TTschwing

BASF Corporation
Automotive Refinish
26701 Telegraph Road
Southfield
Michigan 48034
USA Tel.: 2 48 304 52 00
Fax: 2 48 304 54 71
E-Mail: sandory@basf-corp.com


Where are you located? My Guys in Charlotte NC

TTschwing

IE: spot in a repair and make it look just like the surrounding paint. If the painter is less than great or the equipment or system used cannot provide the perfect match, they will often paint adjoining panels, so the eye is not drawn to the repaired area or panel that does note *quite* match the rest of the car......

rollerskate

the car is mostly continuous, except for the doors (OK, hood and hatch too). so it seems that you're running a larger risk of screwing things up once you start crossing the discontinuities. or maybe the idea is you aren't supposed to notice any screwups as much if they occur on the corners (i.e., if they paint part/all of the front and rear panels beside the doors)?

what about a strategy of having them first paint the whole door (which they're gonna do anyway), and then look it over and evaluate the results. then, only if it isn't good enough, have them do the blending on the side panels as needed?

FAME

Get the job done right... because if you don't, the paintwork/body work will scream at you...

TTschwing

The door is a standalone panel that will visually be very noticeable if not done correctly. You've seen cars done like this I'm sure. The repair is obvious. You do run the risk of screwing thigs up by doing more panels unless your guy is GOOD. That is the key... (but if he's GOOD, he won't have to paint more than the scratch and a small area to either side of it....)

rollerskate

I agree, but ... the side panels are also going to be very noticeable if not done correctly. I guess the idea is to get it right. :-) I'm just not sure why painting additional panels is going to make things better if they couldn't match the color right in the first place... unless the idea is to put the edges of the new/old paint out to the ends/corners of the car.

(secret theory: if your car gets scratched, drive it into a quarry because it'll never be fixed right anyway :-)

TittieTwister

Once these new paints dry, they are dry and you cannot melt new paint over the top of it. You can spot the color in but you must still clear the entire panel to "seal" it properly. I work in a collision shop and if it were my car I would have them paint the door like you said and check it out-peel and color match- then decide if you feel blending is necessary. Depending on the color you might have pretty good luck, just check it in the sun and in indoor lighting and at different angles. But if you do have to blend the side the TT is pretty paint friendly and easy to take apart. Just make sure they take everything they can off ( tailamp, loosen bumpers,etc).
ps. sorry for the long reply!

naTTe

Yeah, I've already fired off an e-mail to the same address. I wrote a short note asking for some information, and a P.S. that is my oh-so-sad-look-at-my-pitiful-bambi-eyes-while-a-violin-solo-is-playing best writing.

Then, I got this.

"I will be out of the office starting 06/27/2002 and will not return until 07/01/2002."

And today is what? :/

naTTe

The story I got went something like:

All lake silver TT's are not the same color. When Audi mixes the paint, it's a smorgasbord of different chemicals. The 5th car off the line may not be exactly the same color as the 205th car off the line, because maybe by that point the paint has settled a little. While extreme, this kind of makes sense.

See, I thought about asking them to just paint the door, and then having me eyeball it to see if any further blending would be needed. My theory is that the car's paint hasn't had a lot of time to fade yet, so it can't be too off the 'factory' color. But, as stated above, the 'factory' color might not be *exactly* the same. With blending, and the optic curves of the car, there are places where you wouldn't have to blend, and places you would, so it'd be a job no matter what.

Not sure how I believe that, but that's how it was told to me.

Anyway, who's to say I don't end up with some unethical painter who wants the extra money for the other panels - they could darken the paint at the tips of the door if I wanted to try that - and then charge me for re-sanding and re-painting, as well as the other panels.

Basically, I think what I need to do is set the apartment complex where it happened on fire. We don't have any of those on the east coast right now. Could be fun.

GRRR.

I'm going to keep trying to track down this magic German paint that TTSchwing learnt me about.

TTschwing

MichaelTT and 225TTR have a good paint man in the area. Drop Ellen an email and she may be able to help: E Erickson
E-mail Address(es):
eerickso@comcast.net