Paint & Body Work - New front bumper allot darker than fender

So I just had my front bumper(new)/hood/passenger fender painted. The hood and fender are pretty close, but the bumper is way off. It's like a black compared to my navy blue. The guy that painted it sai that the bumper from lkq comes with a black primer on it, so he didn't put any primer on it. I feel like this is why. Any comments or suggestions? I'll post some pictures up tmw.

i don't think the black primer got anything to do with it.did he seal it with primer sealer?if it is more darker then its something to do with the base-coat.maby he put to Manny or not enough coats of base-coat.pics would give better understanding

Hey, i paint lkq primed bumpers everyday and we never trust there black primer so we scuff them and shoot a urethane based sealer over them and its a light gray sealer. then we base coat and clear them. i can tell you that navy blue takes a lot of base coats to get the light gray sealer covered! if they just painted over the black primer maybe they didnt put enough coats of base on it and u can see the black primer thru it faintly and is why it looks darker than the fenders.....just a thought...i would have them repaint it. Also any metallic color like navy blue its hard to get the bumpers to match the fenders without blending into the fenders were the bumper and fenders meet.

He didn't do anything pre base coat, other than scuffing up the primer. I'm not sure how many coats on the base coat he put down, but I'll ask. Will blending into the fenders make A difference, because the passenger fender and hood was painted with the same paint, and is pretty spot on in color. I'll take some pictures tmw and post them though.

yes blending can make BIG difference especially when it comes to metallics.

What you shoot the paint over will def throw the color one way or the other. That's the reason they make tinted sealer.

Yea the tops of the fenders where they meet with the hood should be totally fine if they were painted at the same time. Bumpers are usually plastic and they take paints a little different and usually cause them to look a little off , espeacially were the fenders meet up with the bumper. This is were blending comes in play when your repainting a bumper. If they repaint the bumper they should do it off the car and then scuff the fenders and blend the same paint there putting on the bumper to the fenders were they meet the bumper whens its put back on. Bumper should match fenders now, sorry for the long explanation

He said he only did 3 coats of base on the bumper.

Here are some pictures

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a204/ababmxking/IMG_0359.jpg
This is where the bumper meets the driver fender (OE paint)
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a204/ababmxking/IMG_0357.jpg
This is where the bumper meets the passenger fender (painted at the same time)
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a204/ababmxking/IMG_0361.jpg
Drive side fender/hood. Hood was painted at same time as everything else.

Paint on the bumper is the same paint/color/mix as on the fender and hood.

wow, that is way off....i hope you didnt have to sign for anything saying that it was satisfactory work and is as is or anything like that.

No, its a buddy that's doing it, and I haven't paid him yet. He still has to sand buff the front bumper, well fix it now, and repaint the back bumper too. Do you guys think that he just didn't put done enough base coats?

So its an aftermarket bumper or a new (oem) take off? Either way we never trust anyones primer we sand every one we get in even oem. It looks like to me he didnt even try matching the color. Id also make him redo it and blend this time.

It's a new aftermarket lkq bumper. And the color matches on the fenders and stuff, why wouldn't it match on the bumper?

If the bumper was black as most lkq's are then it needs a few more coats. Also it is hard sometimes to get them to line up, your needs a little more adjustment. Spray out cards to see how many coats for coverage and also for color match help alot. Good luck, if he is a buddy he'll fix it for you.

Umm.. the basecoats have a lot to do with final color... the basecoat should have been light gray, not black.. thats why it is so dark... The Bright Red on my car is actually a white base and then red... if you just put on the OEM mix red it would be too dark....I figured this out while fixing my front plate and bumper... my rear bumper was the same way. once I put the correct basecoat or undercoat, the topcoat was the correct color...

If the bumper was black as most lkq's are then it needs a few more coats. Also it is hard sometimes to get them to line up, your needs a little more adjustment. Spray out cards to see how many coats for coverage and also for color match help alot. Good luck, if he is a buddy he'll fix it for you.

^^ what he said

Spray out cards every "real" painter should use.

It was probably he didnt have the correct base coat and or did not spray it enough.

I see. He keeps telling me he is going to blend it, but I don't see that making that bumper look any better. I guess we'll see what happens. Thanks for the info guys.

The alignment thing, that fender is pushed in right there, was on the old bumper too. I wont be to disappointed if he doesn't get it lined back up. But it does still need lined up with the hood.

Here's a couple more of it cleaned.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a204/ababmxking/IMG_0371.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a204/ababmxking/IMG_0367.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a204/ababmxking/IMG_0365.jpg

like mentioned before spray out test panels.also check the PAINT CODE from you car and make sure he got the right paint.and proper blending will take care of tht.and if the color is metallic he needs to use clear binder.put coat of clear binder then blend his color.and both fenders and hood need to be blended for best color match.and clear from edge to edge.

Wow that paint is way off. I usually get a good match on GM colors just off the vin#

The reason its darker is simple. Its because the bumper was black. He should have put a gray color or sealer on first, and then put the blue basecoat, and then cleared. You cant paint colors like that Navy blue metallic over black, it wont work.

I hope he used flex agent in the clear or that suckers gonna start crackin up!

Well, idk what he did to fix it, but he fixed it pretty good. Color matches is almost spot on, so I'm happy with it. It has a few dull spots and orange peel spots that need to be fixed, but he ran out of time before I needed the car back. I got my grill from 6le the day before I got my car back, so that worked out great too.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a204/ababmxking/431479_10151384459400525_571035524_23477119_250074 26_n.jpg

There is problems with the paint bubling up on the hood though. It had a problem before the hood was painted, where the fiberglass was peeling off. He says hood needs to be replaced, but I think if I found somebody that knows more about fiberglass that it could be salvaged. Any thoughts on that?