audiback wagon

I recently had my bumper (among other things) replaced because my dealer damaged it while servicing my car. I was aware that that other people on this forum have had trouble with body shops being able to duplicate the matte or satin finish on our bumpers, etc, so I expressed concern about this both the my dealer and directly to the body shop handling the work. I was repeatedly assured that they would have no trouble.

To make a long story short, despite their assurances to the contrary, the finish on the new bumper does not match that of the old. It feels rough and does not reflect light the same way as the factory finish.

I have no real experience with auto painting, but it seems as if they simply sprayed the paint on and didn't sand or otherwise finish the surface.

Those of you who have had success getting perfectly matching paint (both surface texture and color) can you post and let me know about it?

Thanks. In the mean time I am researching old posts.

Nebuchadnezzar

and I needed to get one fender repainted, I'd insist on all fenders and bumpers being painted, or I'd opt to "color match" at that point. I saw an allroad that tried to match one fender, and it really stuck out.

Richard in SoCal

But it is not exactly the same. Plus, little pits are showing up on it from minor road debris (the original bumper is showing no signs of this).

audiback wagon

I spoke with Virgil of Barsotti's Auto Body (415-454-5157) who did Novick's bumper work, and he explained to me how he gets a factory-like finish:

Apparently there is a matte clear coat that is sprayed on last. If it is sprayed on as a "wet coat" it gives a smooth finish, but tends to be too glossy, and if it is sprayed on by another method (a mist coat?), it gives a more matte finish, but is rough, unlike the factory finish. His shop uses a premixed matte clear coat which is too shiny if applied as a wet coat, and too rough if not. Virgil has solved the problem by pouring off about a third of the top of the can of unstirred clearcoat so as to increase the concentration of matte additive (because it settles to the bottom). For clearcoat paint systems that don't come premixed with the matte additive, he said you can simply add more of the matte additive.

audiback wagon

Did you have your second trim piece painted yet? If not, I could probably get the shop to paint it when they repaint my bumper.

audiback wagon

I suppose I could request full body paint like the 4.2 too.

audidkw

I can't understand why Audi chose to have the bumper and flares painted rather than cast in the OEM color of grey that the are. Or, alternatively, the parts should ahve been prepainted. In my view, leaving the color match to body shops is a disaster. Few are top quality and even among the decent shops, there are only a few star painters.
I had a white BMW X5 that got a gouge in the bumper from another car. Do you think my body shop here in NJ could get it right? They kept masking the bumper wrong so that the white would get onto the black part under the bumper. And this is viewed as one of the top shops in NJ - just so happens that their best painters apparently left for greener pastures. After 3 times back to the shop I ended up taking care of it by getting rid of the X5 and getting my allroad 6speed in December 03. Hopefully, them new bumpers won't get damaged.