Metallic silver questions .

[Phil04Cobra]

Hey guys . I am currently getting ready to take most of the plastic pieces off my 04 cobra to get painted as they have a few imperfections.

I'm kind of concerned that after I get it painted that it won't match perfectly . I plan on doing a paint correction to the rest of the car before putting both bumper covers, side skirts . side scoops and spoiler back on the car .

My question is should I just have the body shop mix the paint or is there someone out there that is really good at it . If the weights are off at all with the colors it can make a huge difference . I know some people can be complacent and that alone could be the determining factor if it matches or not .

Any information or contacts that you might have is greatly appreciated .

:rockon:

 

[oldmodman]

A friend of mine just had a front fender, hood, and front plastic painted on his silver 01 Mustang GT.

When he picked up the car it didn't look like a very good match but the painter told him that he matched what the color WOULD be in three months when it was absolutely, totally cured.

He was right. If he had not waited and had demanded that it be repainted it would then have been to light after fully curing. The painter knew his business.

We also found that the final choice of wax, coatings or topper makes a difference too. Using Fuzion made all the paint slightly darker (and "richer") looking. But Opticoat 2.0 made no difference at all.

 

[Phil04Cobra]

A friend of mine just had a front fender, hood, and front plastic painted on his silver 01 Mustang GT.

When he picked up the car it didn't look like a very good match but the painter told him that he matched what the color WOULD be in three months when it was absolutely, totally cured.

He was right. If he had not waited and had demanded that it be repainted it would then have been to light after fully curing. The painter knew his business.

We also found that the final choice of wax, coatings or topper makes a difference too. Using Fuzion made all the paint slightly darker (and "richer") looking. But Opticoat 2.0 made no difference at all.

I guess over time paint will fade but I never heard of it changing color while having to cure over such a long time period .
I will keep that in mind when I access the work . The only problem is I am taking it to a body shop to have it all done then I will be bringing the parts to my shop to reinstall . It might be hard to tell if they match when I go to pick them up and reinstall them on the car to see how the shadows play out in the paint .

 

[TheGovernment]

oldmodman, the painter used the classic excuse on your buddy and he bought it hook line and sinker LOL. I've been painting for 17 years, we tell people that because after a few weeks, you get used to the color and convince yourself it matches (to get them out of them). Paint doesn't change, the clear is the only thing that really cures BTW. The base, depending on whether its water or solvent is pretty much cured once it's dried before the clear goes on. It's impossible for the color to change. The clear can yellow a bit from the sun but the actual color is what it is.

to the OP, There is a extremely good chance the color will not be perfect. Your paint it 13 years old, the sun's UV will yellow the clear somewhat, thats not to say it won't match good enough. My advise is don't be anal about it, give the shop your car, don't get them to paint things and put them on yourself. They may need to do some blending on other panels if the match it's 100% (though you may get lucky and it may be pretty good)

Also your assumption that some people don't weigh the paint properly is 100% wrong. The crappy color matches come straight from the factory with their alternate variances for colors, that then gets compounded but the paint company not getting the match right from the variances and how you can have 5 different cars with the same color and the 5 cars can be 5 different variances. It's pretty crappy for us. We can tint colors by eye or color camera to try and get the color as good as possible but there's lots of colors that you HAVE to blend out to other panels, it's just the way it is.

I do mostly caddys and have am a hired gun for hotrods at a few different shops. My advise to you, go to the shop an nicely tell them you love your car and "hope" the color match is really good. If they know you might be anal, they will take more time if the color is not great. Don't go in there raving about your car like a crazy person (yes we get that ALL the time) Your car will be butched. Have realistic expectations, it will never be 100% unless it's a complete paint job. If it's not to your liking, be nice about it if you want it re-done, don't be a dick, you will regret it (or your car will anyways lol)

 

[oldmodman]

oldmodman, the painter used the classic excuse on your buddy and he bought it hook line and sinker LOL. I've been painting for 17 years, we tell people that because after a few weeks, you get used to the color and convince yourself it matches (to get them out of them). Paint doesn't change, the clear is the only thing that really cures BTW. The base, depending on whether its water or solvent is pretty much cured once it's dried before the clear goes on. It's impossible for the color to change. The clear can yellow a bit from the sun but the actual color is what it is.

Could it have anything to do with California having banned all non water based paints? Because it did change from what it looked like when he picked it up to it's now good match. most of the change took place in the first week. Probably 90%
And from years ago when the paint was the high VOC content to now it seems to be more difficult to get a no orange peel finish. Is it just the painter's technique? Or is it the paint formulation.

