DeaconFrost

Saturday morning/friday night...a jackass ran into my car while it was parked in an IHOP parking lot...its not too bad, but I am afraid that the re-painted area will not look right...since it is a montego blue car. Is there a place I can get the specific color or what?

Thanks,
Sean

cmartinp28

look in the door sil, there is a color code there.... and thats the color theyr'e gunna use

DeaconFrost

oh good...

thanks.

Tim McCreary

The problem is paint match. Even with the factory paint code and factory paint, the fading will cause the panels to appear different. You must take it to a shop that will guarantee paint match. If not, you will find that under different lighting and different angles, it looks like night and day.

To get paint to match properly, you may have to end up painting the whole car.

Tim

bajaman

Yep, Tim is correct. It is almost a guarantee that the paint will NOT match when you are only repainting a small section, it is pretty difficult to do in reality.
The bitch of it is that to paint the whole car takes a LOT more time and money.

jeff48

There are actually 3 paints that match the M8 code and you will probably never get a perfect match in any event. A really top quality shop is going to require a pretty wide "blend" area which means more $$$, but for you as the guy who got hit, you have the RIGHT to have the car put back in the exact condition it was before it was hit. The insurance company of the guy that hit you is going to have to authorize repairs to get you happy. Make sure you are!

LoveBone

Yep, what everyone is saying. You're basically comparing brand new paint to paint that's 10 years old. A really good shop will be able to blend the area in and make it not so noticeable but you *will* see a difference in the light and at certain angles.

Tim McCreary

Just another point. My brother worked for a very highly reputable body shop and they would guarantee it. If you take the car out at night and park under a lightpost, you will see the blend area like night and day.

Get it blended somewhere that guarantees it, then take it out at night, check it out, return it the next day and complain. If they guarantee it, they will repaint the whole car eventually without your added cost (part of your guarantee). Make certain you emphasise that you do not want to see any differences in the paint and don't want to be able to tell it was repainted in one section. If they say in visible daylight you cannot tell, reply that you take the car to car shows at night at mall parking lots and the blend job makes the car look like crap.

Remember also that the metallic fleck paint has a "grain direction" if sprayed improperly creating a visible texture difference. This can be seen visibly during daylight and is a dead giveaway of repainting. The paint must be laid down on the car carefully to prevent this from happening.

Tim

rex u.k

there is no such thing as grain direction the metallic particulate in paints have different grades from ultra fine, like those used in pearlescent paints to coarse like those used in metalflake finishes.I have been painting cars for 15 years and there is no such thing as a"perfect match finish" rather it is how well a refinisher can deceive the eye by using various techniques such as blending adjoining panels, cutting new paint to milk it down,cutting old paint to bring it up etc.there are many things which affect the final finish, paint quality application technique,temperature etc,etc and one can go on forever,so my point is select a bodyshop that is good at deceiving the eye and creating the impression of the "perfect match".

novadan67

I went through this exact same thing about a year ago with my silver 94. Make sure that you take it to as many shops as possible and find out EXACTLY what each one will be doing. You will be shocked at the difference from shop to shop. Then the insurance adjuster will try to back you down, but don't give in. It is your choice of shops, and make sure you go to the shop that does the best quality work. Also ask around about the different shops in your area to find ones with the best reputatuions. As stated in the good advice from previous posts, make sure you get a guarantee! Good luck!

Tim McCreary

When I was talking about grain direction, I am not talking about how the metallic aligns with each other, but how the paint is laid onto the car. Probably a better term would be tiger stripes where someone sprays the paint swath too quickly or too narrow creating the effect of different densities of the metallic particulates visible to the naked eye. It ends up looking like lines of heavy versus light metallic or various shade differences. It is much more noticeable with metallic paints versus non-metallic paints. That is all I was trying to describe.

