Spray painting after an Accident

[ecassar]

Hello to everyone,
I am new to this forum, having been the proud owner of a brand new A class since last December. However my joy was short lived after a stupid bloke decided to skid his car into mine after what I think was reckless driving from his side. My car didn't sustain as much damage compared to his, but it needs a new bonnet, bumper, mudguard and headlamp.
The local Mercedes

Benz​

garage is going to do the respray for me but they are insisting that they will have to blend the spray onto the door panel, because otherwise there will be a difference in color. I have convinced them to just spray the mudguard for now so that I see what it will look like. Is it possible that it is so difficult to get a good match of color in a brand new car. I mean we can't really talk of color fading in a one month old car, can we? Any help or ideas in this regard.
Thanks in advance.

 

[jaymanek]

Im pretty sure it will be fine just painting the mud guard in this case...

 

[renault12ts]

Less about paint fade and more to do with batch numbers as with anything.

 

[dtldesign]

What colour is the car.

if it a solid colour you can get away with edge to edge painting..

metalics or pearls. you will be very lucky to get a edge to edge match.
as with application and the way the paint settles can create different face tones.
each colour can have several different varients and you need to match to suit
more than likley you will be able to tell work has been done. and i assume you don't want that.

end of the day its your choice.

 

[ecassar]

The car has got a metallic paint (lotus blue). They are going to spray a mudguard first for me to see what the result will be. Then I will decide. Thanks for your help.

 

[AlanD]

The car has got a metallic paint (lotus blue). They are going to spray a mudguard first for me to see what the result will be. Then I will decide. Thanks for your help.

Won't they charge you twice? Personally, I've never seen a good job without blending. You might be lucky depending on the state of the existing paint and the colour, but usually you can spot it a mile off. A mudguard however wouldn't be as bad as a wing or bonnet though.

Also depends on their skill - my God there are terrible paint shops out there! I have a fantastic one I use in Ruislip, but they charge accordingly (eg. £450 for a small brush mark on my wing to spray & blend). I've had another forced on me by an insurance claim and sent my car back 3 times before they did a good enough job!

 

[dtldesign]

Also depends on their skill - my God there are terrible paint shops out there! I have a fantastic one I use in Ruislip, but they charge accordingly (eg. £450 for a small brush mark on my wing to spray & blend). I've had another forced on me by an insurance claim and sent my car back 3 times before they did a good enough job!

as you pay for the insurance and its your car. you have the choice where it get repaired. (motability etc are different)
they make out that you have no choice but you do.

the likes of aviva have been conning people by writing into the terms and conditions a further £200 excess on top of your original if you don't use their bodyshop... but i have seen this overturned when questioned.

what you learn over time is that some of the bigger insurance companies are the worst to deal with..... especially RBS group.

 

[AlanD]

as you pay for the insurance and its your car. you have the choice where it get repaired. (motability etc are different)
they make out that you have no choice but you do.

Not in this case unfortunately - wasn't my insurance. Had the car in with an Indy for a bent strut last winter (my fault!), then took it out, but could hear a noise. Came back and got their mechanic to drive it with me and some damn fool drove straight into us in the ice - scraped the whole way down the side of the car, bent suspension and marked the alloys even.

As I wasn't driving, it was the garage's insurance. As it turns out, the woman who hit it was the wife of one of their contract mechanics. My insurance wouldn't touch it so I had to deal with their terms of returning it in a satisfactory condition. Bit of a nightmare to be honest!

 

[ecassar]

The charges will be on the insurance, and it won't pay a single penny for the job. Any one knows why it is not possible to get ready painted panels from the factory?

 

[AlanD]

The charges will be on the insurance, and it won't pay a single penny for the job. Any one knows why it is not possible to get ready painted panels from the factory?

Because it's not cost effective and because they never match! Paint degrades very quickly over time, especially with harsh conditions and especially with owners who don't look after the car (ie. 95% of the market!).

 

[dtldesign]

Because it's not cost effective and because they never match! Paint degrades very quickly over time, especially with harsh conditions and especially with owners who don't look after the car (ie. 95% of the market!).

not fully true.

a lot of campanies now produce a lot of car parts painted. mainly plastic parts like bumpers trims etc.

the likes of honda all the bumpers come painted
where ford you have a choice of primed or painted.

now this seems like a good idea. but what you may or may not have noticed is plastic panels cast different face tones to metl panels. resulting in a colour diference. this can vary from car to car colour to colour.

at the end of the day you could not guarentee a perfect colour match that way.
we have been stuck with a situation where a new painted bumper has come for a car. colour nothing like. 3 other bumpers later we had an acceptable match. not one of the bumpers we had had the same colour

 

[AlanD]

not fully true.

the likes of honda all the bumpers come painted
where ford you have a choice of primed or painted.

That's true actually - the one and only time I got a pre-sprayed part was a rear bumper in metallic silver for an Accord. The insurance told the paint shop it "must" do it rather than charge to colour match. Foolishly I accepted it during a miserable winter when it never stopped raining.

Once I could see it in the light of (dry) day, it was a terrible match!

 

[dtldesign]

Not in this case unfortunately - wasn't my insurance. Had the car in with an Indy for a bent strut last winter (my fault!), then took it out, but could hear a noise. Came back and got their mechanic to drive it with me and some damn fool drove straight into us in the ice - scraped the whole way down the side of the car, bent suspension and marked the alloys even.

