Perceived value of pre-painted parts

I’m looking for your opinion of buying bare as-cast(flat black) parts for your car and choosing your finish/painter, versus a pre-painted (factory color) part ready to be installed out of the box.

If you like pre-painted, would you pay the typical paint job cost up front or more for convenience?

if it's a well rated product that is pre painted, I would go that route

for a vehicle the prepainted part would have to be a notable amount cheaper than having it painted locally as it's likely it wont be an exact match.

For example I was told there are something like 5 known shades of Dark Shadow Gray. I have an 03 Mach and had an 04 Lightning, they were both DSG but they were NOT the same color when side by side

DSG2003Mach1 said:

for a vehicle the prepainted part would have to be a notable amount cheaper than having it painted locally as it's likely it wont be an exact match.

For example I was told there are something like 5 known shades of Dark Shadow Gray. I have an 03 Mach and had an 04 Lightning, they were both DSG but they were NOT the same color when side by side

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especially true of those colors that have metallic flake in them...I had to paint a new rear fascia for my 03 DSG due to parking incident, bought a new OEM bumper/fascia and while it was close, it wasn’t 100%...had it it done by Ford dealer body shop as well.

Really depends on the color. I’ve seen some pre-painted stuff that doesn’t match well and I’m sure I’ve seen some and didn’t realize they were pre-painted. I had an 06 dark shadow gray Powerstroke that needed a bedside replaced. They pretty much had to paint the whole truck to get it to match.


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Depends on how old the car is, what color the car is, and what the part is.

I have seen a place that you ship them the painted gas tank cap and they match to that. That I would definitely pay a premium for.

Depends on the part as many parts I would rather powder coated than painted.

When I first purchased my Z I hit up the web and ordered a painted stock spoiler, painted door handles, and a painted license plate frame. The paint match was damn near perfect on all of these items and 11 years later they still look great. Now if I were to order those same parts today would they match just as well? Dunno... depends on how much paint fade has occurred over the past 11 years.

So I guess what I'm saying is if the car is relatively new I'd opt for color matched parts, however if the car was more than a few years old and not continually garaged I'd probably get unpainted and have a local business paint them to match.

U.M.

These guys do a great job!!

Painted OEM Parts

They sent me an OEM rear bumper cover in Race Red and it matched PERFECTLY.......OEM part painted and shipped (HUGE BOX) with no damage for $650 as I recall!!

*Jay* said:

I have seen a place that you ship them the painted gas tank cap and they match to that. That I would definitely pay a premium for.

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When we have to send something out to be painted on anything older than like 3 years, they want the gas door to color match. This would usually be something like a mirror skull cap or a door handle.