Paint color match issue. Need help

Had some body/paint work done and the color doesn’t match. The shop said they’ll paint it again without charge but said they followed the paint info for my truck.

Any suggestions on what paint brand to use for a better match? The new paint is a lighter gray, almost silver. Doors and fender were painted…



Thanks!

 

Paint shops always get the vehicles specific paint code (color) by checking the vin # . Matching paint when original paint is faded is what good shops get right, that's if your paint is faded? May have been sprayed a second paint job where paint code wasn't matched. Too many factors involved to guess. If this is an insurance paid job they will get it right to remain in good favor with them. If this is out of your pocket some shops won't bend over backwards to get it right. Some will even say they use quality lifetime paint but instead used a 7 yr warranty paint.

All mfg paints should match your color according to paint code. Yours color can be located in the driver side door jamb. The code will have a C/TR in front of it. Your color code is said to be 1E3 or Phantom Gray Pearl [Gray]. Paint is mixed according to color code and finished result is typically spot on.

PPG and BASF's R-M paint brand are well known quality paints. R-M has lifetime warranty. House of Kolor is well known for custom paints.

 

Thanks! Paint isn’t faded. Insurance work paint was completed on the bed a few years back. I’ll pass on the info. Appreciate it!

 

What @gascap said. I have one panel that was resprayed. I can see the silver sky metallic has a c-hair more blue in it than the rest of the truck but only in the right lighting.

I promise you that you are the only one who will ever notice it. You can kinda see it here in this picture. The passengers side bed is just slightly more blue than the rest of the truck.



Ironically, this is also from the last weather event just like the one I'm experiencing now!

Compare that picture of the passengers side to this picture of the driver side. See how it all has an undertone of "white"



Here, I'll put them side by side for you.

 

Looks like the bed is a tad darker than the rest of the truck. What I did to color match on my truck was to pull the fuel door and match to the color on the inside where its not clear coated.

 

Any shop can look up the paint code and automatically mix it or mix by weight manually.

Any respectable paint shop knows paint fades and I would expect to have a spectrowhateverthehellmeter or similar to fine-tune the exact mix to match the existing amount of fade for cars more than a few years old. This is a heavily spun version of what I'm talking about:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL3xMQMHQig

 

Thanks y’all!

@Tundra2, issue is I notice it lol. Mine is a lot more noticeable than yours. It’s basically a different color when the sun shines on it.

@Jack McCarthy absolutely right. The new paint is lighter than my original paint.

@shifty` issue is the new paint is lighter. Wouldn’t think faded paint would be darker. Also, the truck bed paint is fairly new.

 

Paint is paint.
Pigment is pigment.

It's not the kind of paint they screwed the pooch on, it's the mixture of pigment. There are hand-held tools they can use to literally get an exact match. Using the paint mixture formula for your stock color doesn't cut it, or, if the truck was repainted at any point by any other shop, you may need to match whatever mixture they used.

This guy talks about it well, hope the Aussie accent isn't a bit much. Over the years, this is the best video I've ever seen explaining how to do proper painting of separate panels with spectro matching.

I believe this is where your shop screwed up. You can't just match the OEM paint using your stuff and hope for the best.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMmxm9_ZGiQ

 

Yeah...

 

If you want to skip all the gibberish, just go to the 6m20s mark in the video. You'll see, on a virtually new car, side by side, the difference that can happen between the factory color and actual color. You can't just paint a car based on paint code. I mean, you *can*, but you're going to see what you've got up above.

Colors with be off by a fraction of a gram here or there, even at the factory, day to day or maybe even week to week. You don't see it because they're painting the cars end to end at once. Add in other elements of age, UV fading, etc. and you have a recipe for variances. This is why reputable shops have tools to measure the difference and output it just like you see around the 6m20s mark of that video. This way, you don't have customers coming back asking you to repaint b/c shit don't match.

 

Cool thanks!

 

No prob. Truck looks great BTW!

 

Now this would bother me. This is a Kia in the parking lot. Metal hood is darker than plastic bumper.

Such an easily discernable contract would not sit well with me

 

That's a very hard color to match, lots of factors will affect the final color, such as air pressure and solvent to paint ratio. Looks pretty good, but if you aren't happy and they are willing to do it again, see if they can adjust.

 

In person, the difference is very noticeable on mine. Basically the same as what’s buggin you in this pic

 

If they wouldn’t fix it, I’d take it somewhere else for a do over. It’s 2 different colors, maybe not as noticeable in the pic

 

Wow, lol, technology and the neat gadgets they're using today to get the exact mix. I'm from the days when Maxwell Smart's shoe phone preceded the reality of cell phones by decades. That's a good question to ask, to see a paint shops Spectrophotometer used for automotive paint matching. If they don't have one then they don't get the job. The hardware and software looks expensive and possibly for some, difficult to learn how to use.

Next they'll have eye glasses to put on before doing a casual walk around the vehicle looking at the paint. It'll transmit needed data to the computer inside and have everything needed that's printed and waiting for the estimator before he/she gets back inside.

 

We didn't get to the moon by settling for "ballpark" or "good enough". When you want to get closer to perfection, sometimes you gotta use technology to fill in the blanks...

 

I think to acheive the results you are looking for, the paint needs to be blended into the adjacent exisitng paint/panels to where the body work was done.

 

Painting is more than color - technique is also important.

Any good painter should be able to adjust from the spray out, but it's more time consuming and there's a better chance of wasting paint.

 

You said the doors and fender were painted this time around but that the bed was painted a few years back? Is it possible the bed color is the one that’s off? Just wondering if it might be the case that the previous paint job done on the bed is t the right color……..you probably would have noticed it previously but just a thought.

 

How’s the fender look to the hood? Painter may have been between a rock and a hard place with the prior paint on the bedside. It looks dark and coarse. If I’m spraying that job I’m gonna match the fender to the oe hood and have an easy blend down the side rather than chase my tail with whatever color the bed was painted.

 

Truck bed matches the rest of the truck

 

Hood is darker as well. Entire truck is a darker metallic gray vs the lighter, almost silver with much less metallic tone where it was painted recently.

 

I'm surprised they didn't blend the paint into the adjacent undamaged panels. Typically they do that so you don't obviously see what's been done there.

 

They did the fender to blend it a bit but I think they were in a rush to finish. Rains were coming and Xmas was around the corner. Got the truck back day before they closed for the holidays. Shop owner seems like a stand up dude so far as he said he’d paint again at no cost. I’ll be pointing out all the great info you all shared with them and hopefully I get a nice uniformed truck back soon enough.

Appreciate you all!

 

They should have a few spray out cards for that code. If not they can and should make a couple before throwing more material on it. Not out of line for you to pick the repaint color variant with the owner and painter. The last thing you, or they want is to not nail it on the second go.