Any bodyshop PAINT experts here?
 

hi, im going to purchase a rear bumper and i wanted it painted black, now can i just give the rear bumper to a body shop and they can match it or do they need my whole car to be in the garage? im doing the install myself, its just the OEM rear bumper from a nissan dealership.

someone told me they need the whole car sitting at the body shop in order to match it with the rest of the car, i dont understand that, its magnetic black (color code G41), isnt that all theyll need and use? why would my car have to be in the body shop for?

They would need to blend it to make any differences less noticeable. It would be faster and cheaper to just drop off the bumper, but then you have a higher chance of the paint being different shades.

Zeetah, I would advise you to just drop the car off if you can so they can blend in the trunk and rear quarters...black is a color that shows every imperfection(as you already know) and you can sometimes tell with a black car that the bumper has been resprayed.

On the other hand, if its a top notch body shop they should be able to match it pretty close if you wind up only dropping the bumper off for a spray...but you run the risk of it not matching 100%

This is one of those instances where you really don't want to cheap out on picking the body shop that's doing the paint work.

They can repaint just the whole bumper you drop off or spray the bumper with a blend to surrounding panels.

Painting just the entire bumper may show differences in the adjoining panels.

Your painter may need to play with a few mixes to get it right, not just pull a code and spray.

So to sum it up, find a painter with skill

even from the factory bumpers are painted separately from the assembly plant where they paint the metal panels.

all the pre-painted plastics like your a-pillars, mirrors, side pieces, splash guards, all painted at different locations.

for me, i would just drop off the rear bumper if it is an oem piece, or you have already test fitted it to ensure proper fitment. especially a black. id be more worried about the fitment in your case.

now for my silver, these colors are hard to match. i would have to let the bodyshop mix and match.

Yeah but at the factory a robot is painting all the parts and the variation between each part is minimal as compared to different people painting it, where human "error" occurs.

if fitment is an issue, than that will be another dilemma. im buying my rear bumper from a Nissan dealership OEM, like the stock. so shouldnt that be fine?

i kind of see what you guys mean.

i called 4 body shops today and told them im buying an OEM rear bumper from nissan dealership and want it painted, none of them asked me to bring the entire car in, is that weird?

if, that IS the case where they need my whole car there, than why dont i just take off my dented oem bumper that i have to take off anyway, which im replacing with the new one, and have them match the new OEM bumper with the EXISTING dented one, that should be perfect right?

but, idk why none of them asked for my whole car there to match everything, they all just said ok and matching wont be an issue.

you will still want to test fit it before paint.

With a good body shop, you should be ok, but I added a widebody to my C6 corvette, which was jet black and the mismatched the paint, even though they had the car there. Wound up having to get an entire repaint to make it right.

People buy prepainted body kits from nissan, and have aftermarket ones painted without blending, so you can do it, but blending is the best option. Depends on how picky you are.

yes, im going to buy the oem stock base model rear bumper from nissan test fit it myself, and then take both bumpers to the bodyshop to get them painted.

shouldnt the fit be perfect if its the exact same bumper as my current, especially since it will come from nissan? OEM

if, the fitment is off somehow, then what? man... this is such a headache, i was hoping to get the new OEM bumper painted and give them my current one for them to match it, and then just install it myself

It should be the same, but sometimes there are manufacturing variations that need a little tweak.

The last time I did something like you are doing, it was on a 97 Integra GSR that we had for a week and someone backed into it and left. We just brought the bumper cover in, the body shop painted it and I installed it with no issues. I'm 99% certain that will be your experience.

oh man, thanks for the feedback, took a load off me, i feel better. i hope so too about fitment. i hate fkn low life scum vandals

what small tweaks are we talking about? something i can fix myself?

Probably, something might need to be trimmed a little, or a mounting hole bored out a little, but oen is inlikely

when you say blend in the trunk and rear quarters, do you mean they have to spray something on them as well?

cool, thanks for the heads up