Unknown paint colour

[JPShorrock]

I have a car without a paint code, that shows up as no match when scanned on a paint scanner. It's a factory paint job and a one-off. The car's VIN plate show the colour silver, but it's a blue/turquoise flip.
Does anybody know a REALLY good paint supplier or painter who could match it?

[Krikkit]

Could you contact the manufacturer to find out? If you give them the VIN they should be able to find out, surely?

Unless it's a TVR obviously.

[JPShorrock]

Krikkit said:

Could you contact the manufacturer to find out? If you give them the VIN they should be able to find out, surely?

Unless it's a TVR obviously.

Well its an MG, so no!

[InitialDave]

Is it one if the 2000s MG Z cars in a "monogram" colour?

Odd, should still have a paint code.

[Scrump]

This may give you a few pointers:

MG Rover Group’s Monogram Bespoke Build programme was created to allow customers to specify features not normally available as part of a manufacturer’s specification.

The monograms are:
Chromactive:
Typhoon and Spectre

Kinetic:
Glacier, Gulf Stream, Mirage, Sunspot.

Supertallics:
Bacchus, Bio-morhic, Black olive, Celestial, Chagall, Chatsworth, Garnet, Jubilee, Lagoon, Nightshade, Nocturne, Orange Grove, Saffron and Spice.

Update 2004
Monogram paint range for 2004 MG and Rover cars

Chromescent colours use extremely high concentrations of pigment to deliver dramatic colour shift or holographic paint effects.
Bittersweet - Golden yellow with green ‘flip’
Moonshine - Silver with shifting spectral highlights
Shot Silk - Emerald with purple flip

Chromactive colours contain multi-layered pigment flakes with special reflective qualities.
Aurora Crimson to orange ‘travel’
Dark Fantasy Black to purple to bronze travel
Poseidon Dark blue to purple over olive travel
Twilight Brighter blue to purple travel

Kinetic colours demonstrate a subtle multi-layer colour effect.
Atmosphere Light to mid blue with gold highlights
Gulf Stream Smokey slate shifting to olive and grey-blue
Moody Blue Grey-blue with gold highlights
Sunspot Pearlescent yellow with ochre and citrus effects

Supertallic is a range of distinctive metallics and micatallics for a pearlescent effect.
Aubergine - Rich aubergine
Black Olive - Luxuriant dark green with movement to black
Caledonian Lilac
Chatsworth Elegant classic gold
Horizon Pretty light blue

Monogram Colours MGTF
IAA Spectre
IAB Typhoon
IAC Sunspot
IAD Glacier
IAE Chatswood
IAF Biomophic - Bright metallic green
IAG Nightshade -Lustrous black with blue highlights
IAH Black Olive
IAI Celestial - Bright light blue
IAJ Saffron
IAK Garnet -Rich glowing red
IAL Jubilee
IAM Gulfstream
IAN Lagoon- Colourful turquoise
IAO Bacchus
IAP Nocturne - Greyed off mid-dark blue
IAQ Spice
IAR Orange Grove - Strong tangerine
IAS Mirage 3 coat)
IAT Chagall - Warm strong mid blue
IAU Mirage (2 coat)

Edition Spark 2004
LEF X-Power grey,
CEV = Firefrost Red
AWZ000630 = Aerosol
AWZ000690 = Paint Stick

JHG = Sonic Blue
AWZ000760 = Aerosol
AWZ000770 = Paint Stick

CEV Metallic - Firefrost red
Metallic - Platinum gold
JHG Metallic - Sonic blue
Metallic - Starlight silver
Metallic - XPower grey
Pearl - Black pearl
Pearl - British racing green
Pearl - Ignition blue
Pearl - Royal Blue
Solid - Rio red

[JPShorrock]

InitialDave said:

Is it one if the 2000s MG Z cars in a "monogram" colour?

Odd, should still have a paint code.

