Spray painting advice
 

Hi again.
Regulars here will have no doubt heard about my misfortunes with someone backing into me and damaging my rear bumper. A few days later it was repaired by a mobile smart painter and at the time i thought he did a really good job. The colour match look really good under the cloudy conditions that he did it in, but i've noticed that when the sun shines on it , it doesn't look too great. The shade of colour looks slightly different and there is like too many metallic bits in the paint. It just doesn't look right. I plucked up the courage today and gave him a call to complain about it and he was very helpful and willing to come round at the weekend to try and sort it out. He said that you'll never get a perfect match with the original paint ,but what he does think he's done wrong is that he sprayed the area to localised and not faded it out enough across the length of the bumper. The amount of work he did on it this time was only about the size of my hand, so if he resprayed it out over the length of the bumper would that improve the overall look of the job. I'm a complete novice when it comes to spray painting things , but common sense to me says if you blend in paint over a big enough area even if it's a slightly different colour from the original it will be quite unnoticeable. Am i right in thinking this way or am i talking utter rubbish like usual.
Many thanks for reading
Johnny

If its metallic its almost impossible to fade out because the drier edges always end showing the glitter. If its a solid, it should be ok. Just my opinion after years of trying.

Hi Michael.
The colour of my car is called zircon silver.
It is has a very slight metallic look to it.
I never realised paint could be so damn complicated

Plastic bumpers go through a differant method of painting. Some factory finishes do differ from that of metal panels.

The only way is to refinish the complete bumper, but shade variation will always show to a keen eye.

Hiya, it is better in my opinion to spray the whole thing, but I'd only do a bumper. Best thing is to swap for another, but finding one in as good or better condition is hard. I sprayed my front bumper all over using a custom spray from Halfords of all people. I primed it, flattened it and sprayed the top coat. I then lightly flattened it with very fine wet and dry before lacquering. I'm happy with the results, but if you're going this way then you really need a warm calm day.

I'll be down your house tomorrow morning Heddy with the spray cans. Make sure you got the kettle on :-):-):-):-)

A good spray painter would get it 99% right-but it would have to be done in a spray booth.

Spray painting is not rocket science with the right equipment and the correct paint. Matching colour however is an art, I have sprayed classic cars and huge, expensive board room tables in 2k paints, colour matching and/or patching are always a challenge.

ambient moisture, humidity, airborne particles, air flow and temperature should all be controlled to get the best results....

and good face masks so you do not breath in all of those nasties...;)

You can fade in zircon quite well, I gave done it using a spray shop mixed aerosol, repair unnoticeable once lacquered.

A good painter will blend the repair to match the existing paintwork so visably you shouldn't be able to see the repair I would only have paintwork done in a booth were it can be baked especially at this time of the year even a infared lamps will struggle in cold weather :}