::Barloworld ::Vehicle coachworks
Vehicle coachworks cannot hide their work, so it is important that one finds one that does a very good job, to minimise the affect the panelbeating work has on the car’s general appearance. The untrained eye often cannot see when a car has been panelbeaten, but you will try to hide if from the used car dealer in vain.
One of the most frequent mistakes is colour matching. It is extremely difficult to match colour accurately. Using the manufacturer’s colour code sounds like the right place to start, and it will be very close, but there are no guarantees. Paints differ from batch to batch and, inevitably, there will be a difference in the shade between different batches. This can clearly be seen on some brand new vehicles where manufacturers invest too little in quality control to ensure that the car bodies precisely match the plastic bumpers. In most of these cases, the bumpers are made and painted by an outside supplier and there is almost always a colour mismatch. Some manufacturers make sure that the bumper supplier is supplied with paint from the same batch as the car bodies, which ensures a much better match.
Ironically, a decent coachworks could have a better chance of matching a colour accurately. They have to mix paint from scratch and can test in on an unobtrusive panel for accuracy. The problem is that paint fades over many years in the sun, so an accurate match on the inside of the boot lid may be too dark on the bonnet… The coachworks will blend the repainted area into the panel gradually to lessen the effect, but then one ends up with a whole fender panel or door of a slightly different shade.
A used vehicle manager can spot such mistakes miles away. They can spot touch-up work, replaced panels, body filler and repainted bumpers. They have developed a feel to compare the finish of a panelbeaten panel with that of the factory and if there is a difference, they will spot it. The moral of the story – stick to vehicle coachworks of excellent repute!
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