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Had a wall mounted shelf liberate itself from the garage wall overnight. It all came crashing down onto the front bumper area of my silver 2000 hatchback.
Miraculously, only the drivers side headlight door was damaged on the front outboard corner. I can see a few cracks in the paint. Removed door and inspected backside. I can see 2 very small cracks in the same corner. Tried to flex the corner but it's still VERY rigid.
After reading a few posts here abt matching silver and my very limited body/paint experience, I figure it's probably best to leave this to the pros.
Underside of front outboard corner.
What am I looking at to have this piece properly repaired/painted at a body shop?
Are there any questions I should be asking or special requests I should make? Door removed and held up to show damage to front outboard corner.
NOT by any means am I trying to tell you to live with damage. BUT....from what it looks like ...it looks like the headlight door can be buffed out and get that marring off.
Then take a close look at it and see if the cracks as you described are something you can live with or not.
The door can be painted BUT with the color of your car the color match will be really hard to get perfect due to IF you ONLY paint the headlight door...the color may not match the hood, fender and bumper cover. THUS it can stand out MORE than the cracks.
To get the headlight door to MATCH it will require 'blending' the paint into all adjacent panels....such as the hood , bumper and fender....and thus cost a lot more due to these panels will all have to be prepped and painted an clearcoated.
YES...the color can be tinted to match and get it really close so no blending is needed BUT that alone in itself takes time and thus...costs more also due to how many test panels they need to shoot to get the color to work for them.
No...due to I do this type of custom tinting of paint and it is all depends on the variables that come into play.
Just as an example...look at this thread where I tinted the solid orange paint for this member and that is solid color which is often times easier than doing a metallic. and you can see how many spray out test panels I used for that color.
Sounds like this could get expensive.
How about just replacing it with one from another car?
Does the manufacturer do a good job matching paint from one vette to another?
If they were both brand new, had never seen daylight varying sun/wind/salt/chemicals and temperatures then yes they'd be really close. You might get lucky and find one that paint has faded exactly like yours. Different colors/paints fade at different rates and some are easier than others to find a good(decent anyways) match. Zero way to check if you're buying online as pictures lie...
Also...it DOES NOT matter if it was brand new or not and never being exposed to the environment.
The car manufacturer has what they call the PRIME formula for paint color that they approved to make the color. BUT...there is no way that IF that color is being mixed and shot throughout the entire model year...and also sued at different assembly plants on other vehicles that the color is always the exact same. So if the very first Corvette painted your color may not be the same as the very last Corvette in that model year shot that same color.
This is why in the paint refinish industry we can have paint color chips that show the 'variants' of that PRIME color. Some are darker, lighter or have more blue or green in it and so on.
It is possibly you find one that will suit your needs and is acceptable.
So like what 'Rodnok1' mentioned...it all depends due to so many variables that come into play. Until the headlight door is put into the area it is being installed...there is no way in telling due toe the color can be off and until you take a few steps back away from it or look at it 25 to 50 feet away...the color difference may not show up...and the type of lighting also makes a difference also. What may look good in sunlight ...looks really bad under the lights a the gas station at night.
Thanks for all the input. It's been a learning experience. I dropped off the headlight door at the body shop this morn. He said they would shoot test panels to match it. Guess we'll see next week how it turns out.
BTW: I priced a door at the dealership. It has to be ordered and it costs $488 AND it needs to be painted. So much for that..
Not that it matters...because I though the price you gave was a bit high... but I checked on how much this door costs and the list price...at least at my dealership is $330.00.
Interesting to see how wildly prices vary from dealership to dealership.
Headlight door needing repair is for the drivers side. Thx for the link though.
Got mine back from the body shop. Looks pretty good but does have a couple of tiny little particle bumps. Painter said it happened when he turned on the heater in the booth.Told me to install the panel and come back in a couple of weeks after the paint cures so he could rub out the bumps.
Looks like he matched the color pretty well but I haven't seen it in the bright sunshine yet. Won't stop raining here.
Headlight door damage
