Plastic bumper fades different color than body panel .... help please

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imported_smprince1

New member
I'm detailing a pearl white 2007 Acura MDX. The plastic bumper sections seem to be fading a slightly off-white yellowish tint and they no longer match the steel body panels adjacent to them. The owner thinks I can polish these back to white again, but I don't think that's going to work.



Has anybody else experienced this?

What, if anything, can be done to bring the off-white sections back to white?



Thanks for any insights you can provide.



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A friend has a Yellow C6 Corvette that is a couple of years old and you can see a big difference between the bumpers and the body color. On his Vette there wasn't anything he could short of repainting, polishing didn't help since the paint had change color. I would say he is out of luck!
 
I'm thinking he's out of luck too ... but I also know there are a lot of great minds and experienced detailers on this forum who might know something I don't.



My thinking is this is not a surface effect like faded/oxidized single stage paint, therefore compounding and polishing won't have any influence.



Worth a try, though, so please keep the ideas coming.



Thanks.
 
smprince1 said:
I'm thinking he's out of luck too ... but I also know there are a lot of great minds and experienced detailers on this forum who might know something I don't.



My thinking is this is not a surface effect like faded/oxidized single stage paint, therefore compounding and polishing won't have any influence.



Worth a try, though, so please keep the ideas coming.



Thanks.
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I don't it is single stage paint but if is you are in luck, I have taken a layer of paint off and the surface looked like it was just painted and removed all signs of oxidization and fading. You can tell if it single stage when you polish it and the pad turns the color of the paint. I would bet that it is has a clear coat over the top!



The paint on bumpers is different then on the car, the paint on the bumpers contains a flex agent and seems to ages difference then the rest of car.
 
DennisH said:
I don't it is single stage paint but if is you are in luck, I have taken a layer of paint off and the surface looked like it was just painted and removed all signs of oxidization and fading. You can tell if it single stage when you polish it and the pad turns the color of the paint. I would bet that it is has a clear coat over the top!
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It is definately clear coat. I was saying it is not a surface effect like oxidized single stage paint



DennisH said:
The paint on bumpers is different then on the car, the paint on the bumpers contains a flex agent and seems to ages difference then the rest of car.
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Exactamundo :hifive: My thinking too.
 
I agree. Every Pearl White Acura seems to have this problem. I know, my mom owns one and it looks just like that. On the upside, hers is an '05, and it is no worse than when she bought it. My silver TL even has the problem to some effect. Tan Camry's used to be real bad about it.
 
FYI: Bumper covers, body cladding and trim on every car that is mass produced will not match the body. They're not painted when they paint the bodies and are usually not even painted at the same plant and/or with the same kind of paint. Therefore, the variances will always be off. This variance is more dramatic on whites and metallics, but is noticeable even on black.



For example, each manufacture will establish a range of acceptable variance in terms of color difference ranging from -3 to +3. That means that the body could be a +3 and the bumper could be -3. That's 6 points off and really could be a huge, but acceptable variance. This same vehicle, painted on a different day, maybe at a different plant could have closer variances that would mean less noticeable difference. To add more fuel to the fire, some trim (like mirrors and door trim) is painted in single stage and would cause even more of a different look to the rest of the vehicle.



Next time you're at a dealership, walk their lot and try to study how each vehicle has unmatching trim......
 
Thanks for all the input everybody. :)



I've explained to the client that I cannot polish his bumpers white to match the rest of the car and we're in agreement to proceed to finish detail the vehicle with no expectation that the bumpers will match the vehicle when he picks it up.



I'll post pictures of the finished detail later today.
 
Picus said:
Almost every Acura I've seen has does this is some manner or another. AFAIK there is nothing you can do about it.
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I have a 2007 WDP TL and it was like that from day one. Dave - thanks for the cool info on the differnce in painting bumpers and body panels. Very interesting.
 
Even a repaint might not match. At my old dealership job we has some resprayed because the color was off so much. They would come back better but still not be perfect.



The autobody shop even had a display about the color mismatch on plastic bumpers even after a repaint.
 
The paint on the bumpers on my tungsten gray mettalic 2006 Mustang is balls on accurate. :woot:



The paint on the bumper covers of my dune pearl mettalic 2007 Edge are off a shade or two. :grrr
 
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