touque

ok so I've been a semi-busy little beaver lately, trying to sort out a few things on my '89 C4. Bought some used aero mirrors and then a new spoiler without the techart wing on it, and wanted to get them all painted to match the rest of my Baltic Blue Metallic car.

Also thought I'd try my luck at fixing the common crack on the spoiler (upper left close to corner). Now I'm definitely not a body guy, more of a 'bolt on new parts and fix it that way' kinda guy, but I figured what the heck, how hard can it be

Sanded and prepped both mirrors and the spoiler including patching the crack, sprayed the base coat, screwed things up a bunch, fixed that, sprayed the clear coat, screwed things up a bunch, then re-did this all over! I eventually finished and the result is an OK job, not great but at least not peeling clearcoat which is what I had before.

But the problem is that even though I ordered the correct paint code, the new paint is a tough too dark, close but not close enough to not see it and notice. It's not terrible, but again not close enough for me anyway.

I remember I've read a few posts on here and Pelican where people have said that the proper matching numbers paint you buy is usually darker than what's on the car - is that correct? I didn't buy PPG or Glasurit for example so if I went and got new PPG with the correct code, would I get the proper colour?

Or should I go to a bodyshop and get them to just match the colour on the car, or take the gas cap perhaps and do it that way?

I would hate to buy another quart of base and clear, go through all the sanding and prep work, and then find it again was a touch darker than what's currently on the car.

Thoughts?

Makmov

It's hard to do a good color match and it takes a special talent to get it right.

You got color tint, start with a spectrometer, do a spray out card and get it all out in the sun. It's more about picking the right guy to do the color match than anything else. And not everyone, not every body shop or paint supplier has someone that can do it. Those guys that can are very rare and hard to come by, and it's a dark art not a science.

Kahdmus

I had the same issue when I changed the mirrors on my old '89 C4 and had them sprayed at the local body shop. However after 12 months it was almost impossible to tell the difference.

c didy

"Also thought I'd try my luck at fixing the common crack on the spoiler (upper left close to corner). "


It might be good to figure out what cracked it to begin with so it doesn't just happen again as it has for some folks. Someone must know about this. Maybe Steve Weiner or someone.

hamah

Where are you located? I "gotta guy" that does a great job colour matching and if you bring the parts to him will give a great cash price. Last few bits I've brought to him were done perfectly and even though he had the correct colour code wanted to match to existing paint samples (not actually sure if he had to do any correction or not)

touque

thanks Steve - no where close to North Van - I'm 'down' in Portland.

I may decide to go Glasurit and get it matched to the rest of the car rather than just buying off the paint code...