Anyone know the answer to this?

I never knew there were different shades of black, but a local body guy told me he can't match Ford's black exactly and I've seen the proof in direct sunlight when two panels are side-by-side with his paint and OE paint.

Where would one go for an exact paint match? Is it that hard to figure out??

 

Black is very difficult to match for some reason. My cousin and I both have Victory motorcycles and his is black. He dented and scratched the tank and the dealer said it wasn't worth trying to repair it because they would never be able to match the factory black paint. He ended up having to buy a new tank.

 

I rarely see black that is a correct match; however, it can be done. It just takes someone with a LOT of skill. When I got my new bumper and got it sprayed, they matched it PERFECTLY. Granted, it is silver, but getting silver to match is pretty difficult to match, too. (Flake is hard...)


Here is what I gather from my LIMITED experience on the topic: Some body shops can get ahold of paint that is 'pre-faded'-- meaning it is mixed to look like paint from a specific code after a certain # of years. When I picked up my touch up paint, I was asked for the paint code and year-- then my bottle had on it: "2003 Silver Clearcoat metallic"... If you can find someone that has that stuff, go for it. I am 99% sure a stealership has it...

(If you are wondering about my touch up success, here it is: Anything that was salvageable, such as small rock chips or a few smaller scratches, I covered and you almost cannot find them-- you have to know where they are. I also used it to cover some hopeless spots so they wouldnt stick out so much... they look like crap, but better than before. )

 

There is a great body shop that I go to. What they do is after they get the paint code they bring out some color swatch cards that have all the different variations of that color. They were able to match a bright red perfectly.

 

Hmm, interesting. Oddly enough, most body shops brag about their color-match ability in their ads. Could they be full of BS and are just assuming the mopes they service will never notice?

 

I wonder if that guy you talked to was just not confident in his abilities

I say go to a better shop...

 

I would try another shop. Ask to see some of their work. See if they have a black car they are working on and check it out.

 

Uh, try a different shop ... It's not that hard. Sure Black is a hard color to match but that's not just Ford.

I don't think the painter is confident enough to do it.

 

Yes, black is probably the hardest color to match. Mainly cause the darker the color is the harder to know which way to tint it and what colors to use to tint. I do boats but have done paint on cars before. If a color can't be matched exactly they should spray then start adding clear to the paint and feather it out a foot or so over the connecting body panels to get a good blend then go straight clear after that. This will make the color difference not noticeable or near as noticeable. Right out of HS I had a black 97' F150 and hit a few deer and both times the color was off when repaired.

 

My local body shop matched my black. You can't even tell it was repainted in a section. I'd look at other shops.

 

Agreed, try another shop. Franks Accurate Auto Body here has an incredible painter. They have repainted multiple vehicles for us.

I know Aamco does a good job...

 

some colors have up to 30 variants, weathering also makes it hard to match paint. majority of the time, blending is used to make the miscoloration match the rest of the vehicle...


all depends on your specific vehicle.




have you talked to anyother bodyshops????

 

As mentioned, I think you misunderstood. It's not that he can't match the Ford black, he can as his paint comes from the same manufacture, it's that he can't match black that has faded for 2 years. A good painter can, with little problem.

The paint can be blended to more closely match the faded paint. The surrounding panels can then be blended if needed. Plastic bumpers are not blended as they don't match the surrounding metal panels anyway (plastic dries at a different speed then metal so it does not match perfectly from the factory).

 

The paint he was trying to match was on a 2-month old vehicle, not 2 years old. He did mention something about DuPont and not all colors being the same from various paint companies.

These were two metal body panels that I saw side by side.

What you guys have said is what I will do in case I need to get some new paint - shop around and make sure the shop knows how to color match.

Thanks for all the input.