5 Apr 2019

Why are my cars bumper and fender a different color?

There are many reasons why your bumpers and adjacent panels (fenders,quarter panels) may look like different colors.


The most common is, that’s the way the factory made it. Believe it or not your car that is in one piece in your driveway was in a thousands of pieces all over the world. Your painted parts are no different. A lot of factories may paint your bumper in texas and your fender in detroit. Therefore the variants in color between different people mixing it, environment, how long it’s stirred and sprayed all are factors.


Some people believe that when you spray paint on a plastic bumper and it’s next to a metal part there may be a slight color difference even if it’s the same paint. This holds true in certain circumstances especially for pearl paint. It essentially can make the beautiful pearl color you see change direction therefore changing the way it looks in the sun.


Some people believe that when you spray paint on a plastic bumper and it’s next to a metal part there may be a slight color difference even if it’s the same paint. This holds true in certain circumstances especially for pearl paint. It essentially can make the beautiful pearl color you see change direction therefore changing the way it looks in the sun.


Color was not blended to the adjacent panel when the car was repaired. This can happen as well but usually if a car was not blended at an auto body shop it’s because the color did not match before you had the accident and the shop was trying to bring your vehicle back to pre-accident condition.


Like everything else in Auto Body there isn’t one answer to the question.


Consult your local professional (Auto Body Shop or Dealer) and ask away! If you had a problem with color match and would like for us to take a look at it, feel free to bring it down!


Drive safe out there!