Repainting and Paint-Matching Experiences

[wolverine_man]

Hello everyone. I thought I'd create a thread where people can share their experiences with having their mazdas painted and how well the paint matched afterwards. This can include having aftermarket parts painted to match such as a front lip or spoiler, or, as in my case, having the body repainted after a colission.

 

[wolverine_man]

I'll go first. I have a Galaxy Gray MZ3. I recently was t-boned in my parking lot on the driver's side and had to have two new doors shells installed. The dealerships garage attempted to match the whole driver's side, but the parts they painted a little bluer in hue than the original paint. I am having them redo it and I'll see what the results are.

I'm kind of worried about having extra coats of paint on part of the car and if they ever will be able to match it perfectly or very near perfectly. The car matched before accident so I am insisting it matches after the repairs.

 

[ThrillRide]

Good idea man. Its a crappy fact, but it happens. Sorry about your woes. You should insist it matches. Kinda surprised the dealer can't match it though. They should be able to do so. But thats dealerships for you. I would think any reputable body shop could match it.

 

[wolverine_man]

Thanks. Also, if anyone on here is an expert in painting, I would appreciate their opinions as well.

 

[NCZ13]

I think it also has to do in the variances of flake (mica) in the paint.

the 22v(sunlight silver) on modern mazdas has alot more flake than my p5 does. I know this because one of my friends has a speed3, and is a detailing enthusiast as well, so his paint is in fairly good shape. Looking at his paint is almost like looking at a different color.

we both have the same paint code, however if i were to have a panel repainted i dont think it would match at all.

With my other friends 22v rx8, he has a mazdaspeed body kit that was put on by the previous owner. It was paint matched, but in low light (street lamp) conditions you can clearly see the bumper is a different hue than the rest of the car. Its subtle, and barely noticeable in the day time.

Also another factor is a swirled finish. Swirling, especially heavy swirling can cause the paint to look a different shade. When a car is properly corrected the paint returns to its original deep color. Fresh paint ideally should be swirl and defect free. Maybe your other panels are slightly swirled, causing them to give an effect of a lighter color? Its all about high light reflects off of the panel.

 

[wolverine_man]

Not sure if this matters, but the other panels have a few coats of wax on them. My cousin worked for Sherwin Williams automotive finishes and he said they should be able to match the color but thought that because they switched over to the new, EPA-friendly waterborn paint system, they might not have gotten it right.

I mean, you can tell because they did not repaint the mirror, door handles or side skirts, and those things are right next to the newly painted panels. I can even see the line where they blended up the exterior A and C-pillars. It goes bluish gray, to a factory, more golden gray by the time you are over the door frames. Looks kind of like an iridescent, color-changing blend. :mad: And shoot, even the VG antenna that I ordered matches my car pretty much perfectly and that was painted by VG with no color matching attempt. Surely, this cannot be that hard of a task.

 

[ThrillRide]

Not sure if this matters, but the other panels have a few coats of wax on them.

Actually that could matter. Some waxes have a tendency to darken (or lighten) the color. But it would be slight. If it is very noticable I wouldn't think that is the case.

 

[wolverine_man]

I used Meguiar's NXT 2.0.

 

[ThrillRide]

Has a darkening effect. Might be it might not.

 

[wolverine_man]

Thanks man!! The newly-painted (unwaxed) panels are actually darker than the older, waxed ones. So they definitely fudged the paint job.

 

[NCZ13]

well like i said. It could go back to your untouched panels probably need to be polished. A swirled finish= a lighter shade. When polished the color deepens.

Your freshly painted panels shouldnt have any swirling on them.

let me see if I can dig up any pictures of what i mean.

if you look at the picture i posted, you can see that the swirled, unpolished finish is a lighter shade of green than than the polished side.

 

[wolverine_man]

Okay, I am horrible at taking pictures but the flash seemed to alter things, so here are some lower light pics I took last night.

