I've seen some mods posted here that look like they have flawless paint matches. How'd you do it?

I'm out looking for a shop that can do a good match for my LP K23 "metalic silver" sedan rear bumper cover. The body shops, two parts departments and an auto paint seller I contacted said there is no "Infiniti paint". It's mixed to match via a formula and adjusted by eye as the colors can change from model year to model year. I mentioned healing clear coat to one, I probably should not go back there again.

I understand there are a few different paint manufactures that supply the base and tints as well? Sherman Williams Color: Formula List has a list of different formulas for the one color. I'm thinking that's scary and at my age, scary is not good.

Thanks in advance any tips you can share...

 

yes, there is no such thing as factory paint. all repair facilities use formulas supplied by the paint manufacturer to mix their colors by code. as far as i know, there aren't any shops that use "self healing" paint and imo this is mostly a gimmick.

as long as you find a shop that uses a quality paint manufacturer and has a good reputation, you shouldn't have any problems.

 

^ What he said. There's no such thing as factory paint.

Most shops use the PPG paint brand to mix paints, as long as your shop does that, it'll be close to factory.

 

Deff no Nissan/infiniti paint. PPG is good quality paint. It's not self healing paint it's actually the clear coat that's self healing. I seen self healing clear at the body shop supply place. Can't recall the name but I seen it. I'll try to get thename for you

 

Any time I had to get something color matched I went to an Infiniti certified body shop. All my parts came out flawless. Mine is an IP and that is one the hardest colors to get right.

 

Hi Soolman32, I may have searched incorrectly, but, I could not find an Infiniti certified body shop in Southern California. I did find one, Spectrum Collision, in Irvine that was GTR certified(!) They are mostly a BMW shop based on their signage and the friend that referred them to me.

 

they probably use glasurit, and they are probably going to be expensive.

 

Your help with this really makes a difference...

The posts give me the knowledge and confidence to think about a good outcome.

I think only people that are into their cars like us, know how it feels to have even a little fender bender. Funny, most of my life I drove company leased Fleetwoods, Buicks, or Chryslers and I didn't even look twice when I noticed damage like this. But, to me a G car is way different, it's a car I care about.

 

i looked at your place on line and it looks pretty comprehensive. looks like they would know what they are doing.

 

Body shops have what is called variances which is several different mixtures they to try and match the paint. They use these variances as a base and then adjust the paint accordingly to your car. In the end they have to eyeball the paint to get the match perfect. There is no specific mixture as every car will have a slightly different shade of paint.

 

Well put, paint can very from car to car, date of production, etc. and is most difficult to match on metallics. A quality body shop should have no problem matching, PPG and Glasurit are two very high quality brands which most OEM paint jobs consist of. As for the self healing clear, I wouldn't worry too much since it seems to just be more of a gimmick than anything, and just makes polishing more difficult in most cases.