In late Jan., my long-awaited 2008 mellow yellow MCS arrived, and my dealer sent it to a presumably high quality local body shop to have my JCW aero body kit painted and installed. The dealer had explained to me when I ordered the car two months ago that he preferred to use a local shop rather than the VDC, so he'd have better quality control over the process.

When I inspected my car last Saturday, the color of the JCW kit's rear bumper and diffuser clearly did not match the mellow yellow of the car itself,
although the front bumper and side skirts seemed to match very well.

The body shop, which used B.A.S.F. paint, claims that no one (including the VDC) has the exact same paint as the Mini factory, so there'll always be at least a slight, color difference that's only visible from a few inches away.

The dealer and the body shop first suggested that with time in the sunlight, ultra violet rays would cause the color of the rear bumper to better match that of the car. When I told them I wouldn't take delivery until the color matched, they offerred to repaint the rear bumper and, if necessary, also
paint the the lower portion of my rear hatch to "blend" the colors together.
I rejected the "blending in" approach, since I believe that risks compounding
the problem.

Any advice or suggestions, particularly from anyone who's experienced a similar mismatching color problem with a JCW aero body kit, as to how to resolve this problem would be greatly appreciated!!

 

I'd write a strongly worded letter to MINI USA as well as inclusion of some digital photos if it clearly indicates the mismatch. Good luck.

 

The paint on the car is new so a match should be easy. The paint color on your car also has no metallic or pearls. This also makes it easy to match. If it looks bad enough where you say " That really does not match at all" then its not correct.

 

Since the dealer chose to have it painted at other than a MINI facility, they should be responsible for getting it right.

However, mellow yellow does seem to be hard to match exactly. I believe it was Karl in San Diego had a similar problem, and ended up painting the aero kit himself. I think it took him a few tries, but finally came up with a good match. You might want to search for that thread.

My Pure Silver MCS arrived with the scoop not matching the hood. Before I could get it dealt with, I had a parking lot collision that required a new rear bumper. So, I had both things dealt with at the same time. MINI of Mountain View recommended a body shop a block away from them, and claimed they did excellent work.

They first matched the color of the bonnet and painted the scoop. It was a good match. Then they used the same color to spray the rear bumper. It didn't match at all. It took them two more tries to get the bumper matching the rear of the car. This all happened before I saw it. They were not happy with the match.

The body shop guy suggested that the bonnet may have been repainted at the factory, or VDC. It's funny because no one sees a difference in color between the front and rear, and the body shop guy has a very good eye for paint colors. I do a lot of color photography, so I'm fairly color conscious myself.

Your MY may have had the same thing happen. It may have been repainted in part and not be very noticeable unless side-by-side close comparisons are made. So, it may be that all the aero parts match each other, buy your car, like mine, isn't one color.