Bumper Color

by **Jaimster** » Wed Jul 16, 2003 7:45 pm

OK... my rear bumper is really buggin me! I hate the fact that my bumper doesn't match the rest of the car because its a different shade.

I was rear ended not to long ago and they replaced that rear bumper. Should I repaint the bumper and take it to someone that can do a better job at matching it to the rest of the car? Or, I was also thinking of going to a junkyard and getting an OEM one off a Solara the same color as mine. Any suggestions?

http://www.geocities.com/jaimetheking/solara1.html

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by **Missay** » Wed Jul 16, 2003 7:51 pm

you have the silver, right? I thought that was one of the colors (white, too??) that the paint doesn't match perfectly b/c of the material it's being painted on..or something along those lines.

by **Jaimster** » Wed Jul 16, 2003 7:54 pm

Missay wrote:you have the silver, right? I thought that was one of the colors (white, too??) that the paint doesn't match perfectly b/c of the material it's being painted on..or something along those lines.

Yeah, but on my car it's way obvious. My buddy's Solara doesn't look like my car, his bumper is matched well with the color of the rest of the car. :cry:

by **hari-bhari** » Wed Jul 16, 2003 8:01 pm

i think the general theory is that light colors, especially silver and white (being the most popular 'light' colors), fade more in the sun compared to darker colors. as a result, repainting one panel or attachign a new bumper is difficult, because its hard to match the paint shade exactly. they cant just use the OEM color, it has to be tweaked some. all colors fade to a certain extent, but my theory is the darker colors are easier ot match because they are more bold and absorb more of the light hitting them, so the shade differences are more subtle. but that's completely my theory, ask a pro.

by **Missay** » Wed Jul 16, 2003 8:09 pm

Solara1 wrote:Yeah, but on my car it's way obvious.

eeeee...I see what you mean now that I've looked at the picture. was it like that when you got it from the body shop?

by **Jaimster** » Wed Jul 16, 2003 8:11 pm

Yeah, thats why I wanna take it to someone that specializes in in this kind of work. If it takes tweaking the paint to match it, than I'm willing to pay for the special work to make it look right!

by **Jaimster** » Wed Jul 16, 2003 8:14 pm

Missay wrote:
Solara1 wrote:Yeah, but on my car it's way obvious.

eeeee...I see what you mean now that I've looked at the picture. was it like that when you got it from the body shop?

Yeah, but I can't go argue cuz the body shop made me sign something that says that the color wouldn't match because of the blah blah blah... so I have no say there. But if someone can do it right, I'll pay top dollar.

by **hari-bhari** » Wed Jul 16, 2003 8:15 pm

who 'fixed' your bumper. you should ask for a partial refund since they did such a half assed job. i beleive its hard to match the color, but its a fairly common problem, so even though its a bit of work, its still completely do-able. any decent shop SHOULD be able to handle something like this as I'm sure many, many ppl have their silver and white cars repainted. but dont stress too much in the meantime, its only noticeable if ur looking for it. ive looked at ur car plenty of times and never noticed until u made this thread.

by **hari-bhari** » Wed Jul 16, 2003 8:16 pm

lol i think u posted ur reply the same time as mine so i never read that. in that case i guess u have no room to bargain. :-?

by **SolaraGuyDos** » Wed Jul 16, 2003 8:20 pm

my red solara used to be a diff color but I got it repainted and it looks good now :drinking:

by **Jaimster** » Wed Jul 16, 2003 8:25 pm

Yeah, it's totally noticable!

http://www.pbase.com/image/16081238

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by **Hsakuragi** » Wed Jul 16, 2003 8:54 pm

99-01 model bumper? or i think it seems it's like missing something when they paint the bumper, like another layer, and it's not shiny at all...

by **Jai_Jai_Binks** » Thu Jul 17, 2003 6:54 am

A good shop will first take your vin and your paint code and then buy the right color..and then bleed the color with additives to make paint matching...because not all factory colors look same...some sit outside baking in the sun for 12 hrs a day, some see sunlight only while commuting (like me

)...hence a good shop should have color matched it for you. I think your just looking for a re-spray..it shouldn't be more than $200 for that (or a hook up price of $125 - you could get it cheaper..but ask them to remove the bumper and spray..because you don't want your car being over-sprayed).

by **STR8PYP** » Thu Jul 17, 2003 7:37 am

The reason the bumper color is different is because it's a different material than the rest of the body and it was probably painted in a separate facility than the rest of the car. Has very little to do with fading...other Toyotas even on dealer lots will have differences in paint shade on their bumpers.

SC

by **Jackass-Jeff** » Thu Jul 17, 2003 7:50 am

It's funny... I never noticed the color difference until the first time I read a post about discoloration and found out that it was just like that... as time goes by, I notice that my bumper seems to be changing color though =\

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