Painting white 87 911 panel

[caliber60]

The right rear panel needs a body work due to little fender bender. Could the paint shop matches the new white paint to the old white paint or it's technically impossible?

What should I expect? I am talking about an about average body shop not the shop that paints Ferraris.

Caliber

[Kurt B]

Just remind them you want to see the matched paint DRIED. These bozos match the paint wet; two places have done this. Yeah, the wet new paint is an exact match with the dry old paint, let's go with it!
Wrong. It dries off, darker, redder, oranger whatever. Maybe this is just because red is such a b!tch to match, I dunno. But go through it with them, and have them show you a dried example you can put up against the car.

[Rot 911]

having painted a few cars, white is the easiest color to match regardless of age.

[caliber60]

I hope I don't have to get involve with the paint selection myself. If something goes wrong, I can only blame myself. I will leave to the professionals.

[DAVIDM]

Perfect matches are not technically impossible, but virtually impossible in the real world. The correct term from the body shop world is "nearly imperctible color match." Some colors do dry down slightly differently. Which is why the color/base coat is designed to dry in a few minutes. The correct procedure is to blend color around the damaged area. This means fade from one shade of white to the other slightly different shade of white. Then clear coat the entire panel. If faded properly, the slight color difference is very nearly impossible to see.

If the damage is close to another panel then the blending/fading must be done over to the next panel as well. This means you may wind up painting the door or roof or decklid or bumper or all of the above just to get the color where the normal person would not be able to tell. Trying to blend in 1.5 inches is impossible.

In more than one instance where there was prior damage and prior blending, we have had to blend one color in one direction, then readjust the tint and blend the other direction.

Perhaps Kurt underestimates the skill, talent and cost required. Perhaps "BOZO" is not the correct term to use when faced with 16 or 18 or 20 year old paint and its concomitant problems. Perhaps some customers have Porsche perfect taste while demanding Chevy V8 prices and time frames. Perhaps some customers wishfully translate the words "nearly imperceptible blend across three panels" into "exact match in one panel while saving me my $500 deductible". Some are simply unable comprehend this much depth. Some simply won't. We in the body shop industry have our own names for these customers. I'm not sure if "BOZO" is on that list, but I will check and see. If not, we can have a meeting and perhaps it would be appropriate to add it.

Red fades faster than any other color and sometimes this fading makes the job technically and realistically impossible.
UV changes whites more rapidly. UV yellows clear coats over time and this changes white more dramatically than other colors.
Solid colors are easier than metallic. The painter doesn't have to worry about the metal flakes laying at a different angle.
David

[bigchillcar]

I've gotta give Kurt a break here. In general, I've always heard from my friends in the biz who do paint for a living that white is more often than not the least challenging color to match. The colors I hear them fret over are the silver (#1) and gold (#2) metallics. This is my hearsay opinion on the matter with apologies in advance to David who does this work for a living. Guess it depends on your expectations which are subjective at best. Guys who paint have always seen things in a paint job finish that I'm not able to see, but that's why they can do the job that they do.
Ryan

[weber92037]

Mine white 87 was painted in two places and you can not see any color difference.

[Kurt B]

Perhaps Kurt underestimates the skill, talent and cost required. Perhaps "BOZO" is not the correct term to use when faced with 16 or 18 or 20 year old paint and its concomitant problems. Perhaps some customers have Porsche perfect taste while demanding Chevy V8 prices and time frames. Perhaps some customers wishfully translate the words "nearly imperceptible blend across three panels" into "exact match in one panel while saving me my $500 deductible". Some are simply unable comprehend this much depth. Some simply won't. We in the body shop industry have our own names for these customers. I'm not sure if "BOZO" is on that list, but I will check and see. If not, we can have a meeting and perhaps it would be appropriate to add it

How about paint that's a year old?
Same place that painted it painted the rear decklid off, twice.
When i said bozo, I meant it.

[wcroty]

White is one of the most difficult colors to match, just for the fact that it can go any direction on the color wheel. Red for examble can only go to the blue (Vilot) or yellow(Orange) direction white can go any direction on the color wheel.
It is also very difficult to make white in small amounts Examble: one gallon of white might have 5000 grams of white toner and 2.1 grams of yellow 1 gram of black and 1.5 grams of blue if you over pour by .1 of blue you would need to add 250 grams of white and .1 grams of yellow to correct it. The smaller amount you mix the more chance of color differance you have. Paint manufacures have alternet formulas for the same color each alt. will blend to about 5-7 shades so if the color has 3 alts. the factory has 15-20 shades on the road.
NEVER BUTT MATCH! BUTT MATCHES ARE BUTT UGLY the goal is to have an invisable repair.

Good luck, Bryan

[expat]

I've had my 87 cab front right fender painted (white). First two goes were close but a little too obvious. The third try was excellent and even keen observers rarely pick the panel that was painted. It was all done in an old shipping container that was well prepared for painting. Car was rolled out into daylight each time to check for color balance when dried.

Good luck
Mark