brit_lex

Hi,

My driver's door and wing were damaged in an accident. Took the car to Lexus bodyshop who have replaced door and wing, and resprayed driver's door, wing, and blended in by respraying rear door and bonnet.

The colour of the resprayed panels does not match the original colour (it's a few shades darker). I know it's a 12 year old car, but shouldn't they be able to match the exact colour? Should I complain to the bodyshop?

Thanks.

SharpLS-96

It's quite possible the paint has faded over the 12 years making it difficult to match.
I would take it back regardless to see what they could do for you.

persian451

they should be able to blend it in

Lexs400

here's the deal. and i've asked several body shops to confirm it.
there's no such thing as "factory paint". there are three or four major vendors that the paint is bought from by the body shops in the US. the shade of the color is then "created" by the body shop by the amount of paint used when creating the final mixture used to paint. they can take a color red and come up with any shade in their body shop.
when they paint your car, it doesnt matter if it's 12 or 50 years old. the body shop matches the new color to the "existing color" of the car. More over if the door and the fender were damaged, they over spray slightly the rest of the adjacent panels to the damaged area to blend in the new color. there should be little or no indication of the new paing put on.
simply put the body shop did a bad job. you should not pay them for this unless ofcourse you have done so. and if you have, then they need to do the job again for you by repainting it. and if they don't agree, then talk to your lawyer. I've been through this with one body shop where he gave me a tough time after doing a ****ty job the first time. I made sure he repainted the panel, the "right:" way and everything was fine afterwards.