I noticed that the rear bumper shade is little bit darker than the rest of the body? It is not very noticeable in the shade on a shiny day, but it still bothers me. I went to the body shop and showed them. They told me, this is a factory paint, never repainted bumper and quarter.
Octane Blue 12 gsr, odo 5000miles

 

Its the same for almost all cars. The bumper is of a different material than the sheet metal body so it gets prepped and painted differently. You will see this on car priced 2 to 3 times the cost of an Evo.

 

My Evo was hit and repaired. When I got the car back, the new painted area was darker than the rest of the car. They used the correct paint code. The issue was they used a thicker gloss coat then what Mitsu used. It caused the color to be a shade off.

My car was hit at about 3k miles. This accident also was not reported to carfax. From what I read on this forum, people say that the bumper color is a little off from factory. Probably because of what evolutionxtac said. But I would not completely rule out an accident and repair. If your Evo was AS in color, I would ask if you bought my Evo.

 

I agree with the 2nd poster makes sense my car has the same thing as well in gg the bumper is a different shade

 

I did damage appraisals for progressive insurance my first 3 years out of college and that's one of the first things they taught us. It won't match due to material difference. Also panels on difference planes may not always appear to match. So many people would complain about it after their car was repaired.

 

That is true, and particularly with the Octane Blue, you can can the paint look perfect from one angle, but have a completely different flop from the other ("flop" is the pearl tones that come out at an angle)

 

What you're describing is entirely normal, OP.

 

Normal. My WW, GG and PB are all off a couple shades. Don't stress over it, I did a few years back and it didn't end well haha.

 

It's normal.

 

So for all the earlier posters--you all have bumpers and other car parts different shades of the same color and you purchased your cars that way---thats what you are claiming to be normal? No way-- Poor paint jobs dont match.. If you just pull the paint code on the car it will rarely if ever match, due to a number of environmental issues fading the paint-- a good painter will take that color and and darken or lighten it to the correct shade and match it...mis- matched paint is not normal or every car you see would be mismatched.. Completely unacceptable---to me at least, acceptable to other apparently. And yes, I have had many repairs. A neighbor paints bumpers for dealerships up the street from me, he color matches the paint exactly every time, not just off the paint code.

 

mitsu's poor paintjobs have been discussed before and im sure we were all talking about the factory paint not an actual having the car repainted

 

We may or may not be talking about factory paint. The OP bought the car used. It may have been repainted or it may be factory. Only one person will know for sure.

 

My old evo was WW or Scotia White or whatever it's called. I went to the paint shop, wanted to paint the front bumper and the Glasurit product line database showed me six different shades. Painter did four different colorcards before he painted, but still not perfect color shade. The time and sun for doing their job,bleaching.
But Mitsu and other jdm factory paint is crap, I have to be afraid, a fly hitting a chunk out.

 

I was coming from the point of view of stock paint. But even a repaired and painted bumper paid for by insurance doesn't have to match perfectly. Sure maybe the painter could take more time to get it to match better but when insurance covers it, it only has to return it to the condition prior to the accident.

 

Bumpers normally appear to be a tad bit darker/flatter. Countless vehicles of all makes and models have this "problem", it's just how the paint/primer reacts to the surface it's being applied to, and how light reacts to that difference. You can spray the same color over a whole car, and the bumpers will probably look different.

Whether the car is being painted in a factory or repaired in a body shop, bumpers usually don't match perfectly every time. Coming from previous auto body experience I've seen countless cars with perfectly matched paint cards (these are usually half a dozen variants/shades that account for fade/sun damage etc) being painted by the best guys that I know in the local industry, and still have it turn out different after being sprayed and cured. Things like fading can be accounted for, but there's no guarantee a bumper will match perfectly after it's been sprayed.

Most body shops work on volumes of insurance repairs. Do you know how badly a highly producing shop's productivity would be suffer if insurance jobs were handled by a perfect match standard? If the paint job is out of pocket and you want it perfect, sure, you'll pay for the time it takes to match the color and the materials needed to to that. If it's an insurance job, basically when there's a matching color code and a positive hit on a paint card variant, unless it comes out contrasting like black and white it probably won't see the booth again.

Your comment kind of undercuts a lot of people who refinish vehicles for a living. It's a non issue, and some people are just stupidly picky.