# Do you have to blend a bonnet?



## _G_ (Apr 23, 2013)

*Do you have to blend a bonnet when respraying?*

Long story short car came back from Mercedes with scratches to bonnet. Quite deep. Scratches not on job card. Dealership offered a respray straight away but called the same day and said: "We won't be blending into the wings or anything if this is your expectation."

They said it could possibly end up looking like new in comparison to tbe rest of the car.

I have read conflicting advice online from "a good painter never blends and it is down to skill" to "blending can be pot luck but is definitely worth it." The answers don't elaborate.

My question is do you have to blend? They have quoted £700 to blend into the front bumper. No blending required to wings they say.

Obsidian Black Metallic. E350. 2016.


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## braders (Jan 7, 2010)

_G_ said:


> Long story short car came back from Mercedes with scratches to bonnet. Quite deep. Scratches not on job card. Dealership offered a respray straight away but called the same day and said: "We won't be blending into the wings or anything if this is your expectation."
> 
> They said it could possibly end up looking like new in comparison to tbe rest of the car.
> 
> ...


Obsidian black from memory was paint code 197 and a lot a C197 which had ceramic lacquer.

I worked at Mercedes main dealership body shop for 4.5 years and never had a complaint on that colour. Certain colours with merc were ****e to match but glasurit had a very good match on obsidian.

A good painter can do spray outs and colour matching before lacquring your vehicle to achieve a good colour match then after that its the skill of the painter to either apply lacquer down like glass or have some orange peel in it.

Hope this helps.


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## _G_ (Apr 23, 2013)

Thank you kind sir


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## Sicskate (Oct 3, 2012)

Yeah as above, I work at ford and we never blend black... Or any bonnet actually  

But seriously, if it were my car I'd only consider blending the wings if it was either a new bonnet or if the damage was on the side edge of the bonnet. 

If it's just a scratch away from the edge, I wouldn't bother.

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## rf860 (Jul 24, 2011)

Regardless of whether they need to blend the wings or not the car needs to be put back to the same condition as you dropped it off in. 


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## gally (May 25, 2008)

Blend the bumper but not the wings? Im not sure id trust them to paint my bicycle!

To answer the question you can keep the colour local on the bonnet to avoid an edge to edge issue before lacquering. Tell them just to do the bonnet. They should have a good enough colour match even if they do have to go to one edge.


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## _G_ (Apr 23, 2013)

Okay. Instructed them to paint the bonnet only. Thank you for all of the replies. Let's see how she turns out.


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## JCoxy (Dec 21, 2011)

Yeah dark colours especially blacks are quite forgiving and there's no need to blend, providing it's quite a good match in the first place. It helps that it's a horizontal panel and not vertical IE a wing to a door, where any difference is more noticeable. All should be fine


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## Sutty 90 (Aug 24, 2014)

Not nessecerely, it is all to do with the paint and where the damage is located. It has nothing to do with the skill of the painter. Some colours such as certain blacks can be sprayed edge to edge with no issues at all where as others such as silver or white need blending to trick the eye into believing it's all one continuous colour. Obviously the painter needs a certain amount of skill to pull any paint job off it's the colour and type of paint that will determine the size of the job. 

Sutty


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