Re-spray Black 040 Mismatch
#1
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2005 C200K Black
Re-spray Black 040 Mismatch
Hi All,
I just got my car back today after having the hood and bumper resprayed. I took the car to an approved Mercedes bodyshop. I noticed a number of scratches which the car has to go back to have removed but also, when I got home, under different lighting conditions, the newly painted hood and bumper look brown!!!! Has anyone else experienced this?
I'm assuming that the shop didn't use OEM 040 paint for the job. Can OEM Black 040 look brown under certain lights or am I right in assuming they have used some other paint? Probably a cheaper imitation. It looks fine in daylight but horrendous under strong halogen lights.
I just got my car back today after having the hood and bumper resprayed. I took the car to an approved Mercedes bodyshop. I noticed a number of scratches which the car has to go back to have removed but also, when I got home, under different lighting conditions, the newly painted hood and bumper look brown!!!! Has anyone else experienced this?
I'm assuming that the shop didn't use OEM 040 paint for the job. Can OEM Black 040 look brown under certain lights or am I right in assuming they have used some other paint? Probably a cheaper imitation. It looks fine in daylight but horrendous under strong halogen lights.
#2
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02 C320 Sedan
Hi All,
I just got my car back today after having the hood and bumper resprayed. I took the car to an approved Mercedes bodyshop. I noticed a number of scratches which the car has to go back to have removed but also, when I got home, under different lighting conditions, the newly painted hood and bumper look brown!!!! Has anyone else experienced this?
I'm assuming that the shop didn't use OEM 040 paint for the job. Can OEM Black 040 look brown under certain lights or am I right in assuming they have used some other paint? Probably a cheaper imitation. It looks fine in daylight but horrendous under strong halogen lights.
I just got my car back today after having the hood and bumper resprayed. I took the car to an approved Mercedes bodyshop. I noticed a number of scratches which the car has to go back to have removed but also, when I got home, under different lighting conditions, the newly painted hood and bumper look brown!!!! Has anyone else experienced this?
I'm assuming that the shop didn't use OEM 040 paint for the job. Can OEM Black 040 look brown under certain lights or am I right in assuming they have used some other paint? Probably a cheaper imitation. It looks fine in daylight but horrendous under strong halogen lights.
Wow.... I got new fenders new hood and bumper with brand new paint it matches perfectly in the cali sun.. can't even tell anything happened..
The body shop that i went to isn't an approved merc shop
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2005 C230K Sport Sedan, 6 speed manual
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#14
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Yes you should have them re-check the paint with an optical meter to make sure the pigment matches. This technology is now so advanced a good meter can detect a variance right away even in particles as small as 10K to 1 . Sometimes a body shop will use cheaper thinners or reducers to cut overall costs, and this can mess with paint match pigments, especially on dark colors like black. If they used an odd brand or non-MB type of paint, this might also explain the variance.
It could also be an optical illusion, so the above suggestion of comparing in sun and covered environment might help you decide it they did not get it right.
Having painted cars for almost 30 years it is hard to screw up black, and the 040 Black MB is about as basic of a black as you can get. If it was bad prep work you would notice other problems within the paint, but color matching black should be a no-brainer for most body shops.
It could also be an optical illusion, so the above suggestion of comparing in sun and covered environment might help you decide it they did not get it right.
Having painted cars for almost 30 years it is hard to screw up black, and the 040 Black MB is about as basic of a black as you can get. If it was bad prep work you would notice other problems within the paint, but color matching black should be a no-brainer for most body shops.
#16
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No matter what I tell bodyshops, they still do their own thing because their sprayers are used to working with a certain brand of products and the risk to them is too great to use the right stuff. For example, I specifically told the body shop that it had to be PPG Ceramiclear like Mercedes uses, yet they used some very soft clearcoat that within a month looked like crap with swirls and embedded water drops.
Doesn't say what state you are in or if this was an insurance job, you should really update your profiile but in California, insurance law requires that they replace like for like. In otherwords, if Mercedes used a certain brand of paint, like PPG Ceramiclear and PPG colors, if they used something else, then it's not like for like, especially if the color doesn't match. I'm very picky about body work and paint and I would not accepted that job. Sometimes they want you to come late in the day so you can't see it. That's not acceptable either, I come early in the AM, and see the job in the sun.
Doesn't say what state you are in or if this was an insurance job, you should really update your profiile but in California, insurance law requires that they replace like for like. In otherwords, if Mercedes used a certain brand of paint, like PPG Ceramiclear and PPG colors, if they used something else, then it's not like for like, especially if the color doesn't match. I'm very picky about body work and paint and I would not accepted that job. Sometimes they want you to come late in the day so you can't see it. That's not acceptable either, I come early in the AM, and see the job in the sun.
