thejoee

Hi all. I have a beautiful 2007 C4S with factory aerokit. I noticed that the color of my bumpers is not the same as the hood/panels. Is this normal ? Is it due to techniques in painting plastic bumpers vs metal ?

It didn't bother me much in bright light but now being overcast mostly during the day, I really notice it !

dak911

The bumpers "may" have been repainted...they SHOULD match.

Minok

The paint on my speed yellow front bumper is also a slight bit darker under certain lighting than the hood and fenders.

Dave's911

FWIW, I have witnessed what Minok is saying. When I was looking for a 911 I looked at several in SY, all of them had this slightly different color on the front bumper under certain lighting conditions.
Hope that helps,
Dave.

X51

Porsche paint experts (20+ years painting P-cars) have told me that the bumpers will rarely match the body, even when new. At the factory, they are actually painted separate from the body and the computer mixes the paint. For what it's worth, unless it's visible in every type of light, I would leave it alone.

dak911

My S/Y 00 Boxster matched, I never noticed any variation. After I scraped the bottom of the front bumper, pretty badly, the body shop I used matched it exactly, I could not see any variation.

Eric - Plug Guy

Yep...bumpers, mirror shells, some deck lids, painted outside the same process as the body. Speed is a bitch to match, nearly as bad as silver. BUT...a top notch shop, when painting a bumper or aerokit, will do sprayouts to find the right formula.

For example, when my 09 Turbo rolled in, the lowers were all black, and I wanted them painted (was not going to pay PAG several grand for that). So my guys worked with 9 formulations of Arctic to get it right. The issue on the lowers (rockers, lips) is they catch light differently from the sections above, so the tint has to be just right for it to look matched. We made a custom formula for my lowers, and I swap the lip once/year and repaint (front only).

If yours came from the factory that way, it's likely true that it was not damaged and repainted, as most Speed Yellow Porsches will show very slight variance from front bumper to hood/fenders, but from 10' it should be spot on.

Is it both front and rear bumpers?

thejoee

Thanks for everyone's response.

When I bought the car, the previous owner had sprayed the black aero kit lip and rockers. I don't think his body shop sprayed the pieces individually b/c you can see the overspray, which got me wondering if the sprayed the rest of the front bumper the same colour as the lip, which explains the colour difference.

Eric, it's both the front and rear bumpers. The Aero Kit spoiler looks good though.

Edgy01

One of the reasons Porsche gave me for not painting certain light non-metalic colors was because they come out looking like a two-tone--or worse. The various materials that underlay the paint handle paint differently. Different primers are used. I don't believe that Porsche has all of their subcomponent vendors fully dialed in yet since they paint these things separately from the body shell. To support JIT manufacturing they have to rely upon the subcontractors to do their part. Often, they have trouble. Metallic paints hide those subtle differences because your eye is absorbed with the metallic flake and not so much the color element of the paint.

While they SHOULD match, they often will be off a little bit.

Pors968

My speed yellow also has little darker color bumper than hood and fenders. Wondering anything can be done with paint correction/polish techniques or clear film etc.. ? just a thought.. No re-spraying.

TIA.

Hella-Buggin'

There's also an additive in the bumper's paint that allows a certain amount of flex. Mine matches pretty well but under certain lighting conditions it looks different.