I have seen many metallic paint jobs that looked like crap because of this even if the whole car is painted. You cannot match the factory look of the density because it has much to do with the volume of paint, speed of the painter's arm, and location of the paint center line compared to each pass when painting as well as the paint thickness. The computer robot generated painting is even and uniform where as human painting is not. It has to do with technique more than anything else.

Just as an example: I owned a 1999 Chevy Blazer that was metallic blue. I had an accident where the passenger roof, door, and window were scratched in a windstorm by a dumpster. Total damage was less than the size of your hand, hardly noticeable, and was estimated at over $1000 to repair. Scratch in the paint was into the primer. They sent the check in my name only and the body shop manager told me to cash it and run, dont repair it. He said he could never get the blend to look right and probably the wife will total it anyway. Soon after this, I noticed a blemish in the driver's door. They repaired it under warranty and it looked as good to me as new. I could not tell much of a difference in the shade and look of the panel, but it was not blended in, just painted to the seam lines. The vehicle was two months old.

I later traded the vehicle in with the damage to the roof (hardly noticeable). The dealership I traded it to repaired the roof scratch by blending it in. They sold the car within 2 weeks. The new owner was on his way down to pick up the vehicle and was late in the day when it was dark. The deal was already finalized and he was coming to pick it up. The car was under the lights and he could see the paint repair just driving past it. The dealership called me up and asked if I had the vehicle repaired. I said yes and they said it was a shitty job. I begged to differ and said it was an excellent job. They went on to say that they had the vehicle sold, then lost the sale because of the paint. I could hardly believe it. I explained that the driver's door was repaired under warranty. Then the salesman said, "You mean the Passenger door and roof". I said NO the Driver's door. The passenger door and roof were not repainted. He then found out that it was his own dealership that repaired the scratch and screwed up the blend and paint job costing them the sale. In the daylight, the car looks perfect, at night it looked horrible.

I currently own a 2000 Durango with a metallic teal green paint. The car was hit in the passenger rear. The color match is perfect. I noticed that there was something different but could not put my finger on it. After looking carefully for evidence of repainting, I could find nothing. Later on as the sun set late in the day, I looked at the car and figured it out. The metallic flakes were just slightly bigger and the density was just a bit heavier looking and there were some minor tiger stripes visible at certain angles under certain lighting. I knew then that the car was damaged previously.

You hit it on the head when you said there is no perfect match, but as an owner of the damaged car, you are entitled to the same as it was before the accident. If that means repainting the whole car, then that is what must happen. The only way to get a uniform look to the car is to have the whole vehicle painted the same technique by the same professional person. This is the only way to ensure "same as it was before accident" look.

Tim

the_glass_man

iTrader: (2)

It will never match unless you get the whole car repainted.

cmartinp28

you guys are scaring him....... hehe


i got a quarterpanel painted when i got into an accident, and the difference is very unnoticable....

but then i got into another accident and just went with a different color

FeatherTheClutch

Just repaint the whole car...and have insurence pay for it...get a free paint job...lol

novadan67

Good luck convincing the insurance company that it is necessary to paint the whole car. That will be even more difficult than getting the paint to match!

craigny1

The problem here is that even if you take 4 stock montego blue cars that have never been repainted the color will not match. Mazda like many other automakers changed the company they where buying their materials from and the colors where different from batch to batch. In the auto body world when they go to mix up paint they will come up with what they call variances. On some colors mainly blues and reds and silver I have seen up to 16 different variances for one color. If you find a good body shop they should be able to match the color and blend it so you will never know the difference... Most of the time it is not the color that is off it is the difference in the shine of the clear coat... Your car may be a bit faded and the new clear will not.
I am sorry to see your car got hit. Do some reasearch and find a good body shop..

Craig K
www.drivinhard.com

donny

I was an autobody painter for 5 years, and you can match the paint color. You must find a good body shop with a good paint reputation. If the painter is good at color matching and the new paint is blended into the nearest panels, the eye will not be able to see the difference, if it done right.
Darker colored cars are usually easier to match then the light colors, like silver and white.