#17
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03 W203, 13 E350, 13 W204, 14 C218
No matter what I tell bodyshops, they still do their own thing because their sprayers are used to working with a certain brand of products and the risk to them is too great to use the right stuff. For example, I specifically told the body shop that it had to be PPG Ceramiclear like Mercedes uses, yet they used some very soft clearcoat that within a month looked like crap with swirls and embedded water drops.
Doesn't say what state you are in or if this was an insurance job, you should really update your profiile but in California, insurance law requires that they replace like for like. In otherwords, if Mercedes used a certain brand of paint, like PPG Ceramiclear and PPG colors, if they used something else, then it's not like for like, especially if the color doesn't match. I'm very picky about body work and paint and I would not accepted that job. Sometimes they want you to come late in the day so you can't see it. That's not acceptable either, I come early in the AM, and see the job in the sun.
Doesn't say what state you are in or if this was an insurance job, you should really update your profiile but in California, insurance law requires that they replace like for like. In otherwords, if Mercedes used a certain brand of paint, like PPG Ceramiclear and PPG colors, if they used something else, then it's not like for like, especially if the color doesn't match. I'm very picky about body work and paint and I would not accepted that job. Sometimes they want you to come late in the day so you can't see it. That's not acceptable either, I come early in the AM, and see the job in the sun.
#18
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I don't know about the various states or insurance company but I live in Georgia and have State Farm. If I used a State Farm selected body shop, the repairs have a lifetime warranty - parts, paints, and labors. I just had $1800 worth of work done in replacing the front bumper after a dog accident. The paint matches perfectly, but I was given the usual warranty booklet that said if the paint ever has an issue it will be repaired free of charge.
You guys don't have such stuff in CA?
You guys don't have such stuff in CA?
#19
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2005 C200K Black
Hi, I attached some pics. The car was also scratched to hell. It is as if the guy doing the polishing was blindfolded and used steel wool. Some nice swirls all the way across the hood!! I'm in Johannesburg South Africa - I will update my profile so that there is a little more info. The work done was disgustingly bad - I think it requires a letter and pics sent to Merc head office as these guys are one of the few Merc certified body-shops in the country. My car went back to the dealer and back to the body-shop to have the work redone. I should get the car back tomorrow.... holding thumbs that they got it right this time. The bodyshop blamed it on the tint they used in the paint??? Come on... Anyway it was really bad. Will see how it turns out tomorrow.
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2005 C200K Black
I'm supposed to have a lifetime warranty on the paint and 5 years on the work done. The worst part about this is that it was purely a paint job as there was no damage. The car went in because it had multiple stone chips and pretty bad road rash on the bumper. The body-shop has now had my car for 3 weeks in total. grrrrr..... The shop is called Renew-It Randburg, stay away!
#22
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If they blame the use of the wrong tint for your color variance, be very afraid!
Tinting paint is determined by a precise predetermined parts per ratio formula that is standardized based on the paint color. To use the wrong tint or tint-to-paint ratio (which will alter the patina), means someone is not very knowledgeable about how to mix paint, and that would be a concern to me, given the fact that almost all mixing systems are now computerized, with zero-variance formulas.
Maybe someone was not paying attention when the product was mixed, but it is not rocket science with the computers help, and sounds more like human error .
Tinting paint is determined by a precise predetermined parts per ratio formula that is standardized based on the paint color. To use the wrong tint or tint-to-paint ratio (which will alter the patina), means someone is not very knowledgeable about how to mix paint, and that would be a concern to me, given the fact that almost all mixing systems are now computerized, with zero-variance formulas.
Maybe someone was not paying attention when the product was mixed, but it is not rocket science with the computers help, and sounds more like human error .
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1999 CLK320 (sold), 2007 C230 SS (gone), 2000 Grand Marquis, 2011 CR-Z, stay tuned...
WOW! That is undeniably brown-er. Good luck on this next outcome! Fingers crossed!
#24
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2005 C200K Black
I think the tint blaming was purely an excuse because someone messed up and they just didn't really want to take responsibility for it. My worry is that they didn't even use the correct paint. I'm giving them another chance, but I will definitely be notifying MB South Africa as the quality of the finished product that was delivered to me was abysmal. They have a very professional looking setup and do a lot of work for MB but someone got lazy and cheep so lets hope they get their act together...
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2006 Mercedes-Benz C230
040 is just jet black...
I had euro impact strips painted a jet black that a body shop had and they turned out fine...
I had euro impact strips painted a jet black that a body shop had and they turned out fine...