My car seems to be a magnet for those type of mishaps. Its hit on the right front fender. I went to a shop in San Diego that has good reviews online and was quoted $400 to fix and paint the fender. My question is that they informed me they use Sherman Williams paint and there is no such thing as OEM paint. Is that true? I want the color to match and not look out of place. Please advise on what to do.

*To Mods: Thread was accidentally posted in 03-06 forum. Sorry for the re-post.*

 

OEM touch up paint is available at your dealer, mine came in a pen/small brush style tube. They should have all colors available for $10-$20.

 

Oh, I am not talking about touch up paint. The whole fender has to be reshaped and repainted.

 

I would not be so worried about what kind of paint they use.. The big thing when doing repairs on parts of a car is getting the paint to match and also BLENDING it back into the surrounding panels.

This is very important as the color may be close but if it is not blended then the panel will stick out like a sore thumb. Even if they used the exact OEM paint.

It really is hard to paint things at different times and have it turn out the same color. It depends on the temp the drying period... small contamenants in the paint booth ect. That is why they paint cars all at once...

Any good shop will have a long term warranty and a guarantee.

Get them to use OEM parts if you are having them replace the panel that will be big as it may change the panel gaps and the seams....

 

Thanks for the info. They have life time warranty for their work. I am not really sure if that includes my satisfaction with how the color turned out.

 

Uh get it done with OEM paint, I would never let a shop use other paint other then KH3 Infiniti/Nissan Paint on my car.

 

It's true, there's no "OEM" paint per se. There are only a few big suppliers to the auto industry... DuPont and PPG, i believe, are two of the more common ones.

As long as you have them match to the proper paint code, you'll be fine. Although, as mentioned, there are many factors that determine how good the paint will match what you currently have on the car. So, blending is always a good thing to do, to minimize the discrepancy.

 

^+1 that sums it up nicely, the car manufacturers dont make the paint them selves, they have a contract with some big brand company that provides them with their desired paint color and provide them with a specific paint code to help match the color down the road.

 

Okay, I have been to three shops so far. I will detail them each. Basically I went to shops that have good reviews online.

Damage:


Darbys: http://www.yelp.com/biz/darbys-paint...body-san-diego
- They gave the cheapest quote. $400 to fix. But it was raining and the guy didn't like being in the rain. So he might have rushed it. Probably will go again for another estimate. Shop seems decent and they lifetime warranty their work.

Hawley Auto Body & Paint: http://www.yelp.com/biz/hawley-auto-...aint-san-diego
- Gave a quote close to $1000, which is ridiculous. Shop seems disorganized. Had to wait close to an hour to get an estimate because there was only one person giving estimates.

Chapparone Auto Body & Painting: http://www.yelp.com/biz/chapparone-a...ting-san-diego
- Funny thing is that at first they gave me a quote of $998 to fix the fender without replacing it. I then emailed and got another quote because I can get the fender online for $230. And the weird thing is the quote went up to close to $1200. WTF? Rip off? I thought it would be cheaper. Anyways, the shop is really nice. They present themselves well and have good reputation. If my insurance was covering it, I would have went with them.

 

The dealer can fix that dent for around 140 using PDW. Make sure these shop use that so you don't have to repaint the fender. It looks easy to use with PDW...My car had almost an exact same dent when I first bought it used but the dealer agreed to fix that dent. When I picked up the car, I couldn't tell there was a dent at all whatsoever and everything looked perfect. Best of all, there was no repaint needed so the colors won't shift after a couple years.

 

what color is your car? It seems like it's black. Those dark colors on our Gs aren't hard to match or blend.
Also is your bumper has damage there as well? or it's just in the fender?

And also that's funny how some people say that "make sure they use OEM paint" lol or "make sure they use the right paint"...
I work in the bodyshop business and I do this on daily bases and i'll say one thing >> paint is paint. Like CerveloR3-SL mentioned don't worry what paint they use, worry about how good of a match and blend they'll do; that's what's important.

By looking at the pic I would estimate for around $600-700 for the job in our shop. But if you're getting a new fender for $230 that would definately suppose to be cheaper since there no need for a body repair time.

 

I say get a new fender and it should cost you no more than $200-250 to get it painted and swapped.