98RedBird

iTrader: (77)

So I'm trying to match 352E Navy Blue Metallic to paint the engine bay.

Our local paint shop, who has been around a LONG time, sells PPG. I've tried Shopline/Shopline+ and DBC 2000 (Deltron). The Shopline was way too dark, the Shopline + and DBC were way too pearly/bright, too much FLOP... I left one of the fenders with them so they could keep mixing and trying to match it. They called today and said they tried about 8 or 9 different mixtures and cannot get it close. They also said that they went to a local autobody shop and asked them to try to match it in Envirobase, but they couldn't get it either... This stuff isn't even blend-able.

My next question was, "So, if I scratched my fender, what would they do, paint the whole car??"

He said try to find out who supplied the paint originally, which is the reason for my thread question... At this point, I guess I'm hoping it's DuPont or something. I never thought it would be this hard to get the paint close. I don't need a PERFECT match, just close enough that it isn't really noticeable. The engine bay doesn't really butt up hard with another edge, so there should be a little bit of leeway without blending the whole front of the car.

98RedBird

iTrader: (77)

Interesting, I figured someone on tech would know the OEM paint supplier for our cars.

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

DuPont seems likely as they are a major OE supplier and paint producer, including the Nylon 66 material that GM has used for intake manifolds as well as some other pieces. I would assume either them or PPG (which you already said wasn't a match.)

It's crazy that you can't seem to get a match, and that would be a real problem if it were for the exterior. But, as this is the engine bay, if you're not happy with any of the options for an "almost" NBM color, you could consider doing a black engine bay. All GM vehicles used to come with black engine bays, regardless of exterior color, decades ago (actually, even as recently as the mid-'90s in the B and D bodies.) I've seen a few 4th gens with custom black engine bays that looked really sharp. Of course this won't do if you're looking for a total stock appearance, but I thought it might be worth mentioning as an option.

pdxmotorhead

During the span of time the F body was built GM went through many formulas trying to find a paint that would meet VOC requirements with minimum scrub on the process areas, add to that multiple plants, you've got a witches brew.. I think PPG was also a supplier for the Canadian GM plants.

There were also issues with the suppliers of the metallic pigments/additives not being able to produce consistent flake sizing.

Some of the car companies also played around with 3 layer paint jobs, primary color, tint cover and then a clear coat, Those will give your average body guy a stroke..

Some of the paints are an actual Latex formula with a latex poly clear coat...
(Remember all the blue chevy pickups with peeling paint... ??) Especially the 2 tones that had blue over silver..

Sikkens seems to be a good brand for matching the less common colors.

98RedBird

iTrader: (77)

Thanks for the replies guys.

RPM, yeah, I have actually tossed around the idea of doing the engine bay in black... just having a hard time envisioning what it would look like all black, nervous to jump in with both feet on that one lol.

RevGTO

iTrader: (12)

I've heard from body shop friends that for any given factory color there are multiple shades. This makes for a mix and match situation; they just have to keep playing with it to get it close.

Aaron23

Any good body shop will have infrared color matcher tool. Take the part, scan it, it will mix the paint to damn near exact.

MY_2K_Z

iTrader: (1)

It's called a spectrophotometer

bad_408_vert

iTrader: (6)

Just wondering if over the years your car's paint has had any fading , degrading otherwise unnoticed by just looking. During smalling process , maybe when they tried to get new paint to close to it possible , it didn't match ?

sharing a simple answer that maybe over looked?
Just a thought

pdxmotorhead

^^ Yep this is a basic problem, One of the many fun variables..

Most body guys I know tell me that texture is way tougher in some paints than the color.. (Ie blacks are actually one of the worst to panel to panel match...