Lacquer Question

[Joseph M.]

My painter had my 70 for over one year and painted most of the body at his shop. We recently brought the car back to my garage for completion. Yesterday he brought the headlight pods, which he just painted from the same batch of paint, back to my garage for installation. The pod color does not match and looks a shade or two lighter than the previously painted areas. The color is mulsanne blue (476) lacquer purchased from Hibernia in NJ.

Any thoughts on what could be the cause of the color difference and how to ensure a match on the remaining parts (T-Tops, wiper door). We're also going to call Hibernia on Mon., but looking for opinions from members who may have had a similar issue or from those experienced painters that can offer their expertise. Tx

[Gene M.]

Re: Lacquer Question

Joe, The pods should have been mounted on the car as it was done at GM originally. Painting the car disassembled is asking for color and texture match issues. Anything could affect color match the list would be to long to cover here.

[Bill M.]

Re: Lacquer Question

One possibility is to reshoot the areas that don't match and the surrounding areas all at the same time.

Example: For a new front fender, blend into the adjoining door. The leading edge of the door is the same color as the fender, the back of the door is the same color as the rear fender. Use increasing amounts of thinner to the paint as you move away from the front fender. That slowly dilutes the new color until you're almost all thinner at the rear of the door.

[Bill C.]

Re: Lacquer Question

Un-assembled parts should never be painted at a later date, do everything on the same day. This is true for urethane, lacquer, enamels etc..

It will take the painter longer, but he can get the shades to match. It will take many tries with mixes and gun pressure to get it.

Also - has the body been cut and buffed?
This can change shades too.

[Rich P.]

Re: Lacquer Question

I have painted metallic colors months apart for the same car and NEVER had a problem. What I do is mix all the paint together and pour it back into respective gallons. Then I make sure I paint everything the same way IE: same amount of coats, same air pressure, same distance from the panel and same direction of strokes on the edges of adjoining panels.
There could be a hundred reasons they did not match. But make sure they mix the paint very good before each time they spray.

Rich