 

[Phil04Cobra]

oldmodman, the painter used the classic excuse on your buddy and he bought it hook line and sinker LOL. I've been painting for 17 years, we tell people that because after a few weeks, you get used to the color and convince yourself it matches (to get them out of them). Paint doesn't change, the clear is the only thing that really cures BTW. The base, depending on whether its water or solvent is pretty much cured once it's dried before the clear goes on. It's impossible for the color to change. The clear can yellow a bit from the sun but the actual color is what it is.

to the OP, There is a extremely good chance the color will not be perfect. Your paint it 13 years old, the sun's UV will yellow the clear somewhat, thats not to say it won't match good enough. My advise is don't be anal about it, give the shop your car, don't get them to paint things and put them on yourself. They may need to do some blending on other panels if the match it's 100% (though you may get lucky and it may be pretty good)

Also your assumption that some people don't weigh the paint properly is 100% wrong. The crappy color matches come straight from the factory with their alternate variances for colors, that then gets compounded but the paint company not getting the match right from the variances and how you can have 5 different cars with the same color and the 5 cars can be 5 different variances. It's pretty crappy for us. We can tint colors by eye or color camera to try and get the color as good as possible but there's lots of colors that you HAVE to blend out to other panels, it's just the way it is.

I do mostly caddys and have am a hired gun for hotrods at a few different shops. My advise to you, go to the shop an nicely tell them you love your car and "hope" the color match is really good. If they know you might be anal, they will take more time if the color is not great. Don't go in there raving about your car like a crazy person (yes we get that ALL the time) Your car will be butched. Have realistic expectations, it will never be 100% unless it's a complete paint job. If it's not to your liking, be nice about it if you want it re-done, don't be a dick, you will regret it (or your car will anyways lol)

I really don't want to take my car to a shop to get the work done . Do you think blending would have to take place on the parts I am getting painted . I am only getting the bumper covers , side skirts (which already look waaay off the color of the car ) side scoops and rear spoiler done . They are all plastic . I find the plastic pieces kind of have a different shade to them as is . I will be "anal" if I'm paying upwards of 3 to 4 grand to get the work done and no , I wont stroll into their shop raving about how awesome my car is . I'm not that type of person . From a business standpoint , if someone came into my shop acting like a asshole wanting work done , I would still do the work to the best of my ability regardless of the customers attitude . Butchering someone's ride because of their demeanor sounds silly to me .

I would say that someone who is complacent mixing paint has a better chance of screwing up a paint match than someone who takes the time and does it right but I could be 100% wrong . The body shop I went to for a quote asked me to bring in a piece of the car and he would match the paint and seemed very confident that he could match it . I don't know though . My father and Uncle are body/paint guys and they say I will be lucky if it matches as well . If they weren't on the other side of the country I would just have them paint the entire car and be done with it , but that's not the case . If it don't match up , i will start saving for a paintjob .

 

[TheGovernment]

Could it have anything to do with California having banned all non water based paints? Because it did change from what it looked like when he picked it up to it's now good match. most of the change took place in the first week. Probably 90%
And from years ago when the paint was the high VOC content to now it seems to be more difficult to get a no orange peel finish. Is it just the painter's technique? Or is it the paint formulation.

No, I've been spraying water based paint for 9 years already. It didn't change man, sorry. It can't. I WISH it could believe me, it would solve sooooo many problems lol.
If you go from high to low VOC clear, they do spray differently but generally most shops smaller shops don't use the best paint, they need to make more money on each job and will use middle of the road stuff. I would at a Caddy dealership normally, we use top quality Cromax Water and 8500/8300 clear (I use the same on any rods I do as well). Is as good as it gets. You'll always get a bit of orange peel unless you've done your 3 coats, block all the peel off and do 2 more. That would eliminate most but usually thats way over kill and not worth the time. Throw on 3 good coats and sand all the peel off and polish it up. You'll be left with the proper 2 coats of clear. It's just technique. Just have to get used to the products.

 

[TheGovernment]

I really don't want to take my car to a shop to get the work done . Do you think blending would have to take place on the parts I am getting painted . I am only getting the bumper covers , side skirts (which already look waaay off the color of the car ) side scoops and rear spoiler done . They are all plastic . I find the plastic pieces kind of have a different shade to them as is . I will be "anal" if I'm paying upwards of 3 to 4 grand to get the work done and no , I wont stroll into their shop raving about how awesome my car is . I'm not that type of person . From a business standpoint , if someone came into my shop acting like a asshole wanting work done , I would still do the work to the best of my ability regardless of the customers attitude . Butchering someone's ride because of their demeanor sounds silly to me .

I would say that someone who is complacent mixing paint has a better chance of screwing up a paint match than someone who takes the time and does it right but I could be 100% wrong . The body shop I went to for a quote asked me to bring in a piece of the car and he would match the paint and seemed very confident that he could match it . I don't know though . My father and Uncle are body/paint guys and they say I will be lucky if it matches as well . If they weren't on the other side of the country I would just have them paint the entire car and be done with it , but that's not the case . If it don't match up , i will start saving for a paintjob .

At my shop, the customer gives attitude, we don't let them come back lol. I've flat out given a guy back his hotrod half done because he was being a bitch about stuff he had no idea about. He begged me to come back a week later and I charged his ass double hahaha He was happy as could be once it was done.

