DTR paint blend

[bosscougar]

I hope this is the right forum--Feel free to move if it's not.

How hard it is to match DTR paint?

This weekend I drove my new DTR 7,800 mile Marauder to a local car show with my car club. 3 members won People's Choice awards and the club won $100 for the club participation. A fun day so far.

One guy calls us from a gas station 4 miles away saying his fuel line started leaking on the way home. A local club member and I jump into the Marauder & run to his house to get tools and fuel hose. As I turned around in his driveway, I backed into a wheelbarrow that was below the mirror level, which scratched the paint on the rear bumper. My absolutely flawless new car became just a used car at that instant. I am more sick than mad.

The scratches aren't horrible, it's just that they are the only imperfection on the entire car. No rock dings, no micro-pock marks on the windshield, even smooth paint behind the rear wheels--and now this happens. On only the 4th day I've ever driven the car, no less.

A few of the scratches go through the base coat, but don't seem to have gouged the plastic that I can see. I don't know base/clear paint characteristics well enough to know if paint can be sprayed over the scratches and then clear feathered over it. If that can't be done without anyone noticing it, I'll remove the bumper cover and have the whole thing painted. I was going to have to buy some DTR paint anyway when I added the remote locking gas door, like the 300As have. Now I'll have a shop fix the bumper at the same time.

My questions to the masses:
(1) Can you paint a just a spot and blend it in to where it can't be noticed with base/clear?

(2) How hard is it to match new paint to the factory shade? I think I know the answer to this one, since it is both a dark shade and metallic.....

Thanks for the help
Michael

[03Farmmarauder]

First i would not paint the entire bumber cover, because you have to blend the paint somewhere. If you were to paint the entire cover you would see the difference between the cover and the rear quarter. So you need to fix the scratches with some spot filler if its not to deep then use a scotch pad to either scuff the entire bumber to rear clear or just the spot to reclear. Then spray your red over the scratches and blend the paint into the OEM paint. Then either reclear the entire bumber and buff or reclear the spot going farther out than the color you sparyed and also farther out than the scuffing that you did. Hope this helps and you can PM me for my number because i can better explain it over the phone than on here. By the way go with the the spot clear first rather than the overall clear.

[FordNut]

I've had some panels repainted on my black and on the wife's silver. Paint the whole panel. A good shop will match it and it'll never show. It's easy to remove and re-install.

[ckadiddle]

I've had some panels repainted on my black and on the wife's silver. Paint the whole panel. A good shop will match it and it'll never show. It's easy to remove and re-install.
Yup. My ford dealer has done complete front end repair, front bumper repaint, side doors blended, trunk ding removal and repaint, spoiler install ... and everthing still looks factory. That's why I keep going back to the same place for insurance repairs and out of pocket repairs. The excellent job they do is much more important to me than saving a few bucks.

On the other ahnd, on our 2004 black MM, the service writer at the mechanical shop noticed a defect in the paint indicating that someone had done imperfect front bumper paint work at some point.

Check with MM owners and other picky car fanatics in your area and see who they use.

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

Anyone who knows what to look for can spot a repaint, even a really good one. "open" blends (ie, spot touched up base, and spot touched up clear) are a no no on anything other than cheap used car stuff. The color has to be blended, and then the whole panel has to be re-cleared (ie closed blend). As long as the color is mixed close, and it is blended competently, it should look fine. The texture of the clear as sprayed will be important as far as matching our very peely stock paint. But yeah, once it's repainted, it's never as-new again.

[bosscougar]

Thank you for the input.
I will be getting quotes this weekend at a couple of dealers and a couple of local shops. Price counts, but I am leaning towards a dealer since they probably already have some DTR mixed. Its a common color I've seen on many panthers running around town.


I am still bummed because I know that a repaint on a flexible body part will never have the same durability or appearance as the OEM paint job. I guess I'll just have to plan on redoing it every 5 years or so.

Michael

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

They are going to mix for your application, so don't worry about them having it "mixed" already. I would never use a dealer body shop unless they are unsually great. A lot aren't.

The OE paint on plastic wasn't particularly any more awesome. A refinish will be just as good. My OE paint on the corners of the front bumper is checking in a few spots.