I put my vehicle under some heavy scrutiny for the past several weeks and it turns out that the newly painted surfaces is a LITTLE lighter than the original panels. I dont know, it might be psychological because I am *probably* forcing myself to see something that isn't there. My friends thinks I am nutts because they really don't see anything that I am claiming, however it is my car, my baby and to top it all off, I am a perfectionist.

I have came to the conclusion that the new paint is a little lighter because of the rear bumper lining up with the adjacent *stock* paint and it looks a shade lighter. I have played this "plastic never matches metal" game and apparently I am on the losing side :(

The metal side that has been painted matches almost perfectly to the plastic bumper -- so that rules out the "game." :chix

I have no doubt that the bodyshop will perfectly match the color now that I pointed it out to them, however that will mean my car will be in the shop for at least another week :crying:

Very tough to match factory paint. The process is just not the same.

this is why when you see cars for sale that say no accidents or paint work, people pay extra for them.

at least you don't have Dakar I, the worst color BMW ever made for paint matching.

Seriously, if mismatched paint bothers you that much, sell your car and get a pristine one. Light colors are very difficult to match well, and will undoubtedly never be perfect. As truth mentioned, it's just not possible to reproduce a factory paint job while the car is still assembled.

- John

I only know this after five attempts to get a silver Audi to match. There are some advantages to dark colors.

oh yeah, silver is probably the hardest color to match. Cosmos black, not so hard...hehe

I share the same concern...I have some slight hood damage from a storm last month on my LSB M3 and have to replace the hood...the body shop is confident they can match the hood without blending into the fenders...I have a hard time believing that but I'll just have to wait and see...I had been wrestling with the option of repairing the dent by heat shrinking, using fillers and spot painting or replacing the entire hood. The last body shop pretty much convinced me it would be better to replace the hood so since there are a lot of small chips in the current hood plus the dent in a very bad area (on the upslope of the power dome). I think I'm going to go that route and hope for the best....

I had to have a dent removed on my passenger rear fender from a shopping cart :( They color matched it pretty well, it was just a local body shop. FYI I have have Phoneix Yellow

-Art