying isn't all that easy and a bumper is an intricate shape. It's basically down to a £99 gamble that it might match, with £300 extra to sort it if it doesn't. Made up (unsprayed) bumper is under £200; MB one is £1500.

Is this a bumper for a C55?
 
Are you sure you're being quoted for a C55 bumper and not just a normal W203 front bumper? Only C55 bumpers are pretty thin on the ground.

Not sure what you mean? MB charge £1500-1600 for a new bumper; I've seen one for £500 second hand before (from Germany through a UK breaker), but a couple of the breakers offer an "insurance approved" made up one for the C55 for about £160.
 
Not sure what you mean? MB charge £1500-1600 for a new bumper; I've seen one for £500 second hand before (from Germany through a UK breaker), but a couple of the breakers offer an "insurance approved" made up one for the C55 for about £160.

Are you sure the £160 copy bumper is for a C55 though, not just a normal W203 bumper?
 
Are you sure the £160 copy bumper is for a C55 though, not just a normal W203 bumper?

As much as I can be - it's a while since I looked into it last autumn, so only just trying to get it sorted again now. Certainly on the phone back then they claimed it was for a C55. I would expect an exact match.
 

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