Brilliant silver rear bumper a different shade?
 

Hey guys. I recently purchased a sliver 370z and am loving every second of her. I have noticed however the rear bumper looks to be of a different shade than the rest of the panels, a little brighter I would say. Anyone else notice this on theirs? Is this normal for this color? I am figuring its caused from the different materials, the bumper being plastic and the other panels being metal.

on my car it's barely noticable. check my albums page as i have a lot of butt shots in there.

it could be that your bumper was repainted... even if purchased new, they could still paint it due to scuffs pre-delivery and sell the car as brand new.

since the bumpers are painted off site usually, it could be that the factory paint was not 100% matched or the metallic particles were not positioned the correct way.

:iagree: if you're sure it hasn't had an accident, it will be the second option.

Well I noticed the front bumper being similar as it is a different shade of silver, so the chances of both being repainted are some what slim I would say? Here's a couple pictures, not that it's the best way to show it but it's better than nothing I guess.

http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...227_074430.jpg

http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...370zbumper.jpg

hummmm... the bumper does look slightly lighter. but much better than being darker, i thinks... ill have to see through a better lcd though. im looking at your pict through a renovo.

I'm willing to bet that if you noticed the front bumper being a different colour, it's the colour difference from the factory that you notice. It saves the manufacturer money, and most people don't notice/care about it.

Basically, it's normal. If it really bothers you, find a reputable bodyshop to do a match for you.

Ok, I honestly just wanted to verify that there is a slight difference in shading from the plastic bumpers to the metal panels from the factory. After doing some research it looks the biggest color with this issue is the Pearl White.

Pearls are always hard to match. I love the look of pearl paints, I just can't own one because it would drive me insane if I needed a repair! ;)

yep, white pearl followed by silvers, i think. mainly due to no control over metallic particle orientation. lighter colors are easily affected by this.

solid colors have their own unique challenges too though. not like all reds or blues are the same either, for example.

If it helps keep you up at night, your side skirt look like a different shade in that pic as well. Don't worry, mine looks the same as yours. Maybe they were bashed together at the factory and repainted, shipped to different areas of the country for sale and we finally got ourselves a conspiracy theory.

Holy crap, yeah, sorry. OP, your bumper isn't in the ballpark of the correct color...

But EVERY SINGLE 370Z has the same issue
My MBlue's plastic parts are so off, Ray Charles could tell you they're different colors! LOL
the bumpers look too dark, too blue and not sparkly enough

You can ATTEMPT to have Nissan repaint it under warranty, it's a bitch, but I've seen it done
I'll be going in for that shortly

:iagree: with all the above


HONESTLY, the reason why it NEVER matches is because Nissan is g'damn LAZY, the bumpers are black... And they don't use enough primer and base coats... (Usually the paint is darker from what I've seen, not lighter... The OP's picture looks more yellow)

the metals are usually painted at the chassis assembly plant together at the same time... the plastic bits are all painted at another booth (bumpers, a-pillars, sills, splash guards, gas cap, etc).

Yeah, or at the port they get shipped to ;-(

I was under the impression that many of our cars (all colors at that) have this problem. As to how or where I will defer to others but between my local dealer and body shop I had it corrected. Guess it all depends on the eye of the beholder but if it bothers you go for a respray :). The car looks good in the pic but I def understand having been there myself.

Or what many manufacturers do now is buy the bumpers pre-finished from a 3rd party. Good luck getting a match with that, it will never happen. If they were painted at the same facility even in different booths they would have a better chance of matching because they paint robots will be drawing from the same batch of paint.

Thanks for all the feedback! Feels good to know mine is not the only one with this issue. I guess knowing that will make it easier to live with. Just out of curiosity, which 370z color has the LEAST bumper matching problem?

Doesn't the paint fade slightly differently on the plastic vs metal parts?

