Repair - Paint Match? - Looking for opinions

S

Staphwildman

:
2017 CX-9 Signature
Hey All,

I have a 2017 CX-9 in Machine Grey. It has had a run of bad luck, shopping cart into he rear, nephew backed into the drivers side, dog jumped on the passenger side and someone hit the front in a parking lot.

At this point they have repainted quite a bit of it. My issue is the bumper does not seem to match well on one side only. They say the issue is the way the paint reflects on the metal vs the plastic, but that would not explain how it looks. I am pretty sure the 1/2 the passenger side and the whole drivers side was painted.

What do you think? Can it be better than this? Does it look terrible?

IMG_0693.jpg Driver
IMG_0691.jpg Passenger
 
Based on the picture, the passenger side looks way off, clearly a lot darker.

It's not like that surface area changes angles at the bumper cover line to reflect light differently.

Yes, Machine Grey isn't easy but a good shop can do it. I had a repair done and you can't tell the difference.
 
2001miataBalto said:
Let's be realistic. There is no body shop can match factory original paint. Your best bet is to go back to body shop and ask them to do better job on matching colors.
Worst case they will have to blend colors with your quarter panels.
Click to expand...

Depends on to what level you're talking. A tier 1 body shop can match where the human eye can't tell the difference. Although this may be do to blending so that it appears to be an exact match. The application process is the main difference, not the paint color itself. It is computer matched.

If a body shop can't get the paint color right, they shouldn't be painting cars. That's the one easy part.
 
Yeah, the passenger side is quite noticeable. If it were me, I'd be headed back to the shop to get them to do it right.

JPL said:
Based on the picture, the passenger side looks way off, clearly a lot darker.

It's not like that surface area changes angles at the bumper cover line to reflect light differently.

Yes, Machine Grey isn't easy but a good shop can do it. I had a repair done and you can't tell the difference.
Click to expand...

Yep I agree, a good shop would be able to match the paint. There is some difficulty in matching the paint on the plastic parts with the paint on the metal panels, but a good shop would be aware of this before the fact and account for it. I had damage on my driver's side rear door, rear fender, and rear bumper from a moving hit-and-run. I also had scratches on the passenger side in the same areas from a hit-and-run in a parking lot. I took it to a Honda body shop (of all places) and they had it looking like it was brand new.

OP, if possible, I'd get the shop to repaint it and blend the paint better. The excuse that the bumper is plastic and the fender is metal is a poor one, as the paint matched perfectly from the factory. All that says about the shop is that they were lazy. Another option might be to see if your insurance will let you go to another shop to have the paint resprayed/blended.
 
Thanks All.

This was a recommendation by the Mazda dealer, this shop does all their repairs for their ding insurance etc, and it gets very good reviews online. I'll head back there and see what they can do about it. Poor car has around ~20k on it, 4 claims, 13K worth of repairs and no real physical damage to the body (both doors were replaced). Starting to think it might be cursed!

This is the drivers side before (or after depending on how you look at it:

IMG_0181 (1).jpg
 
Whoa. How fast was your nephew going when he backed into you?? Lol
 
sm1ke said:
Whoa. How fast was your nephew going when he backed into you?? Lol
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Funny enough - not all that fast. He was in idle in reverse in an F350. Unfortunately we were in the middle of a power outage and it was pitch back and he did not see it there. Hit in an angle and slid down the doors. Damaged the supports in each door so (thankfully) they were not salvageable and had to both be replaced.
 
Just thank your lucky stars you didn*t get Soul Red Crystal Metallic (Like I did)!

I had a very slight backup accident that required a new rear *bumper*. The first time I picked it up the rear bumper (which unfortunately is half the rear fender), looked like a completely different color (PINK).
*
I told the dealer that was not acceptable * the second time he had the paint supplier meet me with his spray guy and the service manager, etc. and they did their very best to match it. It was better, but still didn*t match very well. FYI * since the rear bumper wraps around both sides of the vehicle, both my sides don*t match).

I then took it to the best custom paint shop in town where they really looked it over and discussed it at length. According to them, they could not assure me that they could do any better and even though I offered to pay whatever was required. They explained that with 4 different coats to apply, and difference of materials, it was almost impossible to perfectly match these multi-coat colors.

On my last oil change at the my dealer, I closely looked at a few of their new Soul Red Mazda SUV*s and even the rear bumpers on the new ones don*t match very well!

My next new SUV (Not likely a Mazda cause they are seriously falling behind with their ADAS), I will likely chose a more common (non-exotic)
Color like white!
 
Hockeye said:
Just thank your lucky stars you didn*t get Soul Red Crystal Metallic (Like I did)!

I had a very slight backup accident that required a new rear *bumper*. The first time I picked it up the rear bumper (which unfortunately is half the rear fender), looked like a completely different color (PINK).
*
I told the dealer that was not acceptable * the second time he had the paint supplier meet me with his spray guy and the service manager, etc. and they did their very best to match it. It was better, but still didn*t match very well. FYI * since the rear bumper wraps around both sides of the vehicle, both my sides don*t match).

