Bumper respray quality

[Tony_M3]

I had my bumper resprayed after the car was hit by someone. This is my first time getting body work done and I can’t tell if my eyes are deceiving me but it looks like the color is a little off.

I get that factory paint is impossible to replicate but is this acceptable?

[vt100]

The color will always be off after repainting a part. Especially if it's metallic color. It's practically impossible to get the exact match. Good shops can manage to make it very close, but still there will be difference at direct sunlight.

The only way to get it exactly right is to repaint the entire car

[M5Rick]

Looks perfect to me and being at the lower end of car it may appear to be darker when it's not.

[Phillies8008]

I don't see much of a difference, and I'm inclined to think that anything I do see is more due to the shadows and reflections than anything. It's going to be hard to tell unless the car is in good, even, direct light rather than with shadows and reflections running across it.

[TimmyTurbos]

Definitely a shade darker..They would have to blend it into the fenders and trunk for it to be "invisible" especially with a metallic color.

[whyzee125]

I would not accept that. That should either be blended or they could go a smidge lighter. They actually got the metallic looking very close but the color is just too dark.

They mix up a few samples and make like 5 paint chips and choose the best one. If they can't get it looking dead on, they should blend it.

I get that minimizing the paintwork on a newer car is ideal, but this is not close enough.

The gap is also off between the bumper and the quarter at the top.

[TboneS54]

The same exact paint can look slightly different when spryed on plastic versus metal body. Plus the angle might change (bumper sloping downward), and give an illusion of being darker. Metallics play tricks on the eye as well.

[N1rve]

IMO it looks pretty good. If you didn't tell me it was repainted, I wouldn't have known. There will always be a slight difference between painting a plastic bumper and metal body parts even on a new car from factory.

[Mech Spec]

Normal variation between plastic and metal panels. Many cars probably look the same or worse from the factory.

[allinon72]

Look at pictures of current vehicles for sale to compare, they all look like that, you've just never noticed before because it's not enough of a difference to catch your eye. Paint reacts different depending on the substrate. The lighter the color, the more obvious it is.

[tcphoto]

As stated, paint will differ between metal and plastic. I don't think the picture is great to evaluate, the pavement reflects differently but the bottom of the bumper and the top half of the door looks like a good match to me.

[TAWE90M3]

It will always be hard to compare flatter panels with curved or rounded shapes as the light hits them differently which will always cause the effect that you have in these photos that cause the color to appear off. I also agree with @tcphoto concerning the reflections on the different surfaces. Overall it looks good just sux you have an accident reported on such a nice new car.

[MADBMWX5MC]

Originally Posted by allinon72

Look at pictures of current vehicles for sale to compare, they all look like that, you've just never noticed before because it's not enough of a difference to catch your eye. Paint reacts different depending on the substrate. The lighter the color, the more obvious it is.

great advise...stroll by the dealer during a sunny day and you will see all bumper paint and metal paint a bit different...

[afadeev]

Originally Posted by Tony_M3

I had my bumper resprayed after the car was hit by someone. This is my first time getting body work done and I can’t tell if my eyes are deceiving me but it looks like the color is a little off.

Nope, looks pretty close to perfect to me.
Consider that the bumper's surface slopes downward, thus totally different reflections and shadows!

Take a step back, sleep on this, look at the car under different lighting scenarios (sun, clouds, indoors, etc) and under different angles.
You will likely find that the match is very good, and the curvaceous surfaces of the car introduce all sorts of shadow variations for effect!

Originally Posted by Tony_M3

I get that factory paint is impossible to replicate but is this acceptable?

It's very possible to recreate and improve on BMW OEM paint. BMW VPC Port-of-entry body shops do it all the time. Sign-up for VPC tour with your local BMW CCA club, and you will see!

Originally Posted by TimmyTurbos

Definitely a shade darker. They would have to blend it into the fenders and trunk for it to be "invisible" especially with a metallic color.

NOT!
Plastic (bumper) and metal surfaces have different textures and paint formulations, but achieve nearly identical appearances. You do NOT blend the two surface types when re-painting (bumpers are painted off the car, then bolted on).

HTH,
a

[allinon72]

Originally Posted by afadeev

NOT!
Plastic (bumper) and metal surfaces have different textures and paint formulations, but achieve nearly identical appearances. You do NOT blend the two surface types when re-painting (bumpers are painted off the car, then bolted on).

HTH,
a

You are correct, paint matching tech is so good now that most body shops will not bother to blend something like a bumper into the rest of the car, there just isn’t a need to. Back in the day everything was blended, but no longer.

[Emily172013]

Remember the bumpers are not painted with them attached to the body when at the factory. Better now, but years ago when plastic bumpers came out they were always a shade or two off.

[Rob_G77]

Looks like they got the metallic flake correct.. That was a big issue when I had body work done on my 8 series. It wasn't even close and extremely noticeable. The sanding marks were really bad too. What a miserable experience that was.

[TimmyTurbos]

Oh, that's rough.