Hi All! I mentioned in an earlier thread that I have suffered the sad indignity of being rear ended yesterday afternoon...

After pouring over 'replacement' parts - so far I've chosen to go with an Orciari Body Kit and a Carbon Fiber Hatch (painted the same color as the rest of the car)...

My one concern is this (and I've officially lost sleep over it) : What are the chances that the red that they paint the new parts NOT matching the stock Chili Red of my MCS? The right rear quarter panel needs to be replaced as well, so I'm worried about how that side of 'Winston' is going to look.

If anyone has any experience regarding color-matching the stock paint and could offer any advise, I would greatly appreciate it (...if you happen to live in the ny/nj tri-state area and happen to have a chili red mini that got rear-ended by a college kid on his way to a 'Honor Society Induction Dinner', lemme know, we can start a support group or something, )

 

Any reputable body shop should be able to match the color. Besides if they can't match it they can't get paid. No one is going to pay for half-*** work. Reputable shops don't get good reps by doing a so-so job of color matching.

 

Most modern painting/repair places source their paint from a supplier who uses a device to read the current paint condition. This device is quite a wonder to watch, as it reads the paint and determines the mix required to match it.
The old system gave you a standard paint mix, which did not take into consideration paint/color aging/deterioration. You should have a good match, if handled by a quality paint/repair shop. This process is no extra in costs, but shows the concern for a match in the final results.
I have had paint work done on my MINI with good results.

 

Take it back if you're not satisfied. My wife and I were rear-ended in her Nissan. When the work was done, we picked up the car and took it home. A few days later she said the bumper coloring didn't look right. I didn't think anything could be done since we had accepted the car, but the body shop agreed to repaint it so she was satisfied. Most reputable shops are pretty easy to work with.

Cheers,

Joe

 

Sorry for your accident...I've been there. There's no reason to lose sleep over this though I feel your pain.


With a reputable body shop you should have really no problem getting a good color match-- Especially since Chili Red is a non-metallic color. This is what they do, so most good paint shops are pretty good at it. Make sure they have a real paint booth and a clean paint area so there will be no dust/dirt in your paint. Since this sounds like the other guys fault, you can make them paint it over and over again until it matches, but I'm betting you'll be satisfied on the first go-round.