Easy answer, black, then Red, then PG/blue

You would think with the kind of money we are dishing out for our Z, they can at least get the bumpers in the "ballpark" of a similar color as the rest of the car? Guess times have changed from how it use to be. As for having a dealer repaint it, my vehicle is still under warranty. Should they be obligated to repaint it, or will it be a big stretch asking them to do something like this?

It's a very, very long stretch. However, if you don't ask, you won't know for sure.

The reason the shades are different is that the bumpers, side skirts, etc are are plastic, while the hood, doors, etc are metal. The porousness of the plastic absorbs the base coat and primer differently than the metal. This causes the paint to settle and refract light slightly differently and gives the illusion of the colors being slightly off.

Not to mention the brilliant silver on the 370z is extremely difficult to match. I had to have my hood repainted and had to settle on having fenders blended, as matching the metallic silver was nearly impossible. Even with the blending of the paint, you can still barely see the color shift from panel to panel.

Also, as others pointed out, sometimes the plastic panels of the car are painted separately from the metal ones at the factory and can have very slight variances in paint color mixtures.

:tup:

Both of these reasons combined are why the color of our bumpers and side skirts don't match up with the rest of the pieces on the car.

It looks especially bad here, if you look at the right side fairing you can easily see the transition in paint colors, the bumper looking much brighter.

http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...230_122418.jpg

yep, i was implying that it was painted at a supplier's paint booth.

these paints need to be applied at the same time at the same booth to get full consistency.

op- if it bothers you so much, take it back to the dealer and ask what your options are. my bumpers match the rest of the paint quite well. the gas cap is slightly darker in some lighting.

I'll see if I can get something out of the dealer. My gas cap is perfect. I find it pretty unacceptable how inconsistent the Z's are with this issue from car to car. One car may not have any issue what so ever, and the next can look like two different colors from bumper to fairing.

not just the z. happens to other cars (non-nissans) too.

True but I don't think I've ever owned one this bad. I mean my 2002 SE-R sentra isn't close to as bad, it is a Vibrant Blue though so maybe it's easier to color match on the bumper? I would accept that maybe the sliver is just harder to color match but then see yours the same color and almost perfect color matching. Maybe my batch was the Sunday morning hangover batch?

:icon18: possibly. :icon17:

So I'm gonna take it into the stealership tomorrow and present the bumper issue. How should I go about being as persuasive as possible to convince them to re-spary her booty? Should I tell them the paint seems to be discoloring or just say straight up Nissan did a shitty job color matching the bumper? I guess what it will really come down to is how bad they feel the issue is, and then try to convince corporate to cover the re-spray under warranty.

EDIT: Also something to note, I did not purchase the car from this dealer, I recently purchased Buick GMC dealer further away from me, but since the vehicle is still under warranty it shouldn't matter whether I bought it from them or not, correct?

hey this thread has been sleeping for a bit just figured I would chime in. The brillian silver is one of the most difficult colors to blend. It was explained to me from the body shop I took my car to when I had the hood repainted from a accident that the nissan silver has 3 types of crushed pearl in it. When the cars come off the factory line they are painted in batches. Now if you take a bumper from one batch and mix it with a car from another batch then it will stand out like a sore thumb. I have pictures of my Z from the dealership where they are showing the passenger side of the car with the sun hitting the back end. The gas cap, bumper and side of the car are 3 different colors because of how the sun is reflecting the silver. OP you posted a picture of your car with it in your garage. The bumper is getting sunlight but the side of your car isn't because obiviously it is indoors. The silver that we (and other Z owners as well) have purchased, possibly with other colors as well, are very translucent paints. Plastic does reflect paint differently than metal and it does cure differently than metal also. Did carfax turn up anything?

Nope no accidents or anything on the carfax, only one previous owner and car looks to have been babied. I honestly learned to just accept and live with it, sometimes the paint on the bumper almost matches perfectly, it all depends on how the sunlight reflects off it.

Thats exactly what im sayin. Its funny how in some spots it looks spot on and when it doesnt have the same light its a different shade. Love my car reguardless. Its like a 2nd wife with tan lines lol.