Colour match

[AnnasMerc83]

Could someone explain how easy or not, is it to colour match 40 year old paint.

Got a new front wing, and the wing is considerably lighter than rest of car.

I don’t know if this is just something I have to accept as the paint job is 40 years old or should I get the Bodyshop to correct it?

I assumed they’ll have a colour scanner that just reads the light & mixes a near perfect match

 

[SpikyMikey]

Could someone explain how easy or not, is it to colour match 40 year old paint.

Got a new front wing, and the wing is considerably lighter than rest of car.

I don’t know if this is just something I have to accept as the paint job is 40 years old or should I get the Bodyshop to correct it?

I assumed they’ll have a colour scanner that just reads the light & mixes a near perfect match

What colour is it?
Silver is notoriously difficult to match and any metallic will probably look different due to the difference in density of flake.
That said, with modern spectrometer based matching, in theory a good match is much easier.

 

[AnnasMerc83]

What colour is it?
Silver is notoriously difficult to match and any metallic will probably look different due to the difference in density of flake.
That said, with modern spectrometer based matching, in theory a good match is much easier.

It’s brown!

I mean I wasn’t expecting 100% match, but something a bit better.
Too dark to take a pic now, will post in the morning.

 

[SpikyMikey]

It’s brown!

I mean I wasn’t expecting 100% match, but something a bit better.
Too dark to take a pic now, will post in the morning.

Would be interesting to see; I'm sure the MBClub collective will have a view or 2 on how good it is

 

[MrGreedy]

I would expect at a minimum, a match good enough that if you spend a while looking at it, possibly in various lights and from various angles, that you can just about spot a difference.

If it's obvious, then it's not good enough.

I had the bumper repainted on my (only) 12 year old Merc, Tenorite metallic grey. It's been two or three years now, and I still marvel that no matter how hard I try to be nit picky, I cannot tell at all.

So, somewhere between some decent effort to see a difference, and can't tell a difference is what you should expect.
You could have that conversation with the painter, and if they can't commit to that and can't achieve that, time to go somewhere else.

I don't know if this is private or paid for by insurance, but when we had a car panel repaired by insurnace, they sent a specialist paint assessor out to check the panel out after I complained. It was subtle, but with defects. He obviously knew his stuff, and picked out a couple more issues I didn't notice to start with. If you've gone via insurnace, ask for a paint assessor, and provided they aren't blind, once they say it's poor, it will likely be given the correct care and attention (otherwise the bodyshop risks not getting the invoice paid for this job, and being struck off approved repairer status for the insurer).

 

[Wearsthefoxhat]

My body shop guy did a great job in matching Azzurite blue metallic to my ‘98 SL. I had an original blue wing fitted.

 

[AnnasMerc83]

Sounds like I’ll be making a call to correct this.

 

[AnnasMerc83]

If it's obvious, then it's not good enough.

It was a private job. I was getting some rust welded under the battery, and we decided to sort the wing out same time.

Yeah, I was pretty disappointed when I seen it in the light yesterday. Stupidly I picked it up later in the day so didn’t realise it was that obvious - the guys did say the colour didn’t match perfectly… I just wasn’t expecting this.

 

[SpikyMikey]

Sounds like I’ll be making a call to correct this.

View attachment 165182

I somehow imagined that as it is relatively old paintwork, the new paint would be darker than the old....back to the garage methinks

 

[AnnasMerc83]

I somehow imagined that as it is relatively old paintwork, the new paint would be darker than the old....back to the garage methinks

That’s what I was expecting when they said slight mismatch, which I’d accept give 40 years of sun fading.

This brown looks more reddish than rest of car…

 

[SpikyMikey]

That’s what I was expecting when they said slight mismatch, which I’d accept give 40 years of sun fading.

This brown looks more reddish than rest of car…

That shade isn't really anywhere near

 

[AnnasMerc83]

Spoke to the Bodyshop, they gonna scan the old wing and correct next week

 

[alabbasi]

If it's considerable, someone screwed up. I was in the UK last month and it was shocking to see the number of poor quality blends.

 

[Gollom]

Spoke to the Bodyshop, they gonna scan the old wing and correct next week

Good service from the vendor! Not all would do that

 

[AnnasMerc83]

Good service from the vendor! Not all would do that

They’re quite well known, I believe.

I suspect the owner wouldn’t want anyone to see their not-so-great work, esp as the welding is actually top notch.

Said they were expecting my call, shit happens I guess.
I just wasn’t sure if I was being too pedantic, hence reaching out here.

 

[ALFAitalia]

Sounds like I’ll be making a call to correct this.

View attachment 165182

I would not accept that............the 40 years of fading are irrelevant these days where a decent body shop uses a spectrophotomete to match pretty much perfectly and allow for the fade and variants of the same colour.

How to Match Paint Color: Can a Machine Perfect the Process?

Have some paint around your house you just love, but aren't sure how to match paint color effectively? When paint chips fall short, a spectrophotometer can save the day! Read on to match colors without error.

home.howstuffworks.com

 

[ube63]

It’s good that the shop owned up. If you want your eyes to not be able pick up any difference then you should ask them to blend to adjacent panels but it’ll cost you more