OEM bumpers often don’t match the rest of the vehicle and at some point, most shops have had to answer the question “Why?” to overcome their customer’s concerns. There are 4 basic reasons why the color may differ:

1. A color can vary depending on the substrate on which it is painted. For example, metal vs. plastic.

2. The body was painted separately from the bumper, at different locations, using a different application method.

3. Slight adjustments can be made during application which may cause the metallic or mica to lay down differently.

4. Light reflects differently on curved vs. flat surfaces causing the appearance of a color shift.

Since these may be time consuming to explain, PPG offers the below marketing items to help educate customers when they come into a shop about the 4 basic causes of bumper mismatch. It can be ordered in 3 formats:

In most cases, you can’t spray product directly from a can onto the vehicle. You must add other components such as a catalyst or reducer to make it ready to spray (RTS). Therefore, when performing price comparisons, just looking at can to can prices can be deceiving. Some products may appear cheaper on the surface, but the actual RTS cost may be more because of its mix ratio. Mix ratios matter.

Let’s look at the following example (assume reducer prices are similar):

While the competitor’s can price may appear cheaper, it is actually more costly to spray because it requires more paint to make a ready to spray quart due to its 2:1 mix ratio. Also notice that 1 pint of PPG paint goes farther than the competition because of the difference in mix ratios.

Remember, you can’t spray paint out of the can. It's always important to consider the Ready to Spray costs. Mix ratios play an important role in understanding these costs.

Learn more about our Mix Ratio Comparison Tool