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Central Collision in Kent Wa. (253.859.2822) did the repair, in and out in three days - looks awesome ! Sorta hard to believe there was a dumpster hump'n my door on Sunday evening.

http://www.photobin.us/uploads/25cbfa9066.jpg

They got just the right amount of texture.

http://www.photobin.us/uploads/6eaf558593.jpg

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Looks really good! Hope mine will look that good...I just got rear ended on the way home from work tonight. Stopped dead when he just drove into me. He thought traffic was moving. The rear end is pretty much gone, as is the exhaust which was pushed up and back. Now the fun begins with his insurance company.
:(

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Actually from the image it looks like harsh orange peel. Doesn't look very smooth. If you compare it to the panels with original paint you'll probably see a difference in the orange peel.

Orange peel is the texture/smoothness of the paint. Looks rough to me.
I'd be pissed. On a previous car I had them redo it when the color was a slight shade off and rough orange peel. They got it right the second time.
I don't settle for anything less than perfection. It must look like it was never repainted. Yours looks repainted. Maybe they can smooth it out and repolish in that area towards the bottom.

You shouldn't be able to see any type of orange peel texture in a photo.

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Speaking of harsh!

Black accentuates anything, including orange peel.

I think I'll be a bit more positive...it looks very wet, which isn't what usually accompanies orange peel, so that is a definite plus.

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look closer, the door was the only thing painted. the peel on the fender and quarter is stock paint. as for the photo - it picks up a subtle difference in the hue that you can't see with a naked eye, i'm using a seven hundred dollar camera - it'll pick up a knat's hemorrhoid.

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ben ... I started to produce a photoshop tribute to you dumpster problem entitled "IT COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE" a couple of days ago. However, ran out of time... but still thought I would post it...

http://www.allbollox.co.uk/publish/dummyfire.jpg

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The door was likely not the only thing painted. They have to feather it into the adjacent panels so the shade blends. Duplicating the exact shade of any color is very hard so if the paint job is done well it has to be feathered into the other panels. Although black is probably much easier than any other color.

My crossfire does not have that peel texture. If you look at the image you can see it pretty clearly on the ridge on the door and quarter panel.

Actually now that I think about it, it may just need to be clayed and polished. Whenever I have one of my cars repainted there's a grit over the surface. They never take care of it. I usually have to clay it back to a smooth silky finish then polish and wax. But it does look like rough orange peel to me.

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nope, they didn't do any work on the fender or the quarter. they just did an awesome job at matching the factory peel on my car. I'll be the first to admit the factory paint sucks on the x-fire - but in person it's very impressive. as far as feathering... what they'll do is blend the color (if it wasn't black) then reclear back to an existing body line. But all he did on my car was fill and block the door, shoot the whole door in black and then cleared the whole door.

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from viewing the picture... i think it looks great.


but...

did they back tape the paint edge?

any hard tape lines? overspray?


i hope its all good. ;)

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well i have to disagree and agree that there was work done to the fender and q.p. that's the only way or else you'd have a bad job. that's why they call it blending. it must be done professionally and i've only seen a few guys in the business do it the right not quick way.

the quick way is what you got with all that orange peel. but at least you didn't get any fish eyes.

the professional way is to have the paint taken all the way down to the metal and primed and paint built up layer by layer, baked and then cleared a few times as well.

they'd have to do the same process to all the panels on that side. that costs a lot more, but in the end you get what you pay for.

but all in all that does look great.

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Andrew, I haven't found any overspray, and it looks like they did a good job at back taping. Jmack and meshcraft; I've personally done four "completes", an untold number of repairs and several motorcycles. I've worked with lacquers, catalyzed enamels, and urethanes. I have six or seven body shops that I regularly do insurance replacement business with. I'm tellin ya... they didn't touch my fender or quarter, if they did they managed to replace several fine scratches that I've been waxing over for the last two years exactly !! That is the point...They matched everything including the relatively poor factory finish very well! Now again look closer - the digital image picks up the slight variation in hue between the fender and the door. THEY DIDN'T PAINT MY FENDER! l.o.l.

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I am taking mine to Kay Parks/Dan Meyer here in Tacoma to get fixed - some guy backed int the rear QP when I was pulling into the gym... cut me a check for the estimate and then will pay the rest if they didn't charge me enough...

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I was talking about the "orange peel" texture. Just made a comment to what I saw along the ridge at the bottom. In other words the paint didn't look smooth to me. When a repair shop repairs a car and then paints only one panel they are SUPPOSED" to feather the color into adjacent panels to insure the color matches. Now with black it's less of a problem, but it would be normal procedure to feather it into the panels, which is a good thing because sometimes you get scratches or paint chips taken care of for free. If they didn't feather it then they did it wrong or it may not be as necessary for black paint. Feathering means the paint is blended into the panel. It doesn't mean that they repaint that fender or whatever. I'm not good at explaining.

Certain overspray is normal and after a paint job or just from simply hanging around a paint & body shop your car will get a light grit on it. This is easily taken care of with detailing clay (but use the right brand. Some brands don't seem to do anything).

It's no big deal. Just something I noticed. I'm very picky and I make sure it all matches...etc. I make sure they feather and no overspray...etc. Otherwise I make them redo it. That's just me.

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i give up.

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i don't blame you... but hey for what its worth... i think it looks good. :D

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It's not a battle. Just made an observation. Actually I took a closer look at my own paint and if you look at it in the light right I see the same orange peel in my factory paint. Not very smooth. I see it more on the handles and the interior center console. The light ripple is orange peel. It's suppose to be much smoother than that. Kind of disappointing. The paint finish is suppose to be much smoother than that. You notice it more when the light hits it a certain way. I guess in that shot you had the camera close and the light hit it just right to show the orange peel. So I guess it's normal for our paints.

On a good quality factory paint job you should have to practically need a microscope to see any orange peel. It's called orange peel because the texture it makes looks like orange peel.

So you are right after all now that I noticed it on mine. It's kind of a disappointing revelation but I still love my Crossfire.

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I think the Crossfire paint is better than most new cars. Sure, the vertical surfaces have some orange peel, but the horizontal surfaces are virtually orange peel free. Also, the shine the paint exhibits is first class.

In my opinion the Crossfire paint is better than about 7 out of 10 cars. Overall, the paint on the Crossfire is superb.

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I'd have to disagree. The colors and shine is great but the spray resulting in orange peel like that isn't top notch at all. It's not noticeable to the casual viewer except maybe on the interior piece and I'm sure it varies car to car.
I wonder if German paints are just like that.

I have an uncle that owns a paint and body shop and he's the expert. Some of the best paint jobs I've seen are on Jaguars. The dark blue and green is deep and rich and ultra smooth.

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Well people don't paint new cars at the factory...robots do.
So most of it depends on the materials used and the equipment.
All cars have some peel. some more than others.
Show paint is show paint because the time was taken to remove ALL the peel...a long process = $$$.
Ben, If you like the repair and can't tell what was done, then it is a good one.
If you look at it and say...hey its not too bad. then it is not good.
Simple stuff.
Glad you got it fixed nice. Enjoy.

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You should visit a couple of new car dealerships and have a look around...you may be surprised.