Expert: Ernie - 3/28/2007

Question
Hi Ernie,
I have a few questions. My wife was rear ended in our brand new 2007 Lexus ES350, which we had only 2 weeks.  It was pretty bad accident with major damage at the rear drivers-side corner of the car. It was mashed in and crumpled so much that the rear driver side door will not open.  My question is, when they repair the car do they paint only the damaged section or do they paint the entire car? If they paint only the damaged section, how do they paint it so that the new paint blends in with the original paint and I don't mean color, I mean smoothness, such that it doesn't look like the newly painted section painted on top of the old. Does this make sense?  Also, if there is damage to let's say the muffler and braking system, does the auto body repair shop take care of that too or will I need to go to a separate service center to get those items fixed?  Thanks for the answers.  

Answer
The body shop will take care of all aspects of the repair.Your car,as all newer vehicles have a basecoat and clearcoat finish.The base is color and has no gloss.The clear is the gloss.The smoothness or peel is achieved by wet sanding and buffing.Lexus as well as most paint manufacturers do not recommend melting the clear so the roof and adjoining quarter panel will have to be cleared as well.For example when a quarter panel is replaced the basecoat will be sprayed on the new panel until covered.Then the color will be sprayed into the adjacent panels partially to blend the color so that any variation won`t be visible.Then the panels will be cleared for gloss.Also make sure the shop you choose has a lifetime warranty on work performed.