Team Chevelle banner
1 - 10 of 10 Posts

ACES-70

· Registered
Joined
·
1,478 Posts
Discussion starter · #1 ·
Short story, the other night I was working on the 70 car (Black Cherry) and my air hose came apart turning it into a fire hose type deal with a metal end thrashing around all over the place, by the time I caught it, the damage was already done to the car, so now, off to the paint shop to have 2 nasty dents and chunks fixed, I wasnt worried to much because I had the label from the PPG can from when it was painted, knowing trying to match this paint was going to almost impossible from scratch,, so now the dents are fixed all sanded down and painted, when we pulled it out of the booth and into the sun, it wasnt even close to the same color,, so now we call in the "expert" with the color gun, he shoots it,, well this time we use test sheets to confirm the color,, we do this 3 times color is never correct,, now Im bumbed out,,, so we call the PPG wizards and they send down there head wizard, old guy like me,, aske "when was the car painted"? I told him it had been a few years back, he siad ok and left, came back in 45 minutes handed the painter a pint of paint with the original code I had on my label,, and told him to do a sample sheet with this,, low and behold, perfect match,, moral to the story,, I learned that these paint companys change there mixture process every once in awhile, and if you dont use the era correct one, the paint color probly wont even be close,, thanks to the "old" guy @ PPG, we now are all one color and dentless again,, see us old guys are worth keepin around
 
I went to have some paint mixed to do some plastic grill pieces on my 1992 Chevy truck. I spray them and noticed the blue color was off. So the next day I go back and tell them, color is wrong. NO, it the very same code you gave us. I took along one of the bad pieces with the correct color and showed him. Still insisted he mixed the right color and that the truck was a repainted. I know it was not but he keeps giving me a hard time. Just then another guy comes from the back of the store and says, where are the books? They hunt around and find the paint books and lo and behold its diffecent than what the computer code is. The computer had them switched around, finally got the right color. They would take back the worng paint because I had used it. Thats NAPA....
 
Years ago I was working at a paint and body shop on the West Coast and went to a PPG workshop on how to color match the Caddilac Alante'. At that time the paint for the Alante' had to be special ordered from PPG and you had to supply them with the VIN of the particular car to even get the paint. It was due to the mica flake that was added to the paint. Cutting to chase, in order to color match a repair, test panels had to be painted with different numbers of coats applied, to see how many coats would match up with the original color. We ended up incorporating the test panel technique for almost every color matching job that the paint was not of a "vanilla flavor", and it was amazing how many times the paint would be slightly off on the panels. To have a good paint supplier who knows his stuff is invaluble in the collision and restoration business.
 
1 - 10 of 10 Posts