Paint Colour

[Moody100]

I have recently had the bonnet of my xj8 resprayed due to vandalism. It has been re done twice as we cant seem to exactly match the colour. ITs west minster blue year 2000 and yes it has been done properly. It has been suggested that either the rest of the body paintwork has faded over the last 8 years or that the bonnet is aluminium and will always give a slightly different colour. I accept neither answer. Has anybody had the same experience or problem?

[BrianG]

Hi,

You did not say if it was the same body shop that had two goes at it or two separate shops. Some seem better at getting the right paint than others in my experience, but it's always a problem trying to match paint in metallic finishes. Did they blend the paint in on the top of each wing? That can help to minimise the difference.

I know how annoying mis-matched paint can be : over the years I have found this with several different colour cars: a gold Vauxhall Senator; gold Rover SD1; dark grey XJ40; dark green X300, and my current Meteor (silver) coloured X308.

The problem seems to be the metallic particles: although spray painters are supposed to cris-cross the gun direction to randomise any pattern, this never seems to quite look as random as the way the factory (robot?) did it. Dark colours seem less of a problem.

Yes, paint DOES fade with the action of sunlight, which is another reason panels will always look different even if the paint is to the original specification. Some really good body shops have computerised colour measurement machine and can mix the paint to allow for fading, but they are few and far between and very expensive. Even then you can still see a slight difference in shade if you park under an orange sodium street light (which is a good check for hidden body repairs if you are buying a car second hand).

Unless it's a really bad match because the wrong shade of paint has been used, it will blend in with time and sunlight.

Sorry that's not more help.

[daveji]

Hello
Sorry to hear about your problem.
It has to be said that the only reason for an unsatisfactory job is lack of expertise on the part of the chap who did the spraying.
I have recently had a " stone chip" spray job done on my 2001 XJ8 (Sapphire Blue) which is a metallic colour and all metallics are notoriously difficult to match.
Alan Proctor did the job and the result was truly superb.Even another professional could not tell which bits had been sprayed,such was the standard of the colour blending and finishing.
I'm sorry but the best results come from a highly skilled,experienced professional with real attention to detail. They are about.......problem is finding them.

[Moody100]

Ok thanks for those answers, so the answer is probably paint fade if the car has not been garaged prior to me purchasing it. Just one point, Westminster Blue is a solid colour, not metallic and yes the same bodyshop did the work. Itwas done by a car restorer. He has offered to Flash the wings, but I am worried that I will end up paint the whole car
Any further thoughts appriciated?

[daveji]

Yep.....I am aware Westminster Blue is a solid colour, and these are considered a bit easier to match than metallic colours.
However matching new paint to old is a highly skilled and subtle art involving much more than just respraying an affected panel.
It can be done successfully.

[Moody100]

Thanks for the advice, its going back in wednesday and he promises to get it right... watch this space!

[ColinE]

Hi I used to run a Ford Scorpio I think an 87 car at a customers, the lorry driver back into the tail gate, it was Metallic Chestnut, I told the local small Ford dealer I wanted a new tailgate which they supplied, I said to Neal the painter thats going to be hard to match, he said Metalics are easy to match, so it seems its down to the guy that does it.

Colin