I got intimate with a tirewall and need a new fender/front clip. In order to save money, I was thinking I would pull the damaged pieces off and take the new parts to the shop and just have them paint...and I would put the new pieces on the car myself.

I am paint-illiterate and my friend told me they would need to match the paint on the rest of the car or it would stand out like a sore thumb.

Just so I don't get taken advantage of at the body shop, does anyone know standard procedure for painting a new fender, for instance, to match the rest of the car? Do they need to blend? The paint on the car is about 4 years old and in good/great condition.

I'm not looking to cut corners, just avoid unnecessary costs...make sense?

Here's a picture:

i think you bent the frame man. Look at how the nose tilts down a lot more on the passenger side than the driver's side.

Anyways, they will have to blend the paint more than likely, best thing to do is to take it to the shop, with new parts in hand, and ask them how they plan to do it. If they think that they can color match it perfectly then hold it to them. They've normally got a scanner that they scan the old color onto and custom mix some paint to match the exact color. So it's possible they wont need to blend, but I can see it needing to at the same time... sorry I'm no help

sellmanb - Thanks for the response. If I did infact bend the frame, it will be pretty minor. The damage looks worse in the picture than in real life. Maybe I could snap a shot this weekend of the frame/fender. Obviously I won't be able to tell until I pull off the damaged fender and get it checked out.

Thanks for your help, my limited knowledge says a match may be possible...but I understand I won't know for sure until I ask the shop(s).

You def bent the frame and if you go putting new panels on no way they will line up at all.

The best they can do is a "blendable match", even with the most sophisticated equipment, very rare will it be "dead on". Blending means painting the adjacent panels to help transition the color variances. If your replacing the front fascia and passenger fender, then they will have to blend the passenger door and driver fender. You don't always have to blend the hood in a situation like this because one panel is vertical and the other is horizontal which makes it less noticeable, but be prepared just in case.

hmmm just a thought.. but whats the point in painting the door to "blend" when youll just notice the difference between the door and the rear quarter panel? (I'm not saying ur wrong, just curious, I know they usually match to the rear quarter panels)They can usually match the paint fairly closely, so if your trying to save money I would just have them paint the fender and front bumper. Remove the one thats on there and bring in your new one. But with a bent frame I would definately have the shop line the frame up and install the new panel so that it can be the right fit. In your case with a bent frame I would be much more worried about the panels aligning properly than the paint matching exact.

Thats gonna have to go on the frame machine and they will have to put the pannels on and line it all up, and paint it, ask them to blend it, it will be more, but even with perfect codes and same paint, its tough to match it, i hit it on the head 90% of the time at my shop, but some colors arent that good to match so i just blend those.

Because you don't know whats involved in "blending". What you describe isn't blending the door, but refinishing the door. If you refinish the door, you basecoat/clearcoat the entire panel. If you "blend" the door, then you only basecoat a portion of the panel (the portion near the repair) and leave the other half of the panel the original color. Then clear the entire panel. Properly done, the "new" color will gradually transition into the "old" color making it very hard to detect.

Thank you guys. Will the typical body shop also have a frame puller, or will that have to be outsourced?

This is going to be an expensive "keep all four wheels on the track" lesson.

Most body shops will have a Tram gauge to take some dimensional measurements to see if its tweaked or not. If it is tweaked, they should have some sort of pulling equipment.