Contemplating a Cyber Green re-paint

[Pushing Fifty]

I have a 2000 Cyber Green Beetle with mismatched paint. I learned of this color's issues with fading shortly after I bought the car a couple of years ago. The fenders, doors, and bumpers are a very nice Cyber Green while the trunklid and roof have faded to almost a newer Gecko Green shade. At first, I thought this looked kind of cool, but I'm beginning to have second thoughts since this generation of Beetle could very well become a collector car some day. While my rear bumper is the correct shade of Cyber Green, it needs a repaint anyway. It had a huge scratch running across it from the previous owner taking out a mailbox. I agreed to buy the car if the dealership (a Mazda retailer) refinished the bumper. They did, but now, 2 years later, it is beginning to crack, and thus they did a lousy job. I figure as long as I'm going to have this fixed correctly, I might as well have the trunk and roof re-sprayed at the same time. The hood is also the right color, but has three big rock chips, so I'll have that repainted also. I know I'm looking at probably at least a grand, but here's my question: If I have these body parts (rear bumper, trunk, roof, and hood) painted with fresh Cyber Green, will this reverse the problem and make the doors and fenders look faded, or can a body shop deliberately fade the new paint so it's all the same color? In other words, should I just have the whole car refinished?

[Blugg]

When you take your Bug to a body shop to have a new bumper fitted after a crash/bump. Then they also spray the wings a little bit to fade the match of the bumper to the wings

[Pushing Fifty]

Another related question (If anyone happens to read this, that is...) : I took my Beetle to 2 different body shops to get quotes on repainting the rear bumper, trunk, roof, and hood. One wants $1800 and would remove the rear bumper, trunk lid, and hood from the car. The other shop said they could simply mask areas that won't be painted and do the job for around $900-$1000. Obviously, the labor makes the difference in price, but is it really necessary to remove those sections to get a better paint job, or will the "shortcuts" work just as well?

[marvins_dad]

I guess it just depends on the quality of paint job you wish.
If they leave the parts in place it will be cheaper, but they won't be able to get down into the seams. It does cost more because it is a bit of labor to pull the parts, but you will get a better, more correct paint job if they pull the bumper. Sounds like you might need a new bumper anyway if there was a repair job that went bad...if this is the case they would be able to easily paint it before putting it on the car. The would charge the extra to take it off and put on the new though, labor is labor.

The hood - probably could be reshot on the car.

When they clear it the clear they use should have something in it to help with fading in the future (UV protection). When they did my paint job the clear they used stopped the fading process of the stock paint, but the back bumper and the fuel door continued to fade - it was just this past year when I got rear ended that I finally got around to getting the bumper replaced and had them reshoot the fuel door as well....so my green is finally all the same color. Not sure if it is all stock or they matched the fade.

[Pushing Fifty]

My rear bumper isn't really damaged, it's just that the Mazda dealership didn't prep the surface adequately and now that paint is cracking. (It's like they painted over dirt or did a lousy job of sanding away the original scratch). How about an alternative solution?

Given time, is it possible that the rest of the car's Cyber Green tint will eventually fade to the same Gecko-Green-like color of the trunk and roof? In other words, if I do nothing, will the whole car "catch up" with fading so that it's once again all even? Like how people who wear shorts in the summer return to paler-colored legs in the winter?