Mismatching Original Paint Handle, Mirror, Side Skirt

Mismatching Original Paint Hood

Matching Original Paint Hood (Pass Side)

Mismatching Original Paint Handles

Matching Original Paint Handles (Pass Side)

These pictures truly do not show the mismatch that you can see in reality, especially on the hood. It's just hard talking about something like this without pics.

 

[ThrillRide]

can deffinitely tell a difference on the handles. Well, hope they take care of you.

 

[wolverine_man]

Thanks. Me too! I just wanted to make sure that was not a difference in wax vs unwaxed. It's actually fairly substantial in-person and the body shop guy agreed.

 

[wolverine_man]

Alright, I got my 3 back from the dealership after their second attempt last week and I am still unhappy with the paint match. I went to another dealership -the place where I bought the car from - and had their paint guy look at it. He thought the paint job was terrible. Poor color match, runs along the door edges, heavy swirling, overspray on my windows and door jams, poor door adjustment on the body work, etc. They are writing me up an estimate to send to the DRS Liaison so that the insurance company can authorize a redo at this second shop and subrogate against the first.

This is the question that I actually have. I finally found my sunglasses under my passenger seat a few days ago. They were brand new and I noticed this clear hazy coating on the lenses, inside and outside. I had thought maybe that they got scratched or something, but that didn't make sense for the inside of the lenses. I was about to throw them out when soap and water did nothing to remove the hazy patches (they were only $10 sunglasses). I then used some Windex, a cloth and some severe elbow grease. They cleaned right up. This was yesterday, right before I went into the second shop and the paint guy pointed out the overspray on my windows, which looked like clear chalky patches.

What I am wondering is if somehow a misting of clearcoat overspray got INSIDE my car. I was checking and I saw a little blotchiness on my steering wheel, which normally appears a nice rich black color (I use 303 protectant). It is winter though and I haven't detailed the interior in a while. I also felt the dark gray dash trim strip, which I THOUGHT always felt really glossy. The strip still looks shiny but it has a chalky texture to it.

Can anyone with a Mazda3 with the dark gray dash strip let me know if it is supposed to feel really smooth or if it should feel a little satiny or chalky?

 

[wolverine_man]

Update after Third Attempt @ a Second Garage

Just got car back from the second garage - dealership. Paint match is pretty darn spot on, especially with the hood. The painted side is a tad shinier than the rest of the vehicle but I was told it will even out in time, especially after a good cleaning and waxing of the whole vehicle. There's very, very minor paint run/buildup along door edges with is actually consistent with factory painted side. They did also have to clean up overspray on the inside of the vehicle as well as the outside from the clearcoat job done at the last place. In addition they removed the appropriate mils of paint layer on the previous botch job so that it is more consistent with the rest of the vehicle.

Only a few issues, though. Front door tint is scratched and that was actually pointed out to me by the shop manager. He said they will pay to have the window retinted. Also, I noticed that the clear gauge cluster shield has some deep scratches in it that must have occurred during the interior cleanup from the overspray. So, they are also going to replace that shield too after finding out if it is a one piece or three piece unit. Finally, I think they need to make the doors just a tad tigher, as there's just a bit too much play in them.

Otherwise, I am almost back to original condition, pre accident.

 

[altspace]

Glad to hear it all worked out for you in the end. I've been there as well. Amazes me how careless and cheap many of these places are.

I've custom painted quite a few pieces for many cars, both interior/exterior. All I can say is that it truly is both an art form and science. One must have skills for perfect paint match.

FYI - I believe that MAZDA (mica) paint are tri-coat, and colors like silver 22v are just metallic. I've owned both, having velocity red 27a now.

Reason I mention this is that I was given a set of oem painted black rear bumper aero pieces and decided to give it a try and paint myself since I had already done a few small items in the VR with an aerosol paint from www.automotivetouchup.com. $25 for a can of paint. Or you can spend $50 and buy the true 2 stage base and mid coat from www.paintscratch.com.

In the end, my rear pieces came out quite nicely. In natural sunlight they are almost a perfect match, however slightly lighter and obviously not as deep as oem paint. Being that the pieces are down low and tucked under, I was not to concerned.

Photos after install:

Under garage lights: