356 paint-matching
01-16-2008, 03:02 PM
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356 paint-matching
This note from 356 Talk addresses a frequent question among owners of 356s (& other vintage cars) w/ tired or damaged paint. It is in response to an inquiry on how to source & select a paint recipe among modern suppliers to replicate an original (or as-is-on-car) color (I've stripped off the inquiry & response authors ID). The issues raised perhaps confirm why Willhoit supplies paint chips to owner / restorers so one can just walk into a competent shop & say, "paint it this color" (I have a section of original, protected-from-the-sun silver on the underside of my '59's engine lid that is near-pristine - someday I will utilize it in the manner suggested).
"Subject: Help needed with Modern Paint Codes
Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2008
IMHO, you are wasting your time trying to find it on-line. Just take
your car's rear deck lid, or glove box door down to your friendly, local
auto body shop supply house, and ask them to match it for you. If you
don't have a panel in the correct color, tell them how you'd like to
change it, in comparison to what's on that panel. They'll have the
correct formula, from PPG, to get pretty close. From there, they can
custom tint the PPG formula to match your car's color.
You see, no matter where you get your paint, it has to be "built" from a
"base", with correct tinting added, to match the color formula's specs.
In other words, there is "room for interpretation" each time the formula
is mixed at the "supplier level". So, you could find the "exact match"
on-line, order it on-line, and end up with something which is,
technically, Bali Blue, but which, in reality, doesn't match the color
you need.
For example, I needed what I thought would be a very easy color (Glacier
White) to match, last week, for an MG project I'm working on. I took
the boot lid with me, to my local PPG supplier. They had the "correct"
formula listed for BLMH Glacier White, but said "just leave the lid with
us, and we'll have your color mixed by this afternoon" (this was late
morning). Now, the formula listed called for X amount of green, along
with another color besides white. However, to get a "dead-nuts" match
to my car's original color, they needed to cut the amount of green by
50%. It's amazing how different a color looks under various types of
artificial light vs. bright sun light."
"Subject: Help needed with Modern Paint Codes
Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2008
IMHO, you are wasting your time trying to find it on-line. Just take
your car's rear deck lid, or glove box door down to your friendly, local
auto body shop supply house, and ask them to match it for you. If you
don't have a panel in the correct color, tell them how you'd like to
change it, in comparison to what's on that panel. They'll have the
correct formula, from PPG, to get pretty close. From there, they can
custom tint the PPG formula to match your car's color.
You see, no matter where you get your paint, it has to be "built" from a
"base", with correct tinting added, to match the color formula's specs.
In other words, there is "room for interpretation" each time the formula
is mixed at the "supplier level". So, you could find the "exact match"
on-line, order it on-line, and end up with something which is,
technically, Bali Blue, but which, in reality, doesn't match the color
you need.
For example, I needed what I thought would be a very easy color (Glacier
White) to match, last week, for an MG project I'm working on. I took
the boot lid with me, to my local PPG supplier. They had the "correct"
formula listed for BLMH Glacier White, but said "just leave the lid with
us, and we'll have your color mixed by this afternoon" (this was late
morning). Now, the formula listed called for X amount of green, along
with another color besides white. However, to get a "dead-nuts" match
to my car's original color, they needed to cut the amount of green by
50%. It's amazing how different a color looks under various types of
artificial light vs. bright sun light."
