IGOZMZM

I am taking my car in to the body shop to have a rather nasty dent in the drivers side door taken car of (hit and run). They are going to be replacing the whole door skin. So the whole door will be painted, as with most shops they then blend the area around the new skin to make sure it "matches" . I thought about having them replace the door skin and paint just the door to "as close as they can get" and then look for a door from one of the wrecked 8's out in the rest of the states. They keep telling me that the paint still won't match perfectly. Which leads to my questions:

1. Should I just let them blend the parts?
2. Has OEM paint jobs improved in the recent years that they are virtually the same color? (I know the body kits and such come already painted and they don't need blending)
3. Should I just have them paint the door and keep my eye out for a replacement door to change out later?
4. Any other options/suggestions?


PS I am adding a OEM MS body kit and I won't have the side skirts in time to have the "blended". I guess you could call me paint dumb :p

Winning_BlueRX8

What? Why can't they get the correct paint...I had my car worked on for the exact same reasons, and they used the exact same paint I had on there. It's exact. What am I missing from your story?

IGOZMZM

Mine is the titanium grey, which even mazda has said is virtually impossible to match. This being because the paint is cured in a special way.

Winning_BlueRX8

ouch...well that sucks. Glad I went with winning blue. I wouldn't settle for "almost".... But that's just me.

MazdaManiac

iTrader: (3)

Why would you "blend" a door panel if you are replacing its skin?
Paint the whole door the OEM color and leave it at that.
Your eye will notice a discrepancy between adjoining panels much less then it will a blend.
Plus, why have them spray new paint across un-prepped adjacent panels that aren't even damaged?

Winning Blue is easier, but NOTHING is easier than Black (of the RX-8 colors, that is). Mazda code PZ has been the same color for 20 years or more (though it is now clear-coated).

The "metalics" are going to be very difficult to match because of the huge flakes. I would have thought Titanium would be easy because it doesn't have a metallic flake (or does it?).

jtimbck2

Titanium Grey does have metal flakes.

grogiefrog

Since your RX-8 is new, you shouldn't notice the difference on the new paint with the current paint. A good painter should be able to get the color very very close. They just tell you that so that you understand.

My father-in-law owns an auto-body shop. He recently painted the back quarter panel of a 8 year old Miata that had never been waxed in it's life. The rest of the paint looked aged, faded, and had some scratches. It looked like the owner was a slacker. In that case, there was no way to match paint. The new paint looked great... just like a new car and was noticeable.

There was also an early 70's Chrysler in the shop with a odd light colored greenish yellow paint (it also was getting it's rear quarter panel painted. It was owned by a 17 year old who had bought it from an original owner (an old lady who had kept it in her garage since she bought it). The cars paint was still shinny. It took my father-in-law three times in the paint booth to match the paint exactly. He had to alter the original formula a bit to compensate for the age.

My point is, a professional with a good eye should be able to match your paint 97%, if not 100%. Sorry to hear about your hit and run by the way. My first 2 RX-7's were both hit twice while I owned them.

XcelR8

I work for a company that paints all the bumpers on production Taurus and Focus vehicles. We use a multi-million dollar paint system, as does Mazda. My point is that if you look at colors like silver, matalic gray, gold and some reds at the dealerships you will notice a slight color varience between the bumpers and the body. My Silver RX-8 is the same way. This is because the componants are painted in different environments with different methods and possible different paint manufactures. Since they human I will normally overlook a slight color varience, I would not let them blend into the surrounding panels. Let them paint the door only and with modern computerized matching, it should be very very close if not right on. If not, make them do it over.

Good luck.

funnyface

Color blending into adjacent panels is absolutely necessary. Vehicle manufactuers do not make paint. Each plant can use a different paint supplier or paint chemistry. Most car painting is done by robotic painting bells with the paint supplied by 5000 gallon vats. The color of a car painted at the beginging of the run does not match the color of a car at the end of the run. The body shop is correct that a door from another car with the same paint code will not be an exact match for your car. Properly prepared panels can be blended so that you can not tell the car has been repaired. I have owned a collision shop for 22 years and we do this every day. You need to make sure all trim and anything on or touching the painted surface is removed prior to paint, including glass. Top quality paint work done in a professional shop will actually hold up better than the OEM paint because of the environmental regulations that force the manufactures to apply the very minimum amount of paint necessary to achieve color coverage.

