Ford Focus paint colour.......

leveller2911

To cut a long story short my wifes car was hit by a van and we have had the damage /paintwork looked into by the insurance companies bodyshop. The damage is fairly minor but the paintwork is not. They are looking to re-spray the drivers door,rear door,rear quarter panel and rear bumper so basically all down the drivers side.

I have a couple of friends who work for another bodyshop (40yrs of experience between them) and they have told me this particular colour is a "re-spray" colour which means the new paintwork can't be merged in to the existing colour. The colour is Mars Red which is a 3 coat finish with the colour,then a Gold flake and finally a lacquer. They are adamant that we will notice the difference in the existing paintwork and the new. The colour is a little similar to the Focus ST orange with the pearl/flake so would the ST be a re-spray colour or can they be "blown in" to match the existing?.It sounds like getting the gold flake looking similar is the problem.

Basically they are saying the car needs a full re-spray, the car is booked in week after next for the work to be done so what should we do?.

Any thoughts ?.

facade

Discuss with the repairer what they will do and your fears, then if you notice the difference send it back/refuse to accept it.

Otherwise don't you have an option to get it fixed where you like for an extra excess payment? Then your friends could do it properly.

I had a 'bike tank resprayed by a "good" bodyshop, was candy pearl or something, basically a silver flake with a coloured laquer, the final colour depending on the number of coats of laquer, and I can't tell the difference in daylight/sunshine. He had the neighbouring panels to match it to.

(Haven't really tried under sodium streetlights, these tend to show up differences that you don't see in daylight, but the ones round here are LED candles.)

forgotmyname

I have a small mark on my bumper that annoys me sometimes, it was there when i bought the car so not new. I have spoken to a couple of garages and they said ignore it, its a metallic colour that changes shades under different lights.

It needs to be sprayed a particular way and if they get it wrong it will need stripping back and doing again from another angle.

They warned me it may look worse after. But it maybe fine under certain lights and look terrible under another light.

Skintski

Mars Red is indeed a three stage pearl which is a nightmare to match as is the Electric Orange and Ultimate Green amongst others. It's highly unlikely they will offer you a full respray so make sure you are completely happy with the job when you collect it and make sure you do so in daylight. If they end up having to chase the colour around the car then that isn't your problem. Out of curiosity, which bodyshop are they recommending you take it to?

I thought Mars Red was only available on the Fiesta ST, not the Focus. I've just taken delivery of my new Focus ST and it wasn't an option for me.

bigjl

They might paint the whole side but not the whole car.

As the light hits that car at different angles it will change slightly.

The paint colour on plastic parts may also be slightly different.

Have never heard any paint sprayer call a colour a "respray" colour, unless they were trying to upsell a prospective customer.

Reprinting the car would be extremely costly and likely make the car a write off. No Insurer will even consider that for minor panel damage.

Skintski

Mars Red is a recent colour so I'd expect that to be a recent car, a respray would not write the car off.

dlm

It is a respray colour - never look the same if just 'blown in' It is alot to do with paint type (water based), mixing on difference machines (repairer and factory), metal flakes per square inch and the way they lay and age. Old 2K matellics used to be noticeable under sodium lights - new water based is much more sensitive)

Well, put it this way; Lets say a focus of your age and type is worth 9k (just a random figure - no relation to true value)

With a full repsray it wills still be 9k, maybe a bit more if it is spotless compared with others of its' age.

With a blow in, which will look like black and white under street lamps, and black and grey in daylight - your 9K car would be worth 3-4k That is how much difference it could make as the dealer/owner who took it on would be looking at a few grand to repspray before selling etc

IMPORTANT; A PRIVATE buyer would think - been written off, had the side ripped out........what you YOU think looking at a car with a whole side and rear a different colour??

Do it once, do it right and forget about it. No-one is ripping you off, you are being given good advice by repairers that obviously know what they are talking about and care enough to tell you the best option.

leveller2911

Thanks everyone for your input. I will phone the body-shop and have a chat with them. As mentioned the problem with these flakes are that is certain lights you can't see them and the car looks Orange but in sunlight the panels have a gold tint and looks quite cool. Sadly we don't get enough sunny days for the gold flake to really show up.

A van backed out of a parking bay into the car as my wife was reversing into another parking bay so although he admitted liability as did his employer their insurance company are saying its a 50/50 knock so our insurance company are trying to claim it as a "no fault claim" (supposedly) .

What I really don't want is to find out my cars value will be substantially lower because any future buyer sees its obviously been in a prang they can see the difference in the gold flake. The damage is very light,its just scratches but quite a few of them all the way down the side of the car and the side of the rear bumper.

The 2 guys (mentioned in my opening post) I've known for years and they use to run their own body-shop and are now employed running one for someone else aren't looking to do the work.They are mates and just giving advice so I do accept what they are saying.


Cheers again everyone and I will report back on the progress.