Need help with color matching.

[SoftwareDrone]

I read a post a while back about someone who had gone through the process of experimentation and found a virtual match for the paint on the stock wheels for his car. The paint was from some year of GMC truck. I actually went out and bought some touch up paint with this color code and touched up my wheels, the results were fantastic!
Having said that. I somehow ended up with a couple of rock chips (??) about the size of a child's fingernail under my exhaust tips. Since this is a two stage paint (Rosso Corsa, PPG 322), the touch up paint available is in base coat only. For tiny rock chips, this is fine. However, the base coat color does not match the factory color (meaning with clear applied). I carefully went through the motions of applying the base coat to these areas, sanding down, and prepping for clear coat. However, when I applied the clear, the color of the base coat did not change. So.... I said all that to say that I need to essentially go through the same process as the wheel guy did to find some paint (preferably single stage) that is the closest match possible to the 322 two stage, for the purposes of paint touch up.
I went to an automotive paint supply house, and they were absolutely no help. They do not mix up touch up paint in the first place, and even if they did, they won't do color matching.
The easiest thing for me to do would be to do what the wheel guy did; that is, go to an auto parts supply store, go into the paint touch up section, and grab maybe half a dozen "reds" and brush a bit onto small pieces of paper in an effort to get the closest match. However, there are dozens of small bottles with no other indicator of color than a color code.
This is where the friendly folks at ferrarichat come in. If anyone with a good eye for color can tell me the makes and models of some popular cars with a very close shade of our popular Rossa Corsa (in a perfect world, all of these shades would be a tad lighter), then I could obtain the color codes (off the web) of these cars, then go buy the samples, experiment, and report back here with the results.
Any help would be appreciated.
:-)

[SoftwareDrone]

Ookayyyy.....
The next step is to go back to the automotive paint supply house with the PPG color code for the paint, and see if they have an OEM paint code for a single stage equivalent. If not, then perhaps they'd be kind enough to let me look at a few color chips so I could grab a few OEM numbers.

[GCalo]

Mike,

Maybe the members thought your request was a bit "off color"!!!

[ferrarilou]

My best match for my former 1990 Rosso Corsa Mondial T was Duplicolor SF FM 306 (Ford Cardinal Red). When dry, it seemed to be the closest match. There was also a Toyota red that was close, but to the best of my recollection it was slightly off after drying.


Lou

[Brian Harper]

Last time I bought paint I used Cook's Automotive on 4th street and they were very helpful to an amateur like me and they let me look thorugh and take outside their paint chip books and rings. They had a whole series of chips that had holes punched in them so you could put the chip on your car and really see if it matched. They're on 4th street in San Jose across from 4th street Bowl. I don't know, but the address should be around 1500 N. 4th st.

[SoftwareDrone]

Thanks guys for the replies. Actually, Cook's is where I went this afternoon. And, just like you said, they kept coming out to my car with pages and pages of color chips with holes in them. From what we could see, a 2000 GM paint ("Torch Red") seemed the closest. It was just a tiny bit brighter then the original paint, which is perfect, because, unlike coming out of a gun and laying down very thin, the touch up paint from a bottle goes on thicker and darker. I'll be trying this color (GM 81) and one other (GM 70) for starters. I'll be back with an update.

Greg: Not many colored people on this site I guess.

[GCalo]

Originally Posted by SoftwareDrone

Greg: Not many colored people on this site I guess.

That's a risky statement I did not make!

[SoftwareDrone]

What, no colorful comeback?

[GCalo]

Originally Posted by SoftwareDrone

What, no colorful comeback?

At this point this is sounding like a black and white issue.

I think it's gray, though!

BTW, my friend wants to talk with you soon about what we had discussed if you are available.

[SoftwareDrone]

Well the Torch Red is too bright, and the Bright Red is too dark. I bought both and painted my own color chips, let them dry and held them on my car's front fender in different lights. Am now going to try the Ford Cardinal Red.

Greg: My Alzheimers is flaring up and I cannot remember what you are referring to.

[BigTex]

Two correct answers:

Call Ferrari of Houston's Body shop and have them mix you some...they have the computer matching system in house.

OR

Find a Paint Supply, a professional Body Shop supplier equipped with tha Color Scan equipment. They come out scan the car and mix to an exact match..

The local one here did it for me and even packaged it into spray cans for about $22 each........

Perfect match...no GM or Toyota stuff involved......paint is paint.

[BigTex]

I used single stage......you could clear if you want but my guys blend color only within panel and clear coat the entire section seam to seam.....hard to blend the clearcoat for good flow, they say............

[SoftwareDrone]

Thanks Tex.
I tried Ferrari paint, twice. The problem is that it's base coat and doesn't look right (too dark and dull). And, as you were alluding to, trying to clear touch up areas doesn't cut it.
The Ford Cardinal Red definitely didn't work. It is as dark, or darker, than the "Bright Red" (the darker of the two previous color attempts). I went back to the automotive paint supply house and looked through many more books, using actual color chips I made from the Torch and Bright Red paints.
The best match so far is the 2004 Suzuki Red. In second place is a two year (1996-1997 only) Ford "Hot Red". I called the Suzuki dealer, they have a bottle in stock. Updates to come.

[Verell]

Paints fade over time, so the OEM formulas are usually not a match once a car has had a few years & some daylight exposure. The result is that the current color , especially Red, is lighter than the OEM finish was.

DuPont & PPG auto body paint suppliers have handheld color scanners that will 'read' your car's current color & produce mixing instructions for an exact match in either a single stage or 2-stage paint. Minimum quantity is usualy a half-pint.

[SoftwareDrone]

Color matching at the automotive supply house is always a good idea. Except if you're not a professional painter and do not want to deal with catalyst, hardener, thinning, mixing, etc. They will not mix touch up paint.

I have, however, stumbled upon a cheap and effective solution. I simply did it the brute force way. I had the Torch Red (the lighter of the two) and the Bright Red (the darker of the two). So, I poured a very small amount of the darker into the lighter bottle, applied, let dry, looked at the color, oops, too light. Wipe off with laquer thinner, add more dark paint to the light bottle, reapply, let dry, look at the color match. I spent all day doing this. I applied and removed paint at least six times, progressively adding more and more of the Bright Red into the Torch Red bottle. And here is the magic formula for a PERFECT match: Pour appx. 25 to 30 percent of the Bright Red paint into the Torch Red bottle. That's it. It will go on a big brighter, but do not worry. When it dries, you will not be able to tell where the touch up paint ends and the real paint begins. At least on my 2000 360 with PPG 322 (Rossa Corsa) paint. And it's single stage, so you don't have to deal with clear coating it.

[mwcoop]

I paint cars. Can make some for you. Just did front bumper on friends 360 amonth ago matched good used single stage PPG. PM me if you want some Best Mike

[SoftwareDrone]

So where were you last week? (ha ha!) :-)
Hey thank you for the kind offer.
:-)

[miketuason]

Mike Have you check this one out yet? Let me know if this help. http://www.nwrfca.org/faq/colors.html