As I wasn't driving, it was the garage's insurance. As it turns out, the woman who hit it was the wife of one of their contract mechanics. My insurance wouldn't touch it so I had to deal with their terms of returning it in a satisfactory condition. Bit of a nightmare to be honest!

in a situation like that. it does become a funny situation. if its cut and dry. as in the other party hit your car. the best way is to claim directly off his insurance. the last thing you want to do get your insurance involved (just yet)

nearly all bodyshops run non fault schemes. which is a process of claiming directly of the person at fault (their insurance) should'nt cost you a penny. you get a replacement car ect... and you don't pay any excess.

now if you went through your own insurance company. you can often find yourself in a postion where your premiums rise the following year even though the accident wasn't your fault.
what happens is your insurance company will initailly pay for the repairs and try and claim the money back from the third party. if they don't get the money back before your insurance runs out. it goes against you as an insurance claim resulting in higher premiums.

also just as bad is letting the third party's insurance repair your car as more often than not they are trying to cut their losses which ends up them trying to repair your car as cheap as possible.

at the end of the day its your car you have the final say who repairs it. take it to a main dealer or a bodyshop of your choice, even just to seek advice. an insurance company is just trying to limit liability and cut their losses.

 

[dtldesign]

That's true actually - the one and only time I got a pre-sprayed part was a rear bumper in metallic silver for an Accord. The insurance told the paint shop it "must" do it rather than charge to colour match. Foolishly I accepted it during a miserable winter when it never stopped raining.

Once I could see it in the light of (dry) day, it was a terrible match!

now following my previous reply.
going down the non fault claim a bodyshop can and will get paid to blend or even repaint a bumper to match the colour and make the car as it was.

your insurance or a third party insurance company will tell you and the bodyshop to take it up with honda uk.

i will admit some are better than others. but some a god dam awfull

 

[Rory]

That's true actually - the one and only time I got a pre-sprayed part was a rear bumper in metallic silver for an Accord. The insurance told the paint shop it "must" do it rather than charge to colour match. Foolishly I accepted it during a miserable winter when it never stopped raining.

Once I could see it in the light of (dry) day, it was a terrible match!

We had the rear bumper replaced on our light metallic blue Honda Jazz when it was 3 years old and it looked perfect (and I'm fussy) and stayed looking perfect for the next 3 yrs we had it. I was surprised when they said it was pre-painted, but it made it a very quick repair job.

Re blending - they normally always blend into adjacent panels. Our Clio has the sill scraped and they painted halfway up the doors and front and rear wings. Looked fine. I don't know how they lacquer over the paint edge mid-panel though - I can't do it with spray cans!

 

[312 Sprinter]

The fading in isn't because the colour of paint they use doesn't match the colour.

On a metallic paint you can vary the shade by just changing the air pressure or changing the angle you hold the spray gun to the panel. In some metallics it can be a real issue when painting. By taking the paint into the next panel it'll look way better. The way it is done is by spraying thinner and thinner coats of paint over a gradually increasing area. At the outer edges it'll be translucent, fooling your eye into thinking everything is uniform.

Why not just let the guy holding the spray gun do the job to the best of his ability, or if you reckon he is incompetent why allow him near your car with a spray gun at all?

 

[Smiley]

The fading in isn't because the colour of paint they use doesn't match the colour.

On a metallic paint you can vary the shade by just changing the air pressure or changing the angle you hold the spray gun to the panel. In some metallics it can be a real issue when painting. By taking the paint into the next panel it'll look way better. The way it is done is by spraying thinner and thinner coats of paint over a gradually increasing area. At the outer edges it'll be translucent, fooling your eye into thinking everything is uniform.

Why not just let the guy holding the spray gun do the job to the best of his ability, or if you reckon he is incompetent why allow him near your car with a spray gun at all?

That is a very good explanation and the last sentence was just what I was thinking

 

[ecassar]

It is not that I think he is incompetent, but I have to admit that I don't trust any paint shop. I was never happy with any paint job I had done on my previous cars. Incidentally I am having my car repaired at my local MB service centre. The car is still under warranty and it wouldn't have been wise to have it repaired somewhere else.

 

[kamalpatel12448]

Won't they charge you twice? Personally, I've never seen a good job without blending. You might be lucky depending on the state of the existing paint and the colour, but usually you can spot it a mile off. A mudguard however wouldn't be as bad as a wing or bonnet though.

Also depends on their skill - my God there are terrible paint shops out there! I have a fantastic one I use in Ruislip, but they charge accordingly (eg. £450 for a small brush mark on my wing to spray & blend). I've had another forced on me by an insurance claim and sent my car back 3 times before they did a good enough job!

Could you share details of the place in Ruislip, always good to know a good paintshop locally.
Thanks.
Kamal

 

[markjay]

Part of the problem with paint matching has to do with the lighting conditions.

As said above, the end result will slightly differ not just due to fading but also paint make (does your MB dealer have an in-house body repair shop using originally-supplied MB paint, or do they use a local body shop as many dealerships do? If the latter, the paint will come from a major manufacturer to match your original MB paint, but not from the same manufacturer MB used at the factory), and even when same make, it won't be the same batch, plus the nozzle type/size, spraying angle, etc etc.

The point is that a good body shop will be able to visually match the paint in spite of all these variable, however while a perfect match may be achievable, it will only match perfectly under the same lighting conditions that prevailed at the body shop...

Try parking a perfectly-matched car under a yellow/orange motorway junction light and you will immediately see each and every re-spayed panel.