Well, here we go, back on December 13th, I was involved in a minor side swipe accident in my beloved 2003 Liquid Copper FX35. The body damage was only on the right doors and right rear quarter. Therefore after the body work, the shop opted to go ahead and repaint the entire right side for blending issues. Boy oh boy. Well, I've now got an FX that is two different colors. The resprayed right side is several shades darker and warmer than the original paint. There was a drastic difference between the roof, hatch and right door mirror which weren't repainted. It was like night and day difference in the colors. They told me to take it home and check it out over a few days. I did and it didn't change colors! Anyway, I took it back two weeks ago and talked to the manager. I got the whole pigment changes, old age, blah blah blah... I told them to fix it and not to blend anything. I can't have a car that is two different colors. I specifically pointed out the issues and they swore they would fix it. Anyway, they called and said that it was ready...They claimed to have lightened, tinted, reaprayed the entire right side. NO THEY DIDN"T! They merely blended the rear hatch!!!! Now standing at the rear the car is dark orange on the right and blends to the original lighter orange.

Anyway, had to vent a little. This has been a nightmare. I spoke with the manager and got the same deal...old tint, pigments change and they aren't responsible. I was told that they would have Dupont set up a meeting and have them look at the car next week or so. I told them originally, that I didn't care which orange it was. It just had to be one orange color and someone has to fix it! Whether it's them or Dupont. Someone has to fix this!

Has anyone had any issues with the Liquid Copper paint? The car has absolutely no fading or discoloration whatsoever. The original left side door jam paint matches exactly to the original exterior color. Any ideas? I'm going to try and see if I can capture the paint differences on camera tomorrow.

Thanks much,
Robert

The problem could be related to your FX's paint color being difficult to match or due to the body shop not having a very experienced sprayer, not properly prepping the panels prior to spraying or due to them not caring if the paint job doesn't match or not. Was this body shop recommend to you? I personally prefer PPG paint opposed to Dupont, but many will argue there's not much of a difference between the two. Paint variation shouldn't be very evident if the body shop did the job correctly on a car with a clean and shiny paint surface. You may also want to take your car to a couple of other body shops and ask for their professional opinion on the work that was done. Just don't mention the name of the body shop that painted your FX. It's best to use a body shop that works on a lot of high end cars opposed to a shop that does a lot of work on $500 - $5,000 cars---if you get my point. You should've also asked to see some of the cars they worked on as well, to get a sense of their workmanship. Shops that do a lot of custom paint jobs typically do quality work as well.

Thanks for the reply. It's actually the collision shop for the Infiniti and Acura dealership. They were working on very high end cars. The body work is superb. The paint just doesn't match. They'll are planning on having a DuPont rep look at it soon. However, I agree. My dad was in the business for over 40 years so I know the painters shouldn't merely use the code and spray. I've now got some photos that I'll post later. Very frustrating because the insurance already paid out and all I have to threaten is their reputation.

Original paint on left side.


Much darker warmer orange on repainted right side






Dropped 2 stops to really show the differences. You can clearly see where they blended from the right to about the middle of the rear hatch...dark orange on right blended to lighter original color on left side. This was after their so called attempt to fix things. They hadn't originally blended anything and the mismatch was very apparent on the right rear quarter and hatch just like the roof.






The roof is much more apparent when behind it in brighter sunlight. It was about to pour on this day so it was very overcast.

The right door mirror is the original color and sticks out like a sore thumb on the darker right door. I couln't get any good photos of it.
I told them that I didn't care which color orange the car it. It just MUST BE ONE COLOR!