Hi I got my 2002 NB Phoenix in Titanium Grey this week and looking at it from a distance in a sunny spot, the bonnet seems a slightly different shade to the front bonnet. Now my explanation would be it’s a 19 year old car and the aluminium ages differently to the plastic, but maybe I’m wrong?
Obviously didn’t spot it when buying and was not told of any resprays. No other obvious signs of frame damage but planning to take the bumper off to fill in the badge holes, so maybe (hopefully not) I’ll see something there. What do you think?
My 2001 California in yellow is the same.
Only very very slightly noticeable depending on the light.
The plastic seems to lose its shine a bit quicker too, but when polished it’s a lot less obvious.
I’m an ex spraypainter so I tend to notice these things.
I doubt anyone else would notice it on my car unless specifically looking…
I took my MK1 (Cecelia) to a car paint suppliers in Saltney near Chester and one of the staff used a paint match gun device to photograph and analyse the paint, turns out Cecelia had several different colours on her bodywork! The predominant one was a 1990’s Mercedes silver! He made up a rattle can batch of the appropriate primer, paint and lacquer and I must say that it was a fantastic match. I have a lighting engineering background so once painted I found a low pressure sodium street light and viewed the car under the light. Low pressure sodium lights produce only one wavelength of light and make everything lit by them a kind of orangey brown, but they also really bring out colour mismatches. The new paint was a perfect match.
M&P Enterprises in Saltney is the name of the paint supplier. I’m sure other paint suppliers ear you will have the magic gun!
I owned a racing bronze coloured Mk2 RS and it looked fantastic but I knew some of the panels had faded. Having spent many years in the Japanese sun before being imported you could tell in certain light of the fading.
As probably explained above with the lighting effects sometimes newer cars their plastic painted parts can show up a different shade especially on camera but don’t discount on an older car paint fade on certain panels but not all.
I think your bonnet has faded, mine did more than the wings and front bumper.
Not convinced it’s age related every time.
I clearly recall a couple of Main Dealer unregistered showroom NCs…I think they may have been yon Copper Red or similar, where both wing mirrors & the front & back aprons were notably different.
Another common example was NB Racing Bronze from new.
It did not manifest itself on our Crystal Blue however.
Also have seen a few Poxhalls of various models with the same “issue”.
But then…they are Poxhalls.
Wonder if these bits are sprayed in a different manufacturing process, then built up?
Paint takes differently to plastic and metal, the difference is often only apparent in certain lighting. I had a Tornado red Golf R and under the sodium street lights the plastic fuel filler flap was noticeably “browner” than the steel bodywork, but indistinguishable in daylight. Many Fords in silver of a few years ago had noticeably different plastic to metal shades in any light. My Crystal White Venture edition has slightly different shades between plastic and metal painted panels in certain lighting.
Hi, that’s a nice looking car.
Perhaps there are a few reasons for the mis-match?
Age could certainly be the reason.
Different base materials another.
Maybe the car has had cosmetic paintwork in it’s history? Would you say the bonnet has small stone chips commensurate with the car’s mileage? If the bonnet is stonechip free it could point to a previous owner getting their pride and joy freshened up? Aftermarket paint almost always fades differently to factory paint.
Your car certainly looks good either way.
Cheers,
Guy
That’s actually a very good point! Not a lot of stone chips on the bonnet for 86k miles! The bumper is actually in a bit of a worse shape. Perhaps it was freshened up.
I’d say bumper and drivers wing has been pained together then the passenger side wing etc has been painted at a different time again,then the bonnet is different again.