SCiMMiA

Concur. ^

IGOZMZM

funnyface and SCiMMiA, please respond to XcelR8's comment on the fact that the body panels (bumpers, doors, hoods, etc.) are all not all painted at the same time anyways so that small variations are in the paint already. And what about this new computer color matching?

funnyface

Bumper covers and mirrors, door handles, spoilers, mouldings and trim are painted separately, in many cases by humans not robotics and often using different paint chemistry than the rest of the vehicle. Some color variation on these parts is normal. Look at a charcoal Dodge Intrepid. The rear bumper covers are painted upside done at the factory and the pearl mica shades dark when the car shades light and light when the car is dark because the pearl is oriented the wrong way. Computer color matching such as Dupont's Chromavision and PPG's Prophet are only designed to achieve a blendable match. Each system reads some color families better than others, blue-green, silver-charcoal, but they almost never give an exact match formula. Blending fools the eye into seeing a perfect color match. Paint color can be altered by so many factors that 3 painters spraying paint out of the same can will often end up with noticable variation in color.

GeorgeH

iTrader: (2)

I'm not a paint expert, but I have had various panels replaced on my black '94 Miata over the years, by the same shop. Every time, they have blended the adjoining panels, and every time, the car came out looking perfect. And I've kept the paint in good condition (owned the car since new).

Id the shop you are going to is reputable, I'd trust them to make the right decision. It's what they do on a daily basis and their reputation is staked on how good the car looks when it is done. if they tell you blending is necessary, then it probably is.

RX Guy

Not an expert here, but I did have to replace my front bumper. I talked to three different body repair shops and they all have that above mentioned paint color disclaimers. I went with a very reputable shop and was very pleased with the result. To the unknowing eye, the paint color appears the same as OEM. I do know that the metalic flakes look different. But one would have to look really close to notice.

Bottom line, look for a reputable professional and let them do their stuff.

IGOZMZM

RX Guy, did they blend your hood or any other body panels or just the front bumper?

FirstSpin

I can only share a single experience. I have a titanium 8. A week after I got it, I removed the front license plate frame and found a 4 mm (or so) chip in the paint that the license plate frame was concealing. The color of the chip was black - looked like hell. I took the car to my dealer and his paint-guy was on premises. Within 40 minutes, they were done. They did a spot and blend, meaning that they sanded down to bare metal (or plastic in this case) an area that's about 3 inches long. They then formulated to match the color of the titanium 8, and feathered in the new coat of paint. I CAN see a slight indentation where the chip was but I have to look for it (you'd have to know it was there). The color match though, is absolutely perfect. I put 3 coats of Zaino on her this weekend and never once noticed the repair. Maybe I got lucky, maybe I didn't. When I congratulated the paint-guy on doing such a great job of matching the paint, he said that he just used the color code that they supply on the door-sticker (acting as if it's no biggie.) Car's in the shop today after being rear-ended but (thank goodness) I lost no paint, just a crease in the "rubber" bumper.....

RX Guy

Actually no. I they only painted the new front bumper cover. I think the process is referred as tinting. Like the others have pointed out, there are many variables when it comes to matching color. So, once they painted the part, tinting is performed to better match the OEM color.

I did notice a shade difference in the paint between my new front bumper and the rest of the car when I picked up the car from the shop. However, this difference is vertually undetectable after the new paint had a chance to cure. The shop provided me with literatures on how to treat the new paint, i.e. no power washing within thirty days, etc. They also provided warranty on the repair and paint job.

RX-Nut

Titanium Grey is very hard to match. I had a DuPont certified shop repaint a part on my car and it came out pretty close. Not exact. In the sun you can tell the difference in hue. The T.Grey has a weird blue flop to it. My repaint area lost that special flop and now the new grey is a little too reddish, if you can picture that. At a quick glance, most people probably wont know the difference. But I can guarantee that YOU will.

Most shops would recommend a blend as to not call the color change to attention. If you are certain that you can find a new door skin, then by all means, just paint the door. But if chances are slim for a new skin, do the blend.

Good luck with your repair.

Ike

Clearly you need to paint the whole thing white.