Repaired bumper, color and accident questions

[seeh2o]

I just had my bumper replaced, someone rear-ended my car. I brought the car home yesterday afternoon and it seems like the color of the bumper is a bit different than that of the rest of the car. Mine is a 2004 Prius, it is parked outside all the time, so here in Los Angeles that means it gets A LOT of sun on it. Is it possible that the color difference is because the rest of the car has been out in the elements? The car paint looks like a warmish white compared to the bumper which looks more like a cold white or blue white.

Also, I've never been in an accident before, so I didn't know what to expect. Both my insurance (21st Century) and the guy who hit me (his insurance is State Farm) recommended this body shop. The people were very nice, received an estimate, but I never received any paperwork when I picked up the car. Shouldn't I have received paperwork itemizing what was actually done vs what the estimate said and, shouldn't there be some kind of paperwork stating a guarantee or warranty on the work?

Thanks in advance for help/advice for this accident newbie!

[Bill Merchant]

[font=Comic Sans MS:9cbfa2d7c5]You should absolutely get paper work, and you should also get your bumper repainted to match your car. I suggest you take it back and tell the body shop that you are not satisfied with the work since the colors don't match. White can be hard, but if it's a good body shop, they can do it.

If you don't get anywhere with them, call your insurance company. They should go to bat for you to get your car looking like it did before the accident. An insurance claim isn't settled until you are satisfied.

And get an itemized receipt and guarantee of workmanship when you are satisfied.[/font:9cbfa2d7c5]

[GKarschnick]

I noticed the same thing after my car was rear ended. I took it back to the body shop and the owner told me that the paint will appear slightly "different" on the plastic parts as on the metal. The angle of the sunlight at the time will emphasise the difference. We turned my car around facing the sun and the same difference was seen on the front-end plastic parts as compared to the metal. (Front end was new from the factory.)

[Tideland Prius]

Our Camry's bumper looks goldish under certain lighting conditions even though our car is silver. I thought it was a manufacturer defect but I checked other silver Camrys and they have the same bumper effect. The slight mismatch maybe be due to the fact that the bumper is plastic and hence a tad harder to match to a metal body part even though the exact same paint colour was used. Check with them and see what's the colour code they used. Also, scope a Toyota dealer for a white Prius and check its colour against your bumper or the rest of your Prius and see if the paint decrepancies is due to parking your car out in the sun.

[Frank Hudon]

just had the front bumper on my Classic replaced and the body shop manager wouldn't paint it till they had it on the car so the painter could exactly match the colour. His painter just adjusts the color to match the car. Said he has a tough time with Toyota colours because they don't always exactly match the paint code for the car and say's the bumpers are the worst. The paint for the bumpers has a flex agent added to it so it won't crack as easily on the flexable bumper.

[cybele]

I had an accident back in Jan '04 and had to have the front passenger quarter panel de-dented.

What that body shop said they did was feather the paint into the adjoining areas to eliminate any abrupt color differences.

Of course my car was only a month old and hadn't much fading yet, so it still looks like a great, seamless job to me.

I don't know if the same can be done with a bumper replacement or not.

[IsrAmeriPrius]

Is it possible that the color difference is because the rest of the car has been out in the elements?

Paints do fade. Quality body shops use a computerized color matching system with a spectrograph.

My car was repaired in February at Keyes Collision Center in Van Nuys. The color match on both the metal and plastic parts was perfect. The repair cost the insurance company (the driver at fault and I were both insured by the same insurer) 50% more than the original estimate by "recommended" shop .

[seeh2o]

My car was repaired in February at Keyes Collision Center in Van Nuys.

Ironically, I passed right by there on the way to pick up my car. I will go back to the shop this week to see what they say. I did look at my front bumper, it does appear to be the same as the rear bumper - a cold white, as opposed to the body, which appears to be a warmer white.

I'll be sure to ask for an itemized receipt and warranty.

I'll report back on what they say.

[geckoboi78]

I just had my bumper replaced, someone rear-ended my car. I brought the car home yesterday afternoon and it seems like the color of the bumper is a bit different than that of the rest of the car. Mine is a 2004 Prius, it is parked outside all the time, so here in Los Angeles that means it gets A LOT of sun on it. Is it possible that the color difference is because the rest of the car has been out in the elements? The car paint looks like a warmish white compared to the bumper which looks more like a cold white or blue white.

Also, I've never been in an accident before, so I didn't know what to expect. Both my insurance (21st Century) and the guy who hit me (his insurance is State Farm) recommended this body shop. The people were very nice, received an estimate, but I never received any paperwork when I picked up the car. Shouldn't I have received paperwork itemizing what was actually done vs what the estimate said and, shouldn't there be some kind of paperwork stating a guarantee or warranty on the work?

Thanks in advance for help/advice for this accident newbie!

Don't know if someone answered this already but on my salsa red, the paint isn't going to match on the bumper and the car due to the material that each is composed of. I noticed that the first day I got mine and since then I notice it on a lot of new cars as well.

[c4]

Sometimes if the body shop just uses the paint code vs. matching the actual paint color, you'll end up with a discrepancy between the existing body and the new part..

Another possibility is the color of the primer/base coat. Assuming the same color primer coat/base coat was used on all parts, metal and plastic should come out exactly the same color.. Because paint is not opaque except in really thick layers, with the typical 2-3 coats, if a different color base (or no base at all) was used, then there could definitely be some difference in appearance, especially with light colors like white, gold or silver..