TSE EFR NB2 Build Thread
#508
You can't just paint the new panel, you need to blend it into the panels around it. The new paint is never going to match exactly, so they have to mix it up as close as they can get it (paint codes & computer scanning get them most of the way, then they trial-and-error it by eye to get something that matches in sunlight). Even then it's still not perfect and having a color shift at a panel gap is really obvious. So what they do is to spray the undamaged panels next to it, getting progressively lighter amounts of paint so that the color gradually fades from one panel into the next. The two panels are still different colors, but you can't tell because they aren't next to each other.
Then there's the materials cost. Auto paint is expensive (it's probably a couple hundred bucks just for the paint, fixer, etc), other materials, sanding, clear coating, more sanding, etc. Don't forget the CA environmental hazmat waste disposal fees, and the 10% sales tax that our state tacks onto everything.
A donor fender off another car isn't going to match. It may have been the same color at the factory (or it may not have been -- it probably wasn't made on the same day with the same batch of paint that your car was), but even if it was then it will have faded differently over the last 15 years. It may be close, or it may be really obviously different. You may or may not care, but a body shop is quoting you a repair that's done *right*, not something half-assed.
--Ian
#513
Ian is 100% spot on with all of that.
Having had this done dozens of times over the years, you come to realize the difference between quality body work and janky backyard bro type work. On crappy forum pictures, both might look the same, and these guys talking about a $100 fender replacement might consider $1600 insane, but if you ACTUALLY want it done 100% correctly, it's not that far off. Maybe by a couple hundo due to astronomical bay area hourly rates, but still well over 1k.
This is a Miata though. And a track car at that. So the real question becomes: do you really need it to look immaculate? Probably not would be my guess. And I bet the are tons of other imperfections on that car. And I bet you will trash it way more each time you track it.
Having had this done dozens of times over the years, you come to realize the difference between quality body work and janky backyard bro type work. On crappy forum pictures, both might look the same, and these guys talking about a $100 fender replacement might consider $1600 insane, but if you ACTUALLY want it done 100% correctly, it's not that far off. Maybe by a couple hundo due to astronomical bay area hourly rates, but still well over 1k.
This is a Miata though. And a track car at that. So the real question becomes: do you really need it to look immaculate? Probably not would be my guess. And I bet the are tons of other imperfections on that car. And I bet you will trash it way more each time you track it.