I then took it to the best custom paint shop in town where they really looked it over and discussed it at length. According to them, they could not assure me that they could do any better and even though I offered to pay whatever was required. They explained that with 4 different coats to apply, and difference of materials, it was almost impossible to perfectly match these multi-coat colors.

On my last oil change at the my dealer, I closely looked at a few of their new Soul Red Mazda SUV*s and even the rear bumpers on the new ones don*t match very well!

My next new SUV (Not likely a Mazda cause they are seriously falling behind with their ADAS), I will likely chose a more common (non-exotic)
Color like white!
Click to expand...

ADAS? Why do want the car to drive for you? It's a Mazda, you buy it based on a priority that you love driving.

I had someone hit my Machine Grey CX-9's door while it was open. I was actually putting my daughter in her seat and this idiot didn't even see me or the door open. Bent the whole edge outward. Even became slightly mis-aligned. Shop I went to was a new car dealer with body shop on site the my Mazda dealer refers. They brought it back to new, can tell any difference. The pic in my signature is post repair, driver side rear door.

BTW, most whites today are pearl whites which is also a hard paint job to do.
 
Staphwildman said:
Going to bring in today. Their initial response:
Click to expand...

Absolute BS. If you'd like some extra ammo, I can send you before and after pics of the paint repair that was done on my machine grey CX-9. I have pics taken from different angles that show the uniformity of the repair. There are also videos and instructions on PPG's website (https://us.ppgrefinish.com/Training/Tech-Tips/Articles-Tips-Videos/Repairing-Mazda-46G-Machine-Gray) showing the proper way to perform a minor repair and a panel repair.

With that resource, the shop has no excuse other than laziness.
 
sm1ke said:
Absolute BS. If you'd like some extra ammo, I can send you before and after pics of the paint repair that was done on my machine grey CX-9. I have pics taken from different angles that show the uniformity of the repair.
Click to expand...

That would be great. I brought it in last night and they still claim that it won't match better than it is, but they are going to take it back and look at it. He did say "that paint is perfectly laid down", what not happy when I pointed an run in the clear.
 
Hockeye said:
On my last oil change at the my dealer, I closely looked at a few of their new Soul Red Mazda SUV*s and even the rear bumpers on the new ones don*t match very well!
Click to expand...

I've noticed that on the Soul Red, as well as the Machine grey. I can deal with a slight color variance, but the 2 different matches and the stark line drive me a little batty. I think they should have blended the paint better. There were dog scratches on the passenger doors, and they blended the doors and fender to match. One would have thought they would have bended the side as well.

I may be being picky - but when the lighting is right (cloudy, and I live in the Vancouver area) it is a very dramatic change.
 
Staphwildman said:
That would be great. I brought it in last night and they still claim that it won't match better than it is, but they are going to take it back and look at it. He did say "that paint is perfectly laid down", what not happy when I pointed an run in the clear.
Click to expand...

I actually have some pics that you can reference here: https://www.mazdas247.com/forum/sho...-9-Signature&p=6621998&viewfull=1#post6621998

But let me know if you need more from different angles, at sundown, etc.
 
sm1ke said:
I actually have some pics that you can reference here: https://www.mazdas247.com/forum/sho...-9-Signature&p=6621998&viewfull=1#post6621998

But let me know if you need more from different angles, at sundown, etc.
Click to expand...

I think this illustrates the problem I am seeing. It looks like the bumper and quarters were painted on yours, and then blended up the sides. I think the takeaway here is that they should have made a case to blend the quarters to match the bumper, or matched the paint better on the bumper in the first. place. Originally they just painted the bumper, then the entire drivers side, then the front fender, 2 passenger doors and front bumper. I have no idea why they would have just left the one part out when they could have done it all at once.

The gotcha now is going to be that they have to match the rear bumper when they paint the quarter, and then blend it.
 
Staphwildman, I'm late to the game here, sorry. But 13 years in the auto adjusting ring and I can tell you that your repair shop is giving you bad info.
Not sure what the laws are where you live so can't say what your recourse could be.
Some deviation will always exist in that area, some colors worse than others. It also depends on which spray out card the shop uses, which paint they are using, which primer they used and if they tinted the color as well. Many factors here. But end of the day that color should not look that bad between bumper and quarter. They should be able to get it much closer without blending the quarter. In my area out of all the cars I inspect, 99.9% of bumpers are painted without blending into quarters. In the last 2 years I can think of maybe 1 shop that has asked to blend.
The majority of the few times this has been asked of me, it is for a candy color, heavy red/blue metallics, and a couple pearl whites, but never gray. That is simply not pre-loss condition. My CX-9 is gray mica and has nowhere even close to that sort of variance from the factory. Very very minimal difference and only observable in direct sunlight.

Sorry to see that.
 
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