sipar69 Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 (edited) I thought this might be of interest to those with pearl white Zs like mine. I'm generally really careful when parking but just before Xmas I misjudged a space and picked up a small but very visible scratch on my bumper. The one upside was that I was visiting a local body shop to discuss a wheel refurb and the car I left a bit of my paint on was in for a full bumper respray anyway! My heart sank because I'd read before how hard three stage pearl paints can be to properly match, especially the white used by Nissan. I rang around a load of reputable body shops. Some reckoned they could probably blend the paint on the repaired area to create a match while others advised a bumper respray because of the difficulties with matching pearl white. I ended up going to a place in Ashford (Middx) - Andy's Autobarn. He's a former Mercedes man with 30 years experience and lots of good on-line feedback. We discussed the options and he advised that getting a good match with a partial repair would be very difficult but he would do his best and if I wasn't happy he would do the whole bumper and charge the difference. When it came to collect the car Andy immediately told me that he himself wasn't completely satisfied with the partial repair. He said it looked perfect in the paint booth but slightly off under certain conditions outside. In dull light I could just detect a slight difference in the repaired area. Knowing this would bug me to death I asked him to do the whole bumper. Anyway, picked the car up today and I'm really happy with the results. All white Zs have slightly off colour bumpers, some worse than others. Mine wasn't a bad example but you can see from the pictures below that it did have that slightly creamy tinge that affects these cars. The new paint job is actually a better match to the body than the factory finish and the standard of work is excellent - a really nice quality finish with no visible imperfections. So I guess my advice to anyone unfortunate enough to pick up a bumper scuff on their beloved pearl white Z is to get the bumper redone by a good shop. It's probably the only way of being certain of an invisible repair and while a perfect plastic bumper to metal body match is virtually impossible, you might get a better shade than the factory finish Andy told me he'd seen so many issues with pearl white cars he'd never buy one himself. Not sure I would buy another one! The offending scratch Not big but very noticeable with the black plastic showing against the white paint Picture 1 of the car with the factory finish bumper - note the slightly duller creamy shade on the bumper. This was a really big issue on early 370Zs and GTRs. Nissan seem to have improved the match on later cars but not completely. Picture 2 - again a noticeable difference on the bumper (although this picture has a filter which makes the difference look much worse that it actually was) Pictures 3-4 - the resprayed bumper - not a perfect body to bumper match but I wasn't expecting one due to the plastic and metal difference. It is however a closer match and to my eyes a more pleasing shade than the slightly creamy look of the factory finish Edited January 11, 2015 by sipar69 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ed divine Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 That's a brilliant repair,like you say when having a bumper redone if the place is good,you actually get a better match than from the factory but that's very impressive on pearl. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sipar69 Posted January 11, 2015 Author Share Posted January 11, 2015 Thanks bud. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parello9 Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 I think thats a good job! I was looking to get the amuse kit painted to match didnt know it was a hard job with the white which i do now May just get it wrapped lol 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sipar69 Posted January 11, 2015 Author Share Posted January 11, 2015 Thanks. I think you'd be fine if you were getting the whole kit painted - the real problems start when trying to get just part of a panel painted to repair a scratch etc. it's really hard to match the new paint on a single panel hence the need for a full bumper re spray. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will370z Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Looks good, nice one 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kev Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 My mate has dinged his e350 cab a few times. Local body shop has always managed to match the pearl white paint. Frozen (satin/matte) is virtually impossible to match or blend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dajw Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 Good to know! Thanks for sharing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turboextreme Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 It certainly looks much brighter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glrnet Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 Top job 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sipar69 Posted January 16, 2015 Author Share Posted January 16, 2015 Thanks chaps. I'm pleased with it. Expensive lesson though.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 How did I miss this? Good post fella, just shows that sometimes a good job is worth paying for. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sipar69 Posted January 16, 2015 Author Share Posted January 16, 2015 Cheers Dan. Also shows I really need to learn to park. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 Easy done fella, sadly. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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