rear bumper a shade different color than rest of car?

[leasure23]

I recently purchased 99 camry and love it. The reason I got it was my father also has a 98 camry and it is the same gold color and I liked his. I bought mine when it was a little darker out and could not see that the rear bumper was a different color than the rest of the car. It not like its a completely different color but just a lighter shade.

I'm a little bumed out about it because the rest of the car is great. I wish I had looked in better lighting conditions because my father's car looks the same way. But my mom has a 99 camry and the bumper and rest of the car match perfectly. It is the grey color.

My questions are:

1. Is this a known issue with gen 4's that are gold in color?
2. Is this due to fading?
3. Can the bumper be painted to match the rest of the car? How much approx?

If you could please supply me any info that you may have about this.

Thanks, Matt

[leasure23]

I recently purchased 99 camry and love it. The reason I got it was my father also has a 98 camry and it is the same gold color and I liked his. I bought mine when it was a little darker out and could not see that the rear bumper was a different color than the rest of the car. It not like its a completely different color but just a lighter shade.

I'm a little bumed out about it because the rest of the car is great. I wish I had looked in better lighting conditions because my father's car looks the same way. But my mom has a 99 camry and the bumper and rest of the car match perfectly. It is the grey color.

My questions are:

1. Is this a known issue with gen 4's that are gold in color?
2. Is this due to fading?
3. Can the bumper be painted to match the rest of the car? How much approx?

If you could please supply me any info that you may have about this.

Thanks, Matt

[92_Gen3_5SFE_LE]

it has come up before, sometimes the color is slightly off because the bumper is Plastic and the body panels are metal. Making it very hard to match the color

[jhbhatia]

congrats on your car. Some shades of paint depict the bumper to have a slight offset of a different color. But your problem could be cus someone repainted the bumper (cus of scrapes/accident/just to sell the car??). I'd leave it, having it paint-matched will cost you at least $200!

[barthmonster]

I've often seen this, even on new cars and I don't like it. I think the flex-additive they put in at the factory (so the paint doesn't crack when the bumber flexes) could be part of it. A cure for that would be to paint the whole car with the bumper ON and not use a flex additive. A pain eh?

[92_Gen3_5SFE_LE]

or you could repaint it and use flex additive on everything...

[bassthrive]

the bumper of my DWP looks off-white from certain angles. same goes for the front bumper and side molding. my guess is because those pieces are plastic and more sensitive to the effects of the sun and the elements than painted sheet metal.

[Cyorke]

the gen4 bumpers on gold cars are notorious for not matching. SOmething about them not fading the same as the paint on the rest of the car does or something like that. It seems to be most noticable on the white and gold Gen4's. It is very possible that it was repainted at some time and they jsut used the original paint code and came up with the color and didnt try to blend it in any at all. IF it si that annoying to you though then you can have it painted but they are going to have to blend it in or you will end up with the same problem again. painting parts of 7 year old cars and hoping it matches is a PITA.

[SnakeyeS]

Yeah, i notice most gen 4's don't match. It was also a stupid place to put the seam between the rear bumper and the fender

[skewe]

it's a mfg defect. including my car for gen 4.5

I got rear ended recently and took it to a toyota dealer.
Spray painted it by toyota.. it did not match at all

[WhiteRabbit]

yea my bumper is a slight shade lighter than the rest of the car

[skewe]

it was not that bad in gen 3

my gen 4.5 looks pretty weird

[Phat Devil]

i have the same problem =( And with a silver car, looking from the side, it sticks out like HEAPS!!

=(

My car pic is in this link and the difference stands out =( Makes the car very non photogenic from the side view.

Finally got my 18x8s on my Gen4!!!

[hazedlife]

i thought my bumper was a replacement due to an accident or somethin. im gonna get a new bumper anyways.

[Dave's]

Same on my '01 silver. Bought it on a return (a few months old) real cheap and always assumed the bumper may have been replaced/repainted even though I saw no signs of damage.