ojah

The left rear door of My Smoky Granite LS460L was painted recently following a minor collision that left a dent on it. Job was done at Lindsay Lexus bodyshop. Three weeks later, I took my car to a professional detailer. He spotted that the new paint was different from the original paint. It was visibly of a lighter shade of grey. .I took the car back to Lindsay Lexus, and the bodyshop manager admitted their fault. I dropped my car today to have the job redone. Lexus just called me to say they would have to paint the front door as well to get a match. They said the mismatch was because the front door hadn't been painted previously when the rear door was repaired. This doesn't sound right. Has anyone had one door of a smoky granite car painted? Did the undamaged door also need to be painted to get a match?

rominl

iTrader: (4)

fact is, a lot of times when you respray, you will need to respray some part of adjacent panels to "blend" in the color. i wouldn't say need to repaint the WHOLE panel, but most of the time part of the panels to blend in the colors. it's very common

in your case, the right way to do it would be to repaint part of the front door and part of the rear fenders to blend in the color (assuming the WHOLE rear door was repainted before)

vollandt

Generally the edge of the adjacent panels needs to be pained to fade in what ever color difference there is. Here’s a write-up I found that explains it better:

http://www.jackspaintplace.com/blending.htm

ojah

Thanks, Rominl. I'll call Lexus and give them the okay. Yes, the entire rear door was painted before. Part of the rear fenders had been blended the first time. Many thanks for your advice.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

no problem. bottom line is as long as it's done right and not overdone, the results should be very clean and even if the colors are off a little, coz' of the blending you won't be able to notice it visually