Colour and clear
Auto Painting
Computerized color matching for a cleaner factory-style refinish, then the prep, primer, paint, clear coat and inspection that make it hold.
Chapter 01
Matching a colour that has spent six years in the sun
The code on your door jamb tells us what the paint was when the car was built. It does not tell us what it is now. Sunlight, washing and time all move a finish, and two cars with the same code can sit noticeably apart after a few East Texas summers.
So the match is made against the vehicle in front of us using computerized color matching, not against a number alone. That is the whole reason a refinish can disappear rather than announce itself as the newer panel.
Polishing a refinished maroon panel, with the polisher reflected in the clear coat
Why we blend into the panels next door
When a match needs help, the answer is not to keep mixing until the new paint is perfect in isolation. It is to blend the repaired panel into the ones beside it, so the transition happens gradually across a surface rather than abruptly at a seam.
Blending is extra work and it is often the difference between a repair you can find and one you cannot. Your eye is very good at catching a hard edge between two slightly different reds, and very poor at catching a gradual one.
Chapter 03
Prep is most of the job
Panel preparation, primer, paint, clear coat and a finish inspection are the sequence, and the first two decide the last three. Paint does not hide a surface, it reveals it. Anything left in the panel before colour goes on is still there afterwards, magnified by gloss.
The finish inspection at the end is where we look at the panel the way you will: from an angle, in daylight, watching what the reflection does as you move past it.
Refinish work covers collision repair, scratches, bumpers, panels and cosmetic damage, and is backed for as long as you own the vehicle.