How accurate is color matching these days?

[ckissick]

My '50 VW has a very good 54 year old paint job. I don't want to re-paint the whole car. But I need to do some minor body work on the front fenders and hood to get them back to correct for 1950. (In 1963 someone "upgraded" the car to look newer with oval horn grills and a hood crest which wasn't introduced until 1951.)

Is it even possible to paint just the repair areas? I doubt it. If I paint just the fenders and hood, can they match the rest of the car perfectly, considering the 54 year old paint has likely faded a bit?

[KFC911]

A "good" paint guy should be able to match or get very close imo. Of course it's not going to be the exact same formula as the original, but that's where their artistic skill and experience comes into the equation. Good luck!

[porsche4life]

Yes a good paint guy can get it spot on. If you were here in AZ I’d say bring it to my neighbor, he does work on the cars for the big auctions and can tell you what gun, pressure, paint to match the factory texture on most cars. Pretty damn amazing the things he can do.

[drkshdw]

You not only have to match the color but also the texture, finish and 'age'. Without matching everything else, the color will change in certain lighting (especially in a parking garage or in the shade of a tree). This is more so true for metallics but applies just as much to single stage paints of that age.

[rattlsnak]

He's also going to have to blend into the surrounding panels a foot or so or it will never look right. Even the best painter cant match 50 years of sun/radiation/fading damage, etc..

[GWN7]

Local auto paint supply shop tried to duplicate the colour on my Black 914. It's a dark grey with Green metallic highlights. They did 4 test runs of what there computer scanner said it was and none were close. They finally dug out a old paint scanner from their old paint system and scanned the car with it. A exact match.

If the car is sun faded evenly it can be done. If it's uneven time to consider a complete paint job.

Good luck.

[ckissick]

Here's the area in question. The tiny slots are for the original round horn grill. The giant craters need to be filled.

Oh, and I just got the correct bumper to replace the one shown. And the hood trim is wrong, too. Working on it.

[Bill Douglas]

I like the color. It sure will look nice with the holes filled up and correct bits fitted - good luck with the paint matching.

[javadog]

Yes it can be matched. I would encourage you to use a single stage paint. The closer you come to what they used originally, the better. Have them shoot a test panel to check the color match before they paint the actual parts. Check the test panel in sunlight, shade, artificial light, etc. and change the formula if necessary until you're happy with it. You'll want to polish the old paint, because it's pretty dull and it would be hard to match the sheen with new paint.