[astroede]

My polar silver '94 968 cab has some paint issues here and there, mostly scratches and the front bumper has a layer of paint flaking off due to a poor "cover up" spray prior to me purchasing it. I took it to a body/paint guy, and he said "well you know silver is a difficult color to match, so if I spray those scratches areas (fenders, trunk lid) it might look good straight on, but from the side you will see a difference", and "the bumper must be stripped and re-sprayed, but because there is a bead between the bumper and the hook/fenders, it will probably look OK." Recommended that I do just the bumper...$1500-$2000 (doh!), and said "enjoy the car". Hmmm. I've used this guy three times and he does great work. He seemed hesitant.
I'm not going to concours this car, but I do want it looking good at the various shows I go to. Touch up paint, even from Porsche, doesn't match. Most scratches are light, but some to primer in a couple spots.
What are your experiences with this; what do you recommend? I can provide pictures if needed. Appears I have original paint on all except bumper...can this be easily matched?
Also, I have some incredibly hard bee poop or tree sap on the hood that WILL NOT come off with everything I tried (clay, cleaner, etc). Can a detailer normally get this kind of stuff off?
Sorry, I know these may seem like difficult questions to answer without seeing the problems.
Andy

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[hryden]

It's kind of hard without seeing the car, but hopefully this will help a little. Silver is a indeed a tough color and often needs to be blended on to the adjacent panels to get a really good color match. If you are going to do the fenders, there is chance you'd need to blend the hood and the doors as well to get a really good match depending on where the scratches are located. I am guessing that this is what your body/paint guy is concerned about. A lot of this depends on the condition of your existing paint. If it is in good shape, there is a better chance that you could get a good color match without blending onto the other panels.

Bumpers will always take the color just a little different due to being plastic vs. metal. Since your bumper has been painted before and is flaking, it will need to be completely stripped and prepped to ensure that the new paint will adhere properly. Getting a good color match on just the bumper shouldn't be too much of problem. $1500-$2000 just to re-do the bumper seems a little high though.

As far as getting off the sap, it sounds like it has probably etched into the clear coat. A good detailer should be able to wet sand it to get it removed assuming your clear is in good shape. There are also some chemicals that they could try first.

If you want to post couple of pictures, I'd be happy to take a look.

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[968Syncro]

Andy,

My car is Polar Silver, and yes had some repaint and you can see the difference. The previous owner had body work done on the left front fender. I didn't see the difference in the paint color when I viewed the car, but the Porsche shop that did the PPI noticed and put it in the report. And so when I looked, yes the front fender is slightly more blue than the driver's side door. I never notice when walking to-and-from the car, say in a parking lot for example, but when close up if I look for the difference, you can see it. Again, it isn't visible unless someone knows to look for it. And yes, in my opinion, forget touch up for anything, with silver it is always respray.

Another part of the story (can find it in the archives) is my car had an experimental offroad excursion, courtesy of an offspring, which required body work. Turns out the situation was such that I did all of it myself, including respraying the front bumper cover and both of the side "shark fin" panels. Surprised me, but it turned out very good, not quite 100% professional (if you look closely), but we are very happy with the results. Yeah, used a compressor/sprayer at home in the garage, studied the technique, practiced, etc. There was no difficulty spraying the silver, it covered well and went on completely even, and of course there is a clear coat on top. I got the paint / materials from a shop in town, they only do auto paints and related supplies. This paint I obtained matched the "respray" I mentioned above from the PO, and so did not match the original shade. I suppose somebody could experiment with custom mixing, i.e. get some paint code 92E and a couple of near neighbor shades, and try to mix up something that appears to match completely. It would take hours and hours, days and days, the only way to do it is mix a few ccs of another shade into the 92E, spray a panel, clear coat, and then see if it closer to the original color. Might require several tests like this, would take hours and many days.

Roland

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[968Oz]

Hi Andy - I have Polar Silver coupe and have had doors, front fenders and both bumper covers resprayed at various times. Even though I know they have been sprayed I can not pick any differences in colour, and no-one else has either. The guy I used is very good and explained that you need to blend the paint, sort of fade the new paint into existing paint to avoid visible changes in hue. So that means depending on where damage is on a panel an adjacent panel may have to be done as well. As your guy said, with our bumpers and the fat beading picking changes in hue is not normally a problem. I've had both bumpers done without the adjacent panels and can't pick the difference. I would say that my paint is in very good condition since it had a complete respray 3 years ago. I pay $500 per panel. maybe you'll need to spend more if it needs special prep work.
Good luck
Ian

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