[cunningham]

The bumpers on my civic are all a good match during the day but at night one corner (drivers side) on the rear bumper under street lighting is very light red in comparison to the rest of the bodywork. Ive heard about the plastic and metal thing with the shades being slightly off but its only on one piece of the car. The civic is Milano red so my Question is can i restore the red so its a better match either with T-cut or polish? I do all my valeting by hand so i dont want to go down the route of rotary polishers im not that confident or have the equipment.

 

[PETE888]

Mate I wouldn't use t-cut as honda paint is so soft it will more likely do more harm than good. Have you tried getting the car mopped? A cheaper option maybe to polish it mate to try and bring the colour back

 

[bleb]

i get this! i use auto glym super resin polish which makes it alot better but will eventually come back if you dont polish for awhile i dont think the diesel smoke helps mine though haha but i was told plastic can show up different by a body shop but it is quite alot is it only the milano red that does this?

 

[Bandit77]

It might have had a smart repair done on this area in the past? I've heard before that street lighting shows these up.

 

[furio101]

Paint on plastic vrs metal reacts differently and maybe fooling your eyes under flourescent light?

 

[dobe]

Its had a section painted before.

Doesn't matter if its plastic or metal, a slightly different shade that's not so obvious during the day will look totally different at night under street lights.

 

[Kremmen]

It might have had a smart repair done on this area in the past? I've heard before that street lighting shows these up.

Yep, that was always an easy way to detect partial resprays.

 

[robbo51]

Paint on the bumper is applied to plastic and is not attached to the car until assembly is ready for it..In some circumstances it can show up as a slightly different shade.
Over time, this difference can become more obvious for several reasons..mainly UV light and lack of wax or sealer...Red is particularly suseptable to this
Under no circumstances should you use T-Cut!!
Just use a light polish and apply a sealer/wax as your LSP

 

[CCC]

Red is a nightmare to match, I used to own a Red XR3i many years ago and that had paintwork done to it. It looked OK duringthe day but at night time it looked like a sore thumb, I would never buy a red car every again. I think that dark colours are easier to match, mines silver which isn't match better.

 

[wullien]

I have the same problem, on further inspection there was a bit of overspray just under the rear light giving the game away. Now i have a decision, respray or replace with factory coloured bumper at £200 + fitting.
Has anyone else made this choice ?