Spray paint

[Flumpo]

Hi, does anyone know the best place to get car spray paint. I need it to match a Vauxhall colour.

Vauxhall online only seem to do the pens, I went to Halfords and they don’t do it in that store anymore. However they did say don’t get it from europarts as they get a lot of people telling them the match it terrible.

Any ideas where the best colour match is?

I don’t have the code to hand, but it’s white.

Thanks

[paintman]

That would be a motor factor that does paint. Take a piece of the car & ask them to do an exact match.
If it's a solid white (as in not metallic or pearl) then you can either use basecoat (the colour coat) with a clearcoat over or topcoat. Topcoat is shiny from the gun & doesn't need clear over.
Basecoat you will have the choice of waterbase or solvent base. The clear is normally 2k.
Topcoat I use is 2k.
You will need the Technical Data Sheets for whatever you get as it gives you all the info you need for application of that material. The factor should be able to supply those.

I use Sayers of Northampton for mine & currently costs me around £80 for 1/2 a litre (they won't do less than that) incl the VAT.
Supatune at Castle Donington are also very good.
Turn around time for the match is usually 3 to 5 days.

[Flumpo]

Thanks for the advice paintman. I was hoping for something a bit cheaper to be honest. A local body repair place wants £180 to respray the whole front wing.

Its a workhorse car, so I’ve left it for the last 18 months. However this last month of gritting has resulted in a tiny bit of rust. So I’m going to rust treat it, fill it, sand, prime, sand and spray.

It’s to prevent rust more than anything. I’ve found a local Indy who mixes cans for £15.

I know it won’t match 100% but I will take the gamble over leaving bare primer.

[Samjeev]

Just find a small indy auto paint store near you and take a panel in for them to match in a spray can, should cost you like £15 for a 400ml can.

Either that or just buy a can off ebay with the paint code and pray it matches.


Sometimes when it comes to bright colours like White/Yellow/etc the paint match can mostly be down to the colour of primer used or the number of base coat layers required to get a good match. So it might not be that the paint match is bad just that they needed to lay down 7 layers of base coat from the factory to get that finish.

[paintman]

If you're just after a 'near enough' then a quick look at the colour chips for your colour & picking the one that looks best is your best option.
Check the chips against the car outside & ideally in direct sunlight.

Under white I use a white primer/surfacer.

I do a lot of caravan work & working in the middle of panels the colour has got to be pretty much perfect.