So this actually happened back in the fall but I'm just getting around to posting it . I've got about 25+ more cars to post that I just haven't got around to yet (get around to that soon), but this was a funny story so I thought I'd share. I got a call from a client (very good client at that) and he asked me if I could go to the Audi dealership to clean his R8 (aka "The Storm Trooper") and he also told me to "take a look at the paint" after it was cleaned. I didn't know exactly what that meant, but I said, "OK." When I arrived at the dealership I was greeted by 2 managers and they asked me, "Where will it be best for you to clean the car?" "Anywhere inside is fine by me," I replied. After some minutes of scrambling around to make room for me in one of the bays, I noticed that there was quite a number of onlookers starting to gather around me. Anyway, by the time I snow foamed the car, there were roughly 15 people watching me and more joined shortly and I was thinking, "OK, why are there 20 something people watching me wash a car?" Anyway, as soon as I finished washing I got a call from my client asking me about the paint and then he let me know that the car had been in an accident and the entire front end had been replaced and repainted. I told him that I'd call him back after the inspection and then broke out the lamp... I didn't have my camera with me that day, but good God did it look horrible!! Pigtails, fish eyes, swirls, you name it. Before I called my client back, I told the managers, "You guys have got a big problem on your hands, because there's not a snowball's chance in hell he's going to accept this..." My customer is VERY meticulous... IOW he's pretty much a Nazi when checking my work . They started wet sanding immediately and my customer told me he would be there shortly. While the guy was wet sanding the car, the crowd started to dissipate and then 2 of the guys there approached me and asked, "Did you really come all the way from America to wash this car?" :rofl My client told them I was from America and they thought that I had come all the way to Hungary just to wash his car !! Of course I set the record straight and told them that I live in HU, but I think they were still a bit in awe that this guy had his "own detailer" (it's not common here in HU). My client finally showed up and to sum it up, we discovered that the paint was a different color... completely. He was livid to say the least, especially after dropping more than $15,000 cash to have the R8 and his A6 repaired. I wound up going back 3 times to wash and "disinfect" the cars during this whole ordeal. Here's the pics >> I didn't get any befores of the R8, but here's one of the still-swirly bumper even after they had "fixed it". The second time I went I was greeted by the same managers, but with a little more a$$-kissing this time... BIG smiles, "want a coffee?", etc. and when I got to the car, the same entourage was there like when I had arrived the first time and I was like, "OK, who wants to touch me? Or who wants to give me their sister?" Kinda felt like a celebrity . Then I saw why they were all there staring at me... The "heat fluctuation" had cracked the window and they were all there waiting to see my reaction. I didn't want to get my client upset any more than he already was so I didn't call him and I told the managers that it's not a wise move to say that "the heat and cold" cracked it... just replace the damn thing. It was replaced in a one day. Sooo here's the after shots with a perfectly polished hood and almost perfect bumper... Everything also "disinfected" as ordered. After I called him and said that The Storm Trooper was up to my standards he told me about the A6... it had also been in an accident! I don't know how he pulled off 2 simultaneously, but... Here's me foaming the car and the reporter/photographer from Porsche Magazine wanting to snap a picture of me while doing it. I was wearing my Ferrari manager's costume that day (I wear it when I work at Ferrari because it helps me gain the customers' trust) and they said not to put me in the picture because of the branding conflict... so they got a monkey to squirt some foam on the car while they took a picture. So now the Storm Trooper was ready for delivery and the A6 was all cleaned... ...but when my customer arrived, for some reason he didn't take the A6 with him... I wonder why??? Thanks for reading and to all the Playboy subscribers, thanks for "reading"! - Jesse O'Connor
Looks great . . . sidenote about the paint on the bumpers. Supposedly the PUR bumper will cause the paint to colorshift once it is exposed to the sun for awhile. I had this issue on a set of bumpers I had painted. When new, the bumpers matched perfectly. After being in the sun for awhile, the paint darkened and caused the bumpers to mismatch. The paint on other pieces which were not made of the same PUR, stayed the same color. Could easily be the case with the R8. Personally, I haven't seen any Audis with a perfect colormatch on the bumper from the factory. All of them seem to have the same colorshift issue. Dave
Hi Dave! Cheers mate ! Yeah I've heard of this phenomenon before, too. Something with the paint adhesion or something is what they told me. Perhaps the Db resident paint expert Mr. Dalton or one of the others could shed some light on that? I've also seen this on Ferraris, mainly with rosso corsa colored cars... the side mirrors and bumpers are just completely different colors, but only sometimes; perhaps those have been exposed to the sun too long? In this case though, the paint is fresh and it's on the hood and other parts than just the bumper so I'd rule that theory out... they just simply didn't mix the paint correctly and tried to pass it off as if they had...
god the R8 in white is just gorgeous. gotta be my favorite color for the R8. looking great and im looking forward to seeing the write up for that A6!
Oh ok, just to illustrate my point . . . an ibis white A3 (i'm guessing the R8 is also ibis white) It took only about a week for mine to color shift. Not very long at all. Dave
Hmm, the bumper looks a bit darker in the pic (correct me if I'm wrong!)? I'd really like to know what causes this. Sweet car BTW .
Hi people....that´s becouse all the paint now is water based, and in plastic origen that, in factory when you do a paint repair on the car, the car went to the sun for 2 days...to see the color match and becouse off ologramin and sanding marks apear.... Sorry my bad English.....
it's not only panel shops Audi has been having problems with paint matching of their bumpers - this is very well known and has been going on for a few years now
