Unfortunately during the bad weather November / December last year a wally in a van ran in to my Impreza hatch. Fortunately the only damage was a cracked rear bump and a smashed outer light cluster, the other driver stopped, was insured and accepted liability.

Simple I thought, let my insurance company handle everything. Having had problems with a previous repair at the recommended repair shop I asked someone in the trade who they would use if it was his car, he told me he would use one of three companies, one of which was the one recommended by my insurance company. So I got the car asseessed. I even told them about my concerns of letting them do the work.

Due to the bad weather their was a delay between being accessed and the work being carried out, no problem the car was perfectly drivable. The car eventually went in and they needed it for a couple of days, I eventually got the car back 9 working days later, apparently they had to wait to get some fasteners, I got a call one afternoon (back in February) that I could pck the car up after 4PM that day, being a doubter I waited to pick the car up during daylight.

Sure enough the bumper is a different colour to the bodywork, I have what appears to be a Cherry Red bumper and a San Remo Red Impreza hatch. Noted this on the documents at collection time and immediately logged the problem with the insurance company.

A different friend who was in the trade, but sadly not anymore, had a look today and he believes they have buffed the accessible parts of the bumper & panels to try to get a closer colour match, but the lip of the bumper and vertical part of the hatch are difficult to get at so are different colours.

Insurance company are involved but I have little faith in the body shop, they are pointing the finger at the paint supplier, why is it so fifficult to get a colour match?

Anybody recommend a decent bodyshop in Lincolnshire or the wider East Midlands, who do Subaru dealers use for repairs? Insurance company are understanding and will if necessary let me get the car sorted a a decent body shop.

Grrr

 

can i ask why you took the car and didnt insist they do a proper job ??

stu

 

They had the car for two weeks, after originally saying they needed the car for two days!

I made it clear at the time that I wasn't happy, seemed like the body shop thought everything was OK. I told them I would tak it up with the insurance company, after all they are the customer of the body shop.

 

no probs mate , was just been nosey lol

hope you get it sorted ;-)

stu

 

Keep your foot firmly up the *** of the insurance company, ask for an assessor to come out to view the car or take it to another approved body shop and get them to check the colours, they usually have a device that is placed on the paint and will analyse the colour/make-up to see if it matches.

How old is your car? - it might be the old paint has weathered with age.

 

Hope not it was registered July 2010!

It was damaged with less than 2000 miles on the clock

 

In which case i would get the paint checked to see if it matches. The problem might be with the body shop or the paint suppliers or even the paint or mixing equipment manufactures but that is not your problem to sort out - It is up to the insurance company you are their customer, you pay your premium to them so get them to sort it on you behalf.

Put everything in writing or record the calls. from experience the insurance co will drag their heels and the body shop will not be keen to admit they have made a mess or let out sub standard work.

When body shops are appointed by insurance companies it is mainly down to price, not quality of workmanship.

 

Been a painter myself I can see all sides of the story. I buy paint from my loca supplier mixed by them. So in effect a colour mis match is down to them. As I only apply the paint I'm given. Hardly my fault if that happens. But in an insurance approved body shop as large as I'm assuming this one is they have their own mixing schemes in house and mix their own paint which leaves the blame firmly on the bodyshop as they will have mixed the paint. Can you add a photo does the mis match show up on a picture. I'm interested to see how far off the colour is. There is ways and means of making the right colour look wrong with too high or ow pressure gun too close or far away all effect how the metallic lays. Secondly painting onto a plastic bumper can always look slightly different to the body as it's metal. Again buffing the parts of bumper you can get to with a buffer won't change the colour. Although clearcoat that hasn't been buffed can give you a brighter effect on colour and to eliminate that you need to flat the whole bumper with 2000 wet and dry and use a mini buffer and although will work it may not be possible because of bumper shape.

 

Just a bit of a bump on this one...

Engineer from insurance Co is inspecting my car tomorrow (Tuesday).

Can I just ask, are my expectations of having just one panel resprayed just too much? The original factory paint on the front bumper matches the other panels perfectly.

Should I accept any colour difference between the new bumper & the rest of the car.

Interestingly the car looks perfect under high pressure sodium lights at the local Shell station, under natural daylight the bumper doesn't match the car!

 

Sorry JAutos only just noticed your reply, thanks for taking the time to reply. Will get photos tomorrow, should clearly show my concerns.

Weird thing is I have in the last couple of days found a small bottle of what looks like very thin / watery paint in the glove box of my car, assume it was put in after the repair was done. Interesting the colour of this liquid appears to match the car perfectly a darker red than that on the rear bumper, but looks far too thin to spray.

 

You Sir talk sense

Good to have knowledge on the forum like yours.

 

Engineer visited today, shocked to see pictures on his laptop that my car was resprayed from rear arches back in a failed attempt to get a colour match. I asked them if the bumper would be sprayed off the car, as no metalwork needed spraying. I was assured the bumper would be sprayed, baked and put on the car. Spray gun wouldn't go near my car.

It was only a damaged bumper, no metalwork was damaged.

Seems that rather than match the car they have painted part of the car to match the new bumper, except the rear hatch and c pillars are darker red than the bumper @ resprayed rear quarters.

Lost all faith in the body shop and insurance co now.

Engineer today said colour was as close as I would get, pointing out 10 yr old cars in the car park with different coloured bumpers. If it was my car I would be happy with it, obviously your standards are lower than mine.

Looks like it is insurance ombudsman here we come.

Anybody know a Subaru dealership who does bodywork?

 

I dont know about as close as they can get it thats c**p i had exactly the same thing happen to me with a spoiler,painters said the paint sent was wrong anyway they agreed if i paid for some more paint they would tint it to match which they did,so your lot should do the same without paying obviously.