The respray from a plaza shop ten years ago is the first thing we look for
A fender painted at a strip-plaza shop off Kennedy in 2016 looked fine the day it was collected. It has been drifting ever since, because it was mixed to the code rather than to the car, and the two have aged at different rates. On a Scarborough sedan that has been washed every Sunday for fifteen years, that fender is now a shade off in the low afternoon light on Lawrence East, and the owner sees it every time they walk to the car. When that car comes in for a new dent on the door, the fender is part of the conversation whether or not it is part of the job.
The second thing we look for is factory clear coat that has given up. Japanese and Korean cars from the 2000s are the usual suspects: the clear on the hood and roof goes cloudy, then lifts at an edge, then comes off in sheets after a hot summer on a driveway off Eglinton East. A paint code tells us what colour the car was on the day it left the plant. It tells us nothing about which panels will hold new paint and which will shed it in a year.
Adhesion test first, then strip or scuff — because paint over lifting clear fails on schedule
Before any colour is mixed, the old finish is tested. A sanding pass on the edge of the damage shows whether the clear feathers cleanly into the colour beneath it or flakes away in chips; a strip of masking tape pulled from a scuffed patch tells the same story faster. Where the finish is sound, it is scuffed, feather-edged, primed and sealed, and the new paint bonds to it for life. Where the clear is lifting, the panel is stripped to a sound base — sometimes to the factory primer, sometimes further — because new paint sprayed over a failing layer peels with it, usually within two winters.
The colour is then built rather than looked up. The mix starts at your code and is tinted against the panel itself, sprayed on a test card and checked in corrected light and in daylight before it touches the car. On a metallic or a pearl the test card is sprayed at the angle and distance the panel will be, because the way the flake lies changes the colour as much as the pigment does. The colour is blended into the panel beside the repair so the change is gradual. Spraying happens in a downdraft booth with a controlled cure, and the refinish carries a lifetime warranty on paint and refinish work.
- Old finish tested for adhesion before the colour is mixed
- Lifting clear stripped to a sound base rather than painted over
- Colour tinted to the panel as it is today and proven on a test card
- Blend into the adjacent panel, lifetime warranty on the refinish
Booking the booth from McCowan, and the claim question on a keyed door
Paint work books cleanly because there is rarely hidden damage. Send photos of the panels in daylight, including a wide shot of the whole side, and our estimator sends a written estimate with the number of days the car will be with us. Drive in once, straight west along Sheppard Avenue East or up the 404 one exit from the 401, and the car goes into the booth the day it is booked. When the work is part of a claim, a rental through your coverage is timed to that day.
One claim note. A key line down a door in the Town Centre lot, or paint damage from vandalism anywhere, is a comprehensive claim with your normal deductible and no fault — and it is reported to police online or at a station, not at a Collision Reporting Centre, because no other vehicle was involved. We price the work both ways so you can decide whether to involve your insurance company.
Questions people ask
My taxi is solid white. Does a repainted rear door still need blending into the quarter?
Often, yes. Fleet white is not one white: it yellows slightly with sun and the pigment settles differently from batch to batch, so a door painted straight from the code can read cooler than the quarter beside it. On a solid colour the blend is small and quick; on a pearl white it is the whole panel. We tell you which from the photos.
Only the hood and roof of my 2008 sedan are peeling. Can you paint those two and leave the rest?
Usually, because clear coat fails first on the horizontal panels that take the sun, and the doors are often still sound. Both panels are stripped rather than scuffed, and the colour is tinted to the doors so the new finish sits between them without a step. If the sanding pass shows the clear lifting on the fenders too, we say so before the car goes in the booth.
How many days does a two-panel refinish from Scarborough usually take?
A few working days once the car is in: preparation, booth time, a controlled cure and reassembly. Paint work has few surprises, so the range we give you usually holds — unless the old finish lifts on sanding and a scuff turns into a strip, which adds a day and a conversation.
The fender someone else painted years ago is a shade off. Do you match the car to it, or it to the car?
The car wins. The fender is the odd panel out, so it is refinished again, tinted to the door and hood as they are today, and blended so the whole side reads as one colour. Matching three good panels to one bad one would mean painting most of the car to fix a fender.