color blending

[frost64]

I am curious when it comes to spot repairs,which I have never done since I only did a few overalls. Could you just find your paint code and use the paint for it to repair it on say a 4 yr old car. Is there a technique or something called a color match or blend that has to be performed first. Am I right when people say that the color which it was first painted is not the same 4 yrs later,it has faded and must be matched ,is this correct?? or can I just use the original factory color which would match or won't it?? Please any help would be appreciated

[proshadetree]

some paints are simpler to match than others, reds are a pain for me a few years and the color goes,whites can be 10 years old and 3 shades off and still you cant see diff.If you need to hide a spot,depending on how big it is you can paint a hole panel rather than a dime sized spot,A hole trunk lid a few shades off isnt as bad as a 4 in round spot in the middel of your trunk

[TimG]

Ideally,you want to taper or blend the new color into the old,pretty sure the old board had links on the process..
Also,most paint mfrs have several variations of the same color,can be tricky to figure the best match.

[Len]

I am curious when it comes to spot repairs,which I have never done since I only did a few overalls. Could you just find your paint code and use the paint for it to repair it on say a 4 yr old car. Is there a technique or something called a color match or blend that has to be performed first. Am I right when people say that the color which it was first painted is not the same 4 yrs later,it has faded and must be matched ,is this correct?? or can I just use the original factory color which would match or won't it?? Please any help would be appreciated

When we repair a vehicle we very rarely "panel paint" by masking off at the gaps and painting an entire panel. We almost always blend the color.

It's much easier to do this using base/clear because you can spray color over the repair then reduce the color and "blend" it onto the original color then clear the entire panel. This allow any slight color variation to get lost in the blend, when it's done properly. This process is shown on the Spray Painting 101 Video. (http://autobodystore.net/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=4VDO)

When blending single stage paint we sand the surface of the area to be blended with 1500 grit then we spray color over the repair, reduce the paint and blend it over the 1500 scratch. Three things of importance are that the 1500 scratch MUST extend out past the area being blended and the last thing that is sprayed is straight SLOW reducer that is dusted over the edge of the previous coat AND the paint must FULLY CURE before it can be polished.

We have given up on trying to save paint or time by panel painting, it usually ends up costing us more than just blending the adjacent panels. The paint you're applying is almost never a perfect match (especially metallics) because the vehicles can change colors depending on where they were manufactured and which paint manufacturer was supplying the vehicle manufacturer at the time the vehicle was originally painted.