Guys, When respraying bumbers (minor things) on F-Cars you don't think that the auto-body shops use OEM Ferrari paint do you? This question is not in regards to ultra rare Ferraris, for this thread's sake. I suppose a providing paint company name such as Glassuit and Color Code should be enough for a shop to match/get correct paint? Thank you very much.
Well all of these things have to be clarified ahead of time. I can offer some insight as mine is at Custom Cars unlimited right now for some work. I know some strive for original paint but my car even with 11k miles has minor rock chips all the way up to the windshield and the front of the hood, headlight doors, top of fenders and filler panel were noticeably chipped up close. Still looks good but I want it perfect so so the entire front end is being re sprayed. Mine is a 95, so single stage Glasurit. I had the option of going to base/clear on the front end as it would be cheaper to blend it but I wanted to keep it single stage as to me it has more depth (but slightly less surface gloss). Just my opinion. They are using single stage Glasurit and tinting it/doing spray outs on test panels until it is a perfect match as there can be no blending. A match can be made with any brand paint and the base/clear cars will be easier to work with IMO. Some can't even see slight color mismatches or shrink back/etc. Some can see it and don't mind. Some are like me and are completely obsessive over the smallest details. Depending on how picky you are and what kind of job you want done, just talk to a reputable shop and try to get on the same page.
If you're doing the painting yourself and there is a auto paint store in town, check and see if they have a paint scanner that they can put on your car and get a match to the current color as it can fade and change a little with time. Those machines can do an amazing job. I've had better luck with that then using the paint codes.
Well if your car came with PPG you can buy it, if it came with glasurit you can buy that as well. Ferrari doesn't mix it's own paint. I can say plenty of ferraris out there have been painted. It's identifying good work vs junk work.
As the speed bumps in Sweden are higher than the Eifel Tower, I had to get my bumper repaired. To match the color, my paint shop use a scanner. However, yellow is the most difficult color to match. Its a 94 so the OEM color is Glasurit but Color Code is not enough for a shop to match. Even with a scanner, they have to test spray to come as close as possible. Bertil Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Any decent paint shop will test spray. Even using the OEM paint there are typical a number of variants in the color book. I recall when I had my 1996 BMW front end re-sprayed there was the base Glassuit mix and 4 variants in the color chip book. But by all means, insist they use the OEM paint.
I bought paint for a 1990 corvette once using sherwin Williams automotive ultra 7000 series. I gave the kid the paint code, he asked which shade Donyounwant? There were ten different shades of black for the same code as the car I was working on. Ugh
Shortly after getting my '96 Hyperion Blue, my wife broke the mirror. Glasurite refused to give the code to a local very high end shop, but they managed to match perfectly. (They have another 355 in that my wife backed into a couple of weeks ago.) I told her that if she hits another Ferrari, she is banned from Italy for a year. That should do the trick - hopefully.
I had some light repair work done on my 355 last summer. I took the car to a place that only does restorations, not a fast turnover insurance repair shop. I talked to the shop about paints and I went in adamant that I wanted Glasurit (the original paint). The shop said it was no problem, they can procure Glasurit, PPG, Dupont, whatever I wanted... However, after a long talk we shot the panels with a different brand than Glasurit (and I spent slightly more). I won't go into the details here about the decision process, but my point is: Take your car to a good shop, if you trust them then talk to them and listen to their recommendations. The colour match is totally perfect. By eye, under sunlight, with the scanner, etc. In my view the knowledge and skill of the shop you use is far more important than the paint brand.
