matching OEM paint

[vrauba]

Has anybody found, or can anybody suggest what part of the Boxster is easily removable to bring to the paint shop to color match exterior paint? My first thought was gas cap cover, but that seems to have a rivet that's not easily removed. Then I thought tow hook cover, but mine has a clear bra over it (plus it's kind of small). Any suggestions or recommendations would be welcome. Matching by color code is a start, but to get a true match...the paint shop might have to tweak the formula and requires a piece of the car with OEM color. Mine is 3AZ Ocean Blue Metallic. Thanks.

[LVDell]

Why can't they color match from the car? I'm confused on this one.

[vrauba]

The car is not in a body shop. I'm doing the repairs and I need to purchase paint from an auto paint supply. They want a 3"X3" (or greater) paint sample from the car, preferrably from an exposed area to make the perfect match. They have special lighting equipment in their little lab which is where they match the paint to a sample from the car. They take into account fading, metallic density, etc. Of course, the painter (me) has to do the blending into the existing paint finish when spraying. Does this clarify it? I need to bring in a sample piece and I can't find an easily detachable one.

[LVDell]

Makes more sense now. I'll ask a dumb question though. Why can't you drive to the paint shop so they can match on the car?

If you can't take the car to the paint place then how far away is the shop? Depending on that answer I have a couple other suggestions for you.

[vrauba]

Makes more sense now.  I'll ask a dumb question though.  Why can't you drive to the paint shop so they can match on the car?

If you can't take the car to the paint place then how far away is the shop?  Depending on that answer I have a couple other suggestions for you.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

They mix the paint at the shop and they have this special machine that casts different light from different angles and that is how they match. The machine sits on a table and is not mobile.

They won't walk in and out of the shop with freshly painted chips to try and match the car. Thehy just don't operate that way. Most cars have a small piece that is removable, and usually it's the gas cap cover. Porsche has that funky pin holding the cover hinge, instead of a couple of screws or bolts, like most cars.

Knowing all this, I'm curious to hear your ideas.

[Tool Pants]

My friend owns a body shop and he has been in the business 30 years. He painted my artic silver humps about 4 years ago. He wanted my car in the shop to match the paint, and did not want to mix the paint just from the color code. He has a guy with a good eye who does all the color matching.

He showed me the 3 shades of sliver on my car that I never noticed. I had him match it to the clamshell since the humps sit on the clamshell.

He has groups of chips for all different colors. He had a stack of about 30 chips just for silver. There is a hole in the middle of each chip. They put the chip on the panel and you see the original color through the hole. I think there was info on the back of the chip to tell them how to change the standard aric silver paint code a bit to match the actual silver on my car. They go through the chips until they find a match. My humps were a perfect match after they were painted.

He also has a thing that looks like a radar gun. You hold it against the panel and it tells you how to mix the paint. For some reason he does not like it.

Somewhere I think Loren has posted instruction on how to remove the gas flap lid, so see if you can find it.

You could always remove the clamshell and bring it to the shop. It is just 6 nuts. Mark the location of the nust first so you can put it back where they were.

[LVDell]

Well TP had 2 of my 3 suggestions.

1. Get instructions to remove gas cover

2. Remove clamshell

3. Remove rear or front bumper (very easy)

I was also going to comment on the same thing about the hole in the sheets. My body shop that I do business with does that exact same thing. When they re-shot my hood they brought out 1/2 dozen Arena Red samples on sheet metal about the size of notebook paper with a hole (about 2" diameter) that the rested on the body of the car at the clamshell and chose from there.

Edited June 10, 2005 by LVDell