How to choose your own spray paint for a car?

The eternal problem of any car enthusiast is timely repair of the body of their own cars. Almost no one is insured against small scratches, chips and abrasions, and no matter how careful the driver is, there are a million different factors that can affect the preservation of the body paint in its original form. In addition, prolonged use leads to fading of the paint color. This article will help answer the question “how to choose spray paint for a car yourself,” since only a responsible approach to this problem guarantees a satisfactory result.

Answers on how to choose your own car paint

What is the difficulty of choosing paint for a car?

It should be noted that buying car paint in a can is not always about car repair.
We should not forget that many people prefer to tune their vehicle themselves, painting it completely or only some elements, for example, painting calipers and brake drums. In addition, airbrushing has recently become quite popular in our region, the development of which has been promoted by numerous exhibitions and car shows throughout the country. Regardless of the reasons that led to the purchase of paint, the problematic nature of the choice remains the same. The thing is that the paint applied to the body is in some way unique. Even if you find the required combination in a rich range of colors (and there are plenty of them here), there is a very small chance of matching the color on the car.

Painting a car yourself This happens due to the influence of numerous factors on the surface of the car (weather conditions, exposure to ultraviolet rays on the surface of the car, the quality of the previous layer of paint). Therefore, knowing the code and paint manufacturer alone is not enough.

Features of choosing paint for a car body

Car paint belongs to the enamel category and consists of binders, varnish and pigments. Its distinctive feature is uneven drying. The outer layer dries first, which creates the misleading impression that the layer has completely dried over its entire thickness. In fact, the lower layers dry much later.

Thanks to modern technologies, car paint can contain other components that enhance the visual effect of chameleon, pearl or metallic, but choosing a shade in such situations is even more difficult than usual.

Often, car paint of a suitable shade requires mixing up to 15 different paints in precise proportions; the weight must be calculated down to 0.1 grams using the most accurate electronic scales. Next, special test plates are used to compare the resulting shade with the color of the car under special lighting conditions. The quality of the final result directly depends on how strictly the following nuances were observed:

1. The professionalism of the colorist and the artist who will carry out the coloring affects the result in the same way as the quality of the materials and equipment used. In the case of paints in a can, you should prepare for a decrease in the quality of the paintwork renewal, especially when it comes to mixed colors.
2. There should be 3 - 4 trial versions before final painting. When applying each subsequent layer, the intensity cannot be changed.
3. Do not forget that the shade is distorted to some extent after drying, so test versions must be compared with the surface of the car and calibrated only after they have completely dried.
4. The method of applying enamel also affects the final result.
5. The selection of paint for a car can be simplified as much as possible by using materials from one manufacturer, since each manufacturer develops its own system of designating shades and color schemes.
6. When using a spectrophotometer when choosing a shade of auto enamel, painting should begin with a small and old part, so you can evaluate the accuracy of the selection. Only after this stage proceed to complete painting of the car.

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Selecting paint color by VIN code

One of the most common methods of finding the required shade of enamel. As a rule, most car enthusiasts approach the search for the required shade with a large degree of negligence. Browsing through catalogs with numerous colors and shades, they select the one they need by eye, reaping the benefits of their results after applying the first coat of paint to the car.

Paintwork (vin code) on the car body The fact is that since the beginning of the 2000s. All batch versions of spray paint contain a paintwork code that corresponds to the desired shade of the car body surface. Data with a number, as well as a visual tester of that color, are entered into a database, or separate catalogs that are sent to all automobile centers. Some major automakers even produce their own paint mixtures and catalogs with the entire range tied to a specific code, thus making life much easier for car enthusiasts. As a rule, such analogues are more expensive than custom car paint manufacturers, but have approximately the same quality. Purchased car paint based on the VIN code is one of the most important components of choosing the right color.

Common mistakes

A typical mistake made when painting a car body is to neglect the car's specifications. Searching for the desired color “by eye” only leads to approximate results; as a result, the shade of the painted body may not satisfy the car owner. Accuracy is increased thanks to technological solutions - a spectrophotometer, special software for finding the desired shade. Yellow and red auto enamel and pearlescent paintwork materials are applied to the base (primer), on which the final shade depends. If you do not take into account the features of the lining (it can be white, gray, black), and also incorrectly estimate the number of layers of the applied composition, the result will be very different from the original. Two-layer compositions must be applied so that each layer is an independent unit. If the first and second layers were applied in one go, the final color will not be the same as if the second layer was applied in two steps. Neglecting this fact leads to discrepancies.

Error when choosing bumper shade

Computer paint color selection

By identifying an existing part with paint (usually a gas filler flap with the required paint), the computer system reads the data in real time and displays the corresponding result on the monitor, displaying the type and code of the paint coating that is ideal for the car.
What follows is a lengthy process of identifying the required enamel, which the colorist works on personally. Many manufacturers produce special test systems that read the available data. In addition, on thematic sites, using data in the form of this year, as well as filling out columns like “car brand,” you can automatically get the paint you are interested in. This method does not take into account shades, but only offers a factory-made paint option for purchase. This method is suitable only for those cars that have been in use for a fairly short period of time and the paint on their body has not yet had time to fade.

