Cwazy Cwis

Got my hardtop on and the paint doesnt match the car.. the car is 11 years old so im sure its the car not the body shop. Is there any way to clean up the paint to match better? Like maybe the clay bar or what not.. you cant really tell from the side but from the rear you can. Thanks.

zeroptzero

What colour car do you have ?.

I have a sebring silver and on my last oem hardtop we painted it 3 times and it still didn't match perfectly, I finally gave up after the 3rd attempt. I now have a Mugen CF hardtop which I had to get colour matched (as it was painted NFR when I bought it used), the match on it is close but still not perfect.

With 11 year old paint you are getting environmental effects that make it hard to get original paint to match brand new paint. If you have a metallic paint with flake in it the colour-matching gets even harder as the flake lies differntly on parts with large horizontal surfaces like hardtops. The best way to get old and new body panels to match is to blend in the paint over abbutting panels, but that is almost impossible to do with hardtops as they don't get painted on the vehicle.

Lastly, with some colour paints like Silverstone I've heard that there were 11 different paint combinations over the years with differing sized flake used in it. Paint formulas also changed between the Suzuka and Tochigi assembly plants. When you get your car partially painted always give the painter the VIN number of the car so they can see the assembly plant code which is either S or T.

Wait 30 days after painting and give the hardtop a good claybar to get any over-spray removed, then give it a good wax or sealant application.

smurf2k89

yea man unfortunately it is what it is especially with cars that have a metallic or pearl in them as they're the hardest to match due to giving different shades based on lighting, angle, pattern laid, etc. if you're willing to repaint see if they can use a paint camera to color match the rear trunk or wet sand and buff the entire car to bring the paint back to life as the clear dulls over time due to the sun etc

//steve\\

A good shop would take the paint code and spray a few test cards against the actual car and with small adjustments should be able to get a pretty dead on match. It's a different story if you're just hoping to drop the car off and leave a paint code and hope it turns out OK.

For metallic colors even the pressure used in the spray gun can change how the color comes out.

Cwazy Cwis

I have sebring silver also. And thanks for the info. No im not going to repaint i guess live with it. Its really only noticeably under florescent lighting. I just think the painters messed it up, the hardtop is lighter then the body. If i knew how to post pics i would.

zeroptzero

Flourescent lighting can mess with the appearance of paint colours, I notice that when my car is in the garage, under natural light it isn't as bad it seems.

Ubetit

Hell... my spa yellow didn't match from the factory. The bumper was different than the fenders and hood, lip is different from the bumper and the hardtop was even a little lighter.

thenoxus1

Paint correction on the whole car can also help sometimes. A nice buff and wax will help return it to a more OEM Original luster.



Something like this: http://www.gorilladetail.com/index.p...int-correction

(Just showing that link because they're local and have nice pictures lol)

TheCarFather

Our Suzuka is a royal PAIN to match up new paint. It's practically impossible to have a perfect match, just try to get it as close as possible.