Actually I did. this was the second attempt with the paint rep doing all the matching - basically a pure custom mix. Since then I've talked to 2 other shops and none would commit to being able to do any better. With the 3 steps and the variability in factory paints no car paint line claims to be able to do panel to panel matches - they basically all recommmend blending (basically repainting the whole car). Be that as it may good luck with yours - maybe they'll hit it dead on...

joe

 

No problem. Maybe Nissan has finally licked this in current production. I was a preorder and my car along with every other Daytona Blue and Silver from that time had obvious mismatch that I saw around here - on the order of the pics I posted. Come to think of it most of those pics in the DB gallery thread were probably preorders and virtually every one had a noticable mismatch. Maybe Nissan has learned from their mistakes.

The thing is even if Nissan has figured it out that does not translate into body shops being able to match it. In the course of getting my kit painted I learned a lot about how the auto body business works when it comes to paints.

I didnt realize it but it is impossible to buy factory paint. All paints are produced by independent paint companies - PPG, Spies Hecker, and 3 or 4 other companies. The strange thing is how they produce the colors. They do not get formulas from the auto manufacturers. Instead they actually do an optical / computer based color analysis of cars off the ship at the dock. For some colors this is really hard to do. DB is a 3 step paint - a base color metallic, a tinted clear coat and a final clear coat. For DB the base color is actually blue tinged violet that looks nothing like the final color. The 2nd layer is actually a green / aqua tinted clear. The color analysis cant perfectly analyze this so a degree of expereince and professional judgement comes into play in producing the duplicate formulas.

And the thing is that factory paint varies batch to batch and lot to lot and by when in the run the car is painted. Apparently they dont fully flush the paint lines when changing colors in the factory so at the beginning of the run after a color change a little bit of mixing with the prior color occurs. So when the paint companies match a color they sample multiple cars of the same factory paint code over time and produce alternate formulas. For some individual paint codes they may have as many as 4 or 6 different alternates that are slightly different even though they are all supposedly the same factory paint code. The body shop then tries to pick one that best matches your individual car. Problem is that for new cars with new colors they dont have these alternate mixes.

When I had my car painted during the spring the two paint lines we tested had only one paint mix each - no alternates at all - so only one chance to get it right. As it was neither mix matched either the body or the plastic. So the paint rep came out and started deviating the mix by hand and painting test cards for 2 days to get it as close as possible. And when you do that, close is as good as it gets. Unfortunately, a perfect match panel to panel is virtually impossible. Three body shops I went to said they only way they could guarantee a match is to do a full blend job - i.e., painting the rest of the car with the new mix.....which I might do someday, but for other reasons. It turned out that both aftermarket mixes were more richly saturated colors with more "pop" than the factory paint. The other cool thing about a repaint is that body shops don't use the water based easily chipped acyrlics that the manufcturers use. Instead they use oil based enamels that are more durable and less prone to orange peel. The idea of a more richly saturated DB with oil based paint with little or no orange peel is actually pretty appealing.

joe

 

still didn't get to my question. also, if you need to have someone look at it....i can have my shop look at it. they've painted all my parts...and they are 100% exact (but, yes, silverstone is easier to match in my opinion).

djk

 

Oh yeah, your question - actually, that must have been me. I had my car up for a little adjustment to the audio system.

joe

 

where do you go? if nazaars is around there....i wanna check it out...i've never been! i have to finish up the stereo with some subs and amps. i've already got the dvd, tv tuner, new headunit and lcd in place...just want the BASS!!!

(also, where in mass are you from?)

 

Sanderman:

Your car is terrific!

I went through the same paint thing with my Kaminari kit. The kit came out a much richer blue than the bumper; I had both bumpers and the gas cap painted and the match is MUCH better.
I too was a preorder, and my bumpers and gas cap stock weren't even close to the color of the metal parts.

The paint supplier came to the body shop and brought sprayouts to match my hood and other metal parts paint color with their paint to be applied to the kit and bumpers.

Even now, however, with different lighting and different angles, the colors aren't perfect.....but they are a hell of a lot better than my stock paint job!

 

Before...

 

After...