First MSP BooBoo. Anyone try to paint match yet?

[2K3 MSP]

I'm sure most of you remember seeing the pics of my front end after I wrecked it. $8,400+ in damage to be exact. It is a 3 stage paint, orange basecoat/metal flake/pearl, and my body shop matched it EXACTLY. You can't tell where it was blended at all. Yes, it was blended

 

[MazdaspeedZOOM]

Ok the body shop I go to, pulls the paint code off your door, types it into a computer, the computer matches the paint based on the code and whats in the system, and presto you have matching paint. Just because it's orange shouldn't make any difference. If the body shop is haveing touble matching the paint then call your local mazda dealer and have them tell you the name of the body shop they use for all there body work, and the painting and instalation of the factory body kits. Typically dealerships use one body shop for all there work, and do nothing in house when it comes to body work, so that's the best place to start.

 

[2K3 MSP]

Ok the body shop I go to, pulls the paint code off your door, types it into a computer, the computer matches the paint based on the code and whats in the system, and presto you have matching paint.

Can they match the Spicy orange that way though?? I can see it being used to match the orange base coat, but there are 3 separate layers. Orange, then metal flake, then pearl. It seems odd that a computer could tell you how much metal flake/pearl to use when it all comes down to how good of a painter you have painting it. If he goes too light of a coat, or too heavy(concentrated in a certain area) it won't flow right when looking at the whole car...

 

[MazdaspeedZOOM]

Can they match the Spicy orange that way though?? I can see it being used to match the orange base coat, but there are 3 separate layers. Orange, then metal flake, then pearl. It seems odd that a computer could tell you how much metal flake/pearl to use when it all comes down to how good of a painter you have painting it. If he goes too light of a coat, or too heavy(concentrated in a certain area) it won't flow right when looking at the whole car...

I guess that's true, but he had no problem matching a pearl white on a toyota 4 runner, and that's a pretty difficult paint color to match. Guess it make me glad I bought the Black-Mica, it seems like a simple black with just a metal flake in it, no biggie for most shops. Although I haven't had to have anything painted yet and lets hope I never do.

 

[gr8pmkn]

hey guys.. i know what you mean when you say that the other parts on our cars dont match cause it is slowly starting to annoy me as well. as far as blending goes all cars nowadays have to be blended because that is the only way to achieve color match/hiding. on our cars it all depends on how many coats of pearl it takes to achieve that match. could be 1 or maybe even 5. all depends on the day our cars were painted from the factory. just make sure you are going to a good body shop and talk to the foreman/manager reagarding 3 stage paint. the usual steps are to retrieve the color info from the car and punch it into the computer so that it can be mixed then the painter should do a let down spray card which will show 1-4 coats of the pearl on top of the orange groundcoat and then clear the spraycard. then and only then is when they should paint your car after determining how many coats it will take. also look at the car on a sunny day but most important when it is overcast because you will usuallly see more of a difference when its not so sunny out. hope this helps out and sorry to babble...