A lot of monograms had starlight silver as the VIN colour, this has.

No it's not a monogram colour, it is a one off.

[JPShorrock]

InitialDave said:

Is it one if the 2000s MG Z cars in a "monogram" colour?

Odd, should still have a paint code.

A lot of monograms had starlight silver as the VIN colour, this has.

No it's not a monogram colour, it is a one off.

[JPShorrock]

The reason I need a really good paint person is I've had it scanned and it returned "no match". That is no car on the database ever painted this colour.
TVR Halcyon Atlantis is the closest but not a match.

[DickyC]

I'm surprised the auto paint people gave up. Newbury Automotive Paint Supplies matched and sold me a relatively small quantity of paint to perfectly match a late fifties green painted suitcase. And that was never going to come up as a car.

[Podie]

Can we have a photo, out of curiosity...?

[InitialDave]

JPShorrock said:

A lot of monograms had starlight silver as the VIN colour, this has.

No it's not a monogram colour, it is a one off.

I'm not following - it's a factory paint job, but not a standard or monogram colour?

I wasn't aware there were any others.

[nickv]

there is still a chance a different scanner may pick a closer colour

The scanner that was used would be tied to a particular brand of paint the supplier use's

A scanner from another brand may have more luck

Do you know the brand of paint the person that scanned it has ?

[JPShorrock]

nickv said:

there is still a chance a different scanner may pick a closer colour

The scanner that was used would be tied to a particular brand of paint the supplier use's

A scanner from another brand may have more luck

Do you know the brand of paint the person that scanned it has ?

I tried a couple, one just said no match and the other tried harder and came up with Peugeot KMR which wasn't a match. I dont know which brands

[mbwoy84]

I own a restoration workshop/bodyshop and have carried out many flip paint resprays, so I know what I'm doing when it comes to laying the paint on, but in terms of the science of the paint itself I may be wrong, but I'm not sure that any scanner will be able to successfully identify a flip tone paint.

We have a Spectrophotometer of our own, which is the same as what paint shops have. There are many brand of these scanners, but there are only two industry standard system on the market that they can work off, so all spectros should be pretty equal. They read the colour from 3 points in order to help with variations from different lighting angles etc, which is good enough for an idea of colour variation. If you want the best reading possible, Lechler who are one of the main paint manufacturers have, at their UK HQ in Middlewich, a vastly more sophisticated scanning machine in their laboratory that reads the paint form 64 different angles. Lechler do a lot more than just automotive paints and have to be able to mix paint to suit, for example, cladding that needs to match something that has been out in the sun for decades and doesn't have the luxury of a paint code to work from, but I don't know if you could mix a flip paint from their readings, I can't see how personally, but they have the most sophisticated scanner in the country, so I'd suggest contacting them.

[JPShorrock]

Here is the car, TF160

[paintman]

Don't know where in the country you are but give Supertune in Castle Donington a call to see if Squib still works there.
If he does it might be worth you taking the car there & let him have a look to see what he can come up with.
http://www.supertune.co.uk/
First met him in the mid 70's at GE Motor Factors in Leicester & he was an excellent paint matcher then.

[Podie]

JPShorrock said:

Here is the car, TF160

Nice colour!

[nickv]

I am surprised a scanner cannot pick a colour, that colour looks like a regular pearl colour, that wouldnt have dramatic flip

All most all metallic and pearl colours have a flip angle, even simple silvers.

This type of colour will very rarely match edge to edge the colour would always require a blend to adjacent panels..

But if there is nothing in the database, the next step would be to chip it, the best paint chip system is by Glasurit its called the profi system, basically it does not rely on colour codes but variant fans of colour

It will have a blue variant fan and you would go through each chip till you found a colour suitable.

[mbwoy84]

Yes, that's not what I'd call a flip tone. Call Lechler at Middlewich, they could definitely make a mix from it. A spectro would only identify it if it's a recognised colour.