Color matching fascia - KAD looks like K51
 

I've already spoken with my body shop guy and he already agreed to repaint to get a better color match and try to fix the gaping area under the driver headlight. :shakes head: He ordered the paint for the KAD color code as labeled inside the driver door. At first when it was painted I could tell it was a shade or so off. And honestly, that is to be expected and I was able to live with it so I paid and drove off. Two days later when it finally hit 88 degrees I came back to my car and the group I was with all commented on how much darker the fascia looked. I noticed it too. It wasn't just a shade and a half anymore. It wasn't even the same color.

So last night I met up with another Z owner (Onelownismo) to go to the drag strip. We met up around 5-ish and it was still sunny out. He has the PG from '09. When I saw his car up close I was like, hmmm!! THAT color is familiar! I stood in front of my car to look at my fascia while looking at the rest of his car at the same time. Could have just swapped it out with his for a perfect color match. My paint is a very cool color. Like, not even neutral. No warmth or reds or yellows at all. PG is VERY yellow in contrast.

So my question is how am I to get a proper paint match if the color code he ordered for KAD (GUN METAL) actually matches the K51 (Platinum Graphite color)? Not like it would be smart to order K51 and assume it'll work! And I certainly can't afford another repaint after the next one due to chipping and cracking. He (body guy) did say that when he entered the paint color mix formula he put it in for "the most popular color". When we first took the spray-out to the car to get a match, it looked fine and we ran with it. So how does a color like this flop? And two, how is it now matching PG exactly? I actually uploaded a pic or two on my album from when the car was just done. You can tell it is warmer right there but now I'm wondering if t was always this bad but it was so bright out that day I couldn't tell.

Anyone have any ideas? Any experienced body people here that might have some info on this? Any help is appreciated as it needs to get re-done soon or I'm going back to stock or buying a completely different color 370. :ugh2:

The body shop I use mixes their own paint. They start with the paint code, but adjust it from there as needed for a perfect match. I once had a friend at a different shop paint the hood on my silverstone 350 with pre-ordered paint like that and it didn't match either.

A friend of mine that owns a body shop painted my girlfriends car and he knows how picky I am. So he took the gas door off and took it to where he gets his paint and told them to match it perfect. I can honestly say it matches perfect! Generally it's hard to match plastic bumpers to metal body parts because the paint lays differently, but he did it.:tup:

That's funny, because the gas cap is plastic

Seriously? It's plastic? Lol!!

lol!

But yeah, he requested to have the car for three full days this time so that's what we'll do. Hope it all goes well or I'm done with body stuff for now and selling the fascia.

KAD and K51 are two different colors there are several variants for each code referred to as alternates the code is to get the painter to a starting point and then he tints the color to match.

And as far as using the gas door not a good choice that being plastic the metallic lays down different on plastic than metal and the plastic absorbs the paint where as metal doesn't.

Not on the girlfriends car, it's metal. But you get what I'm saying. It clearly worked out well for the painter because it matched.

Not all cars have a plastic fuel door he was talking about the 370.

Thanks for the note. I knew they had to do something for color matching but didn't know how far it went in terms of these two color code. When he said he put in the "popular" color choice it seems that it would naturally try to make PG out of it. Oh well. Hopefully all will be corrected this week.

Majority of shops here take the Gas cap, it doesn't matter plastic or metal as all they need is to adjust the stock code to the colour which is out there in the sun and other harsh weather condition. All gas caps on the car usually blend nicely with the rest of the car and easiest to carry to a paint shop.

Some of the colours are two stage like white and yellow from 370z for which matching is in hands of painter rather then paint as its all in the application. We painted one yellow Z and paint was off by 20% but paint shop said just wait for few days and after a while it matched perfectly no idea how.