2016 rx350 silver lining metallic paint. Dealer wants complete rear hatch paint job, claims it will match rest of vehicle. Interested in hearing comments, was thinking of trying to repair myself? . Thanks.

 

I'll tell you about my visit to my local body shop today -- they've done excellent work on two vehicles in the past, and they are both honest and very good at their trade.

My sunroof blew out of my 2018 RX the day after Christmas when I was driving 45 mph on a suburban road. Long story short, Lexus Corporate agreed (after a fight) to cover the $1200 bill to replace the sunroof. I decided to take the win, and did not continue with the scratched roof where the glass slid off. So now I want my scratched roof fixed. After an inspection and photos, the body shop guy informed me I have two choices:

A. Buy the matching touch-up paint from Lexus, and then schedule my car in on a day that is at least 70 degrees F. They will throw away the OEM applicator and use a fine tipped brush to touch up the paint and no one will know what happened. Cost: the touch up paint plus a few bucks for the 20 minutes it will take to touch it up.

B. Remove everything touching the roof, potentially including the windshield (and thereby incurring a $recalibration of rain and light sensors, etc.), strip the roof to bare metal, and repaint it per the Lexus process to achieve a very close match to the rest of the car. The WAG was $2 to $2.5K. He offered to do the detailed cost buildup. I said "skip it".

So that's kind of what you're facing, I think.

 

Appreciate your reply. Since the paint shop Forman is a friend of the Lexus manager, he wants 500. For a complete rear hatch repaint. My concern is how long it will hold up, ( vehicle is garaged) and how well Will it match? Thanks

 

Can the shop foreman provide a list of referrals? What you are asking is impossible to answer in an internet forum.

 

@Tarkus is correct. Here's your issue (or one of them): Your 2016 has been exposed to the sun and elements for 4-5 years now. Consequently, it is not EXACTLY the same color that it was when you took delivery. The new paint job, if they do it right, will reproduce the original paint job -- it will be EXACTLY the original color. Do you see the problem? But it should last as long, or longer, than the rest of the paint on the car.

 

A good shop will have a color match camera. I have rally strips on my Mustang GT that the previous owner had painted on. I got backed into and the repair was spot on. I looked it over from every angle and could not tell.

 

Spraying silver is just about the hardest color to match under the best of circumstances. It sounds like it certainly would be worth your effort to see if you can touch it up yourself. If the result is unsatisfactory, you can then entertain the idea of a re-paint, but be prepared for a non-perfect match with the rest of the vehicle.

 

+1 to the above. The silver linings metallic is a multi-stage paint finish, and getting a satisfactory paint match with simple panel-to-panel refinishing is virtually impossible. Getting a satisfactory paint match is possible only if the new paint is blended into adjacent panels. Doing so won't make the the new paint match any better, but it will spread out the mismatch and make it less noticeable. Regardless of who is a friend of whom, doing a proper job that will result in a satisfactory color match isn't going to be done for $500.

 

I agree with the posters about color matching. There're not going to be a perfect match. There are a number of Lexus paint colors that has this issue besides Silver Linings also.