2008 Element plastic panels color match? Part 2

As I posted in an earlier post, my 2008 Galaxy Grey Honda Element had
been backed into and the right rear plastic panel needed to be
replaced and painted to match and the body shop was having trouble
matching the paint. The body shop is still having trouble matching the
paint so now they told me they will have to remove the back glass and
paint all the surrounding panels to blend the paint in so it will
match. Is that how paint is usually matched on a car? It seems kind of
extreme. Is painting one panel of a almost brand new car normally that
hard to match. A 2 day repair job has stretched into a month!

 

"Overspray" to blend (as you describe) is what they should have done
initially. They tried to skimp and now they have a re do. Very
inconvenient for you, a resource loss for them. An all round poor
business decision.....

 

you need to seriously consider whether you allow them to do this, and
should escalate the matter with your insurance company with a view to
having a proper factory re-spray.

factory match should be a trivial matter. it sounds like the clowns in
your shop are trying to visually mix on the spot*, and not doing a very
good job. not only can you buy factory matched pre-mix from honda, you
can buy guaranteed matches from other places as well:

http://www.automotivetouchup.com

for example.


* on-the-spot mixing is very common. it offers great savings on base
chemicals and fillers. and it's fine if you're going for a cheapo full
spray. but it sucks on partial spray matching, as you're finding out.