As for mixing the paint, any idiot can mix paint, it's a scale with a countdown and gives you the pigments you need to mix and how much of each, a five year old can do it lol If the guy starts free handing it after he gets his base color, yes that take some skill and understanding about the color wheel but even that isn't always perfect when you get into a bunch of metallics and pearls.

Blending would need to be done on adjacent panels, not the ones you'd be getting done (if the color was off enough for them to need to) Heck, I've had 20 year old cars have perfect matches before, you just never know. You car being Silver, you have a fairly good chance of it being decent enough.
My advice to you is, if you think you're going to be anal about it, get them to make a few sprayout cards, either bring your car, or take them home with you can see which one you like best. Just ask them to get the cards that are double sized. Take your car outside in the sun and pic the best one. That will take the pressure off if you get to pick it yourself. I do that quite often, although I've had to Veto a few people as they were either color blind or flat out blind lol.

 

[Dominican_7]

I took my car to the local shop that I trust and they invited I drop the car off. As TheGovernment stated, the shop manager advised me to get the best match blending is the way to go. They did a great job and no one could tell it was painted.

 

[mavericks-03svt]

as other have stated, silver is a tricky color to match. There is no such thing as a perfect butt match. paint reps and suppliers will say they can guarantee a blendable match but not a butt match. one of the problems with silver is there is a bunch of variants to the color and the metallics are very visible in silver. Your best bet is like someone else said pay the shop an extra hour or two to spray out test cards and pay them to blend the adjacent panels. Make sure you let the shop know up front what your expectations are with the color matching and ask them if they will respray on their dime if it is not up to par.

 

[Phil04Cobra]

as other have stated, silver is a tricky color to match. There is no such thing as a perfect butt match. paint reps and suppliers will say they can guarantee a blendable match but not a butt match. one of the problems with silver is there is a bunch of variants to the color and the metallics are very visible in silver. Your best bet is like someone else said pay the shop an extra hour or two to spray out test cards and pay them to blend the adjacent panels. Make sure you let the shop know up front what your expectations are with the color matching and ask them if they will respray on their dime if it is not up to par.

Thanks . I will definitely talk to them about the test cards . Another option I have been thinking about is just getting the small imperfections fixed and just have them blend around the scratches . I'm not sure how that will work out either but I will talk to them about that as well .

 

[mavericks-03svt]

Thanks . I will definitely talk to them about the test cards . Another option I have been thinking about is just getting the small imperfections fixed and just have them blend around the scratches . I'm not sure how that will work out either but I will talk to them about that as well .

That's what they will do depending on which panel is damaged. If you have a scratch in the middle of your door then the shop can repair the area and blend within the panel to where it will match up without blending into the fender or qtr panel. if your getting them to paint your side scoop then they will likely spray color over the entire part since it is small and not enough room to blend it within the part.

If you are getting them to respray a scoop I would get them to spray out test cards and you and the painter select the closest match. I would then ask them if they would be willing to test spray and clear the scoop first before agreeing to blend the qtr or door. If they are willing to do that then I would just mock up the scoop on the qtr panel to see how close the color is. Like I said before sometimes when you paint plastic parts and metal parts at the same time it may look a little off even thought it was painted at the same time, with the same paint and the same pressure in the gun, etc... If it is not dead on then tell them to blend away and watch the price of tea and china start to go up.

I would just make sure your shop is a good quality shop that is willing to work with you so you will be happy when it is done. I think it will all work out in the long run just fine.

 

[TheGovernment]

That's what they will do depending on which panel is damaged. If you have a scratch in the middle of your door then the shop can repair the area and blend within the panel to where it will match up without blending into the fender or qtr panel. if your getting them to paint your side scoop then they will likely spray color over the entire part since it is small and not enough room to blend it within the part.

If you are getting them to respray a scoop I would get them to spray out test cards and you and the painter select the closest match. I would then ask them if they would be willing to test spray and clear the scoop first before agreeing to blend the qtr or door. If they are willing to do that then I would just mock up the scoop on the qtr panel to see how close the color is. Like I said before sometimes when you paint plastic parts and metal parts at the same time it may look a little off even thought it was painted at the same time, with the same paint and the same pressure in the gun, etc... If it is not dead on then tell them to blend away and watch the price of tea and china start to go up.

I would just make sure your shop is a good quality shop that is willing to work with you so you will be happy when it is done. I think it will all work out in the long run just fine.

Except he said the colour was off on the panels he wanted to get painted in the first place. Add another 2 coats of clear and it will be off even more than it was Lol

 

[mavericks-03svt]

Except he said the colour was off on the panels he wanted to get painted in the first place. Add another 2 coats of clear and it will be off even more than it was Lol

true that. some clears will darken up silvers for sure.

 

[Phil04Cobra]

The side skirts seem a little off than the rest of the paint . The bumpers and scoops are the same . I just find the paint lays a little different on the plastic parts than it does the steel parts . Either way , it can't look any worse than it does now with all the imperfections .They stand out far more than a small difference in shade of paint will . As long as it's close and not extremely noticeable I will be happy . If not I will take the car to the body shop and have them blend it out.