My new STI was vandalized, need advice

Some of you guys are hilarious. He's VERY meticulous about how his car looks, but you're advising just to repaint the fender and blending isn't necessary. Sorry guys, butt matching doesn't work. Paint the fender, blend the door. Don't worry about the bumper, they don't even match from factory. I'll agree, there's a chance you'll still notice as the door will get a slight bit darker from the extra clear, but 99% of the world's population can't pick apart a decent paint job.



Just shop around and find a bodyshop with a good reputation.
 
I am very sorry for your misfortune. I think all Autopians would be horrified in your situation.



There's some good and "not so good" advice floating around the thread. Replacing your fender will devalue your car more than a repaint. Keep you VIN matched panels if at all possible.



Blending into the door is a necessity. Blending into the hood is a judgement call. Have the body shop remove the bumper if possible.



The best advice yet: Find a bodyshop with the best reputation and explain to them your higher expectations.
 
Flashtime said:
The door NEEDS to be blended into. Make NO mistake about that.



If you want quality work that will last, you'll pay a lot more than the number

you might have in your head.



Apparently, there's lots of bad advice about painting on this forum



Painting is a lot more involved than you know.
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X 2 to infinity and beyond.
 
I still stand by my opinion about a single panel being painted. I guess its up to you, but I'd rather have a less than perfect match on my fender, than a crappy blend job on my hood. You WILL see the blending on the hood in the right light.



You can always have the fender painted, and if its bad, you can get the other panels blended later (though the fender will have to be repainted again). You can't do the reverse.
 
yakky said:
I still stand by my opinion about a single panel being painted. I guess its up to you, but I'd rather have a less than perfect match on my fender, than a crappy blend job on my hood. You WILL see the blending on the hood in the right light.



You can always have the fender painted, and if its bad, you can get the other panels blended later (though the fender will have to be repainted again). You can't do the reverse.
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yakky,



No one is suggesting a "crappy blend job."



Blending metallic paint is an industry standard, and the results can be excellent.
 
Jeesh, now I'm thoroughly confused.

Seriously, I'll talk to the owner again. These people specialize in Ferrari and Lamborghini. They kept Ultimate in Culver City when Ferrari clients wanted their other non-exotic cars fixed - so the story goes, so I'm assuming these guys are A++ (they did have a Bentley, an RS4, E30 M3... very nice cars).

That said, My wife's Rabbit was recently "blended" at a lesser shop due to a small fender bender and, apart from oversprays and bad craftsmanship all the way round, the blending part itself yielded a seamless result between the new/old paint color.

I too would rather have a less impactful job of respraying one panel, rather than involving 2-3 more panels. I'll ask again.

He did explain that the plastic front will never look the same - plastic and metals take paint completely differently.

My main hope was that there might be a way to deal with this from a detailing standpoint, but it seems the damage is too severe for that - so off to the body shop. Since it's considered on the best shops in LA, things shold turn out ok regardless of what the final approach is.

Thanks guys.
 
yakky said:
I still stand by my opinion about a single panel being painted. I guess its up to you, but I'd rather have a less than perfect match on my fender, than a crappy blend job on my hood. You WILL see the blending on the hood in the right light.



You can always have the fender painted, and if its bad, you can get the other panels blended later (though the fender will have to be repainted again). You can't do the reverse.
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Why are you so against blending? If done properly you'll never see it and in the case of a door, it's barely evasive. Damage is all over the entire panel, without blending color/metallic into the door it will look like crap. Also, if you susbscribe to your rationale, you'll be putting paint on the fender for the 3rd time. That's a :nono and the shop will need to strip the panel due to film overload. That, plus a bunch more money. I'm trying to understand your thought process, but I don't see it.



Dean said:
Blending metallic paint is an industry standard, and the results can be excellent.
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Right! :up

Blend Adjacent Panels – Blending is a refinishing process to correct minor color matching problems. The “blending” illusion is created by fading or blending paint onto adjacent undamaged panel to give the appearance of an exact match.

On a case by case basis, blending may be necessary after considering color, condition, damage location and, if appropriate, to bring the vehicle to pre loss appearance condition.
 
David Fermani said:
Why are you so against blending? If done properly you'll never see it and in the case of a door, it's barely evasive. Damage is all over the entire panel, without blending color/metallic into the door it will look like crap. Also, if you susbscribe to your rationale, you'll be putting paint on the fender for the 3rd time. That's a :nono and the shop will need to strip the panel due to film overload. That, plus a bunch more money. I'm trying to understand your thought process, but I don't see it.
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Its silver, its metallic, I can see where the flakes are not lined up after a blend job on a flat panel. I'd rather have one panel bother me than three. If just the door was blended, I think that would be an ok compromise. The hood is my sticking point. And I'm aware the panel will need to be stripped.



If done properly a good color match will be very hard to spot on just one panel. Anyway, its just one man's opinion.
 
I also agree about the hood, but there's no way this repair can be properly panel painted and confined to the fender. I see this day in, day out at hack shops and high end ones. Any reputable body shop will perform a blend for this repair. If a shop suggested to panel paint this job I would question their integrity as a professional.
 
David Fermani said:
I also agree about the hood, but there's no way this repair can be properly panel painted and confined to the fender. I see this day in, day out at hack shops and high end ones. Any reputable body shop will perform a blend for this repair. If a shop suggested to panel paint this job I would question their integrity as a professional.
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Yeah, I agree with you, most reputable shops will suggest that, No one wants to spend a lot of time matching color AND spray pattern. The problem in this case is, there isn't going to be a good outcome for the OP, no matter how its fixed, any good autopian is going to be able to point it out. And if the hood isn't painted properly, its going to fail in a few years. So he's left with a less than perfect match or more painted panels, it sucks either way.
 
I doesn't have to suck. Most repairs if painted improperly ultimately fail. Take it to a good shop and the repairs should be 100% undectable and last. Looks like the OP is 1/2 way there.
 
Sorry for what happened to you new car bro....it makes me sick to the stomach when I see things like this. :(





Take it to a good shop and the repairs should be undetectable to 99% of the population.
 
Wow, THAT's a bad one. So sad to see this. Someone really needs to develop a clever way of keeping people from doing this. Electrocution would be nice.

On the bright side, I spoke at length with the owner of Ultimate. He came up with a simple solution that uses both blending and single panel techniques. He's painting the area that was keyed but blending from there (because fortunately the keying is in the center of the panel and not on the edges), and blending out from there to the edges. It's a seemingly simple and creative way to deal with this common problem. He has done it numerous times but agreed that because of the particular scope of this keying, he could pull it off well. I'm happier.

I'll post pix when it's complete.
 
Sorry about the vandalism! That sucks.......



I had a brand new 1994 'vette keyed after 5 days and 60 miles. Was never fixed perfectly and I was disheartened for the whole time I had it. If I were you, I'd get a couple of other "estimates", aka, consults about the best way to have it done...........maybe see some examples of paint work/seek recommendations, before accepting the one shops opinion.



Just my two cents.



See ya. :wavey
 
damn man! I know how it feels and being that it is so close to the holiday season it sucks even more. Sorry to see something like that happen.



Where was the vehicle at when this happened?
 
sorry wanted to chime in again. I highly suggest going around and doing a litle research as that will go a very long way.



Being that the vehicle is brand new if the shop you choose is really that good you might be able to seriously get away with painting just the fender.



I do however recommend having it blended as it is usually needed in most cases.



I had a case where the dealership had scratched my brand new car but it wasn't really big so the shop i chose which has a very very good reputation was able to paint just the bumper with no blending and no issues.
 
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