Advice Needed: Acceptable Paint Shop Quality

[Kees 581]

Hi everyone, bit random but I sent off a few parts from my Brabus ForFour to get painted. 
 

These were: 

- Bonnet (which has faded in the middle)

- Front Grille (which was covered in stone chips) 

- Front Lip (which had stone chips / scrapes) 

With these parts redone my car would be looking quite a bit better. 

So anyway, I thought it would be best to just drop the required parts to the paint shop. 
 

This is because to take the grille off the ForFour, you have to remove the front clamshell leaving the whole front of the car exposed to the elements (I’ll put a picture of what it looks like). So I figured this was best as my car can stay in a dry garage rather than being stuck at the paint shop where it could get rained on etc. The clamshell is also quite fragile as it’s plastic so it’s best it isn’t moved much once it’s off - something I can guarantee when it’s in my own garage. 
 

Anyway… 

I dropped the parts off and included the car’s colour code C21L - “Jack Black”. 
 

I assumed that with the parts still in the colour they need to be + the actual paint code, a relatively decent colour match could be done. I’m not expecting perfection especially since they didn’t have the rest of the car, but as long as it’s pretty similar that’s alright.

 

Now to be fair, the job they have done is executed brilliantly, the finish is mint. 
 

BUT, when I was putting the car together in the DARK last night, I could tell the colour was wrong. And in the day light it’s fairly obvious, even with rain on the car. 
 

So now I’m wondering if I contact them about it? Or is it to be expected given they didn’t have the whole car, just the parts?

 

Seems like the colour is just straight wrong, it’s quite grey/brown whereas the car is just plain black. 
 

Any advice very much appreciated! 

 

Car with front clamshell off (this is why are just gave them the bits as I wouldn’t want this outside a paint shop getting rained on) 

Before shot: you can see the bonnet was faded in the middle (edges were still fine), and there were stone chips concentrated on the lip and grille - the clamshell was basically unmarked though. 

Fragile front clamshell: 

Edited October 26, 2023 by Kees

[TonyT 48]

All colours change over time, and blacks perhaps more than most. If you have a good paint depth on the rest of the car then you might find a deep cut with the right pads and compounds will bring your old paintwork back to what it looked like new, and therefore closer to the newly resprayed parts. 

[Kees 581]

7 minutes ago, TonyT said:

 

All colours change over time, and blacks perhaps more than most.

 

I did think this and did some research on it last night. 
 

I feel like it would make sense if it was darker than the rest of the car, but I struggle to see how the paint would get darker overtime. 
 

I also went through the press materials and other photos online which show the car is meant to be properly black, not a dark grey, hence I think something may have just gone wrong in the colour matching process. 

[TonyT 48]

Another idea might be to get a can of C21L made up from Spraystore or similar, test spray some random panel or part, and then see how that looks relative to both your original paint and your newly resprayed parts. If it's close to the old paint and different to the new paint, then you can go back to your painter with more confidence. 

[E30 325i Rag-Top 2915]

The issue with paint “codes” is that there can often be variations over the lifetime of the colours and there is then effectively a number of colours you have to choose from.

Are all your parts made from the same material? Some paints come up different when they are sprayed on steel, or plastic or even different plastics.

Even trying to match to another part of the car can be problematic, a lot of matching skills have been lost with the advent of mixing machines, and the human eye is a lot more accurate than even the best machines.

If you’re not happy then you are quite within your rights to take your car to the painter and have a discussion about it and see what they suggest.

[Kees 581]

1 minute ago, E30 325i Rag-Top said:

Are all your parts made from the same material?

All the parts that were painted were plastic. The clamshell is also plastic. 
 

Smart give you two paint codes with the car - one for the Tridion safety cell (made of metal) and then one for all the body panels which are plastic. 
 

My car’s code for the body panels is “Jack Black” which matches what is said in the sales brochure. 

 

9 minutes ago, E30 325i Rag-Top said:

The issue with paint “codes” is that there can often be variations over the lifetime of the colours and there is then effectively a number of colours you have to choose from.

This did cross my mind prior to me giving them the paint code, but luckily all the paint codes are listed on a Smart forum for every generation, and Jack Black remains the same. I also googled “Jack Black” to make sure every code that I could find was the same which it was. 
 

6 minutes ago, E30 325i Rag-Top said:

Even trying to match to another part of the car can be problematic, a lot of matching skills have been lost with the advent of mixing machines, and the human eye is a lot more accurate than even the best machines.

This is what I think has probably happened where they may have trusted the machine a bit too much - I think I might have a can of the colour made up at Wairau paint centre and see how that compares, just to be extra sure it’s not the paint code. 

[Eagle 1519]

Ive always had a much better match going off a good sample than paint codes, probably for that reason.

[Driftit 1945]

I've just had a large part of my E55 resprayed by a friend who runs a panel shop.  It is black.  It was very difficult to match the paint.  If they had gone by the code it would not have looked good at all.  It took a bit of effort to get the hood which is alloy to match the bumper which is plastic (they meet in a number of spots on an E55).  The painter can still see a mismatch but I can't anymore.

Edited October 30, 2023 by Driftit