When the color is found, a special person (colorist) carries out individual work to fill the can with the required color. Within 2 hours, the work ends with the client being given the necessary spray can with the color, shade, and enamel required by the client, if the painting is not carried out in a service center.

Acidic, phosphating, etching or reactive primer?

All these names, one way or another, refer to soil that contains acid. In English, there are three different names for acid soils, which are also indicated on packages sold in Russia. Etch or etching primer - etching primer, self etch/etching primer - etching primer, which has ingredients that immediately after the action of the acid are eaten into the metal, creating anti-corrosion protection, wash primer - reactive primer, which also contains acid and, in theory, is intended for application to new metal that does not contain old putty and paint to increase adhesion (especially non-ferrous metals, such as aluminum).

Some acidic soils are not “strong” enough to attack steel. You need to look at the technical specifications of the product.

Different manufacturers have different primer formulas and instructions for use. Initially, etching primers did not contain components that increase corrosion protection and, especially, fillers that fill small irregularities. Nowadays you can find acidic soils from different manufacturers that contain anti-corrosion additives and can be used as fillers at the same time. Most often, however, a good acidic primer is able to chemically act on any metal, preparing it for the next layer of filling primer, and also converts a small amount of difficult-to-clean rust and passivates the surface of the metal, making it inactive to oxidation, and therefore to corrosion.

Distressed paints

Special mention should be made of paints with the addition of reflective additives. The large list of such paints includes paints with the addition of metallic, xerallic, pearlescent base (and many others). How do you select paint for a car if it contains such elements? Again, not everyone can handle this. As a rule, success in such an operation depends on the experience of the master who makes the selection. The computer does not guarantee the selection of the ideal option if it contains reflective additives.

Over the course of some time, a specialist from the center adds or reduces the amount of reflective particles little by little, trying to find the desired concentration. There are too many nuances in this matter, and they usually depend on the color of the paint itself (for example, red color requires the addition of light particles to brighten the paintwork). We do not recommend this operation for people without proper experience.

Using a computer

One of the best methods is to select paint materials using a computer. It is relatively inexpensive and gives 100% results. For this there is no need to use expensive equipment, since everything is carried out using special programs. Among the advantages of computer selection of paint for a car are:

• Possibility of partially painting the car. This is especially true for damaged areas.
• There is no need to dismantle the element, which allows you to leave the factory assembly intact.
• There is no need to use any additional equipment.

Computer paint selection is very popular among car owners. This method is used relatively recently and is carried out using machine code. You can use it to find out the paint numbers for certain cars.

To set the auto-selection code, the wizard uses a special computer program. It compares the color saturation of enamels, contrast, and fading of the paintwork over a certain period of time. Using this method allows you to choose the right car enamels that will be identical to the factory color.

Important! The VIN code used in this method is assigned individually to each car upon release. As a result, choosing a dye becomes much easier.

Computer color selection is carried out in several stages:

1. First, paint mixing equipment is used. Here the selected composition is taken and tested.
2. When the paint has dried, it is leveled and compared with the main shade.
3. If the master notices even the slightest difference between the colors, the compositions are tinted. As a result, the autoemulsion is made anew.

The cost of such a procedure largely depends on the color saturation; for example, bronze and metallic blue will be in different price ranges.

On video: computer paint selection technology.

Selection of paint - with the production of a spray test*

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PPG Deltron paint by code	price, rub. 100 ml	Have questions
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Xiralik	from 800*	Consultation

* Three-layer mother-of-pearl color such as white pearl costs 750 rubles with a spray test. * Individual color selection, specifically for the car - 1000 rubles. * price for PPG xyrallic colors depends on the amount of xyrallic powder in the paint 1 gram = 2 euros. Payment by any legal method, cash and non-cash payments, there is an installment payment service. Delivery of prepared enamel to a place convenient for you (to a car service center, home, office, etc.)

The most practical color

The practicality indicator is largely determined by the appearance of the vehicle in various environmental conditions, in particular in bad weather. The most common colors usually do not cause problems for car enthusiasts when replacing body parts and selecting colors. What could be the most practical car color? One that is in steady demand if the need arises to sell the car.

It is believed that the most practical ones include gray, silver and beige. They are easier to sell later than white. And black, green, brown and partly blue are among the most easily soiled colors. This means that such cars will have to be washed regularly, and it is also very difficult to move under a black roof during the hot summer months. As for white, traces of rust, all kinds of chips and scratches are very clearly visible on it.

Car enamels colors

Car owners sooner or later face a situation when they need to choose the right paint color for their car. It would seem that this task is absolutely not difficult, but your opinion will completely change when you visit an automobile paint and varnish store and they show you a table of shades, on which you will see a huge number of different tones.

The task is further complicated by the fact that each manufacturer of paints and varnishes has its own color labeling. Also, car manufacturers label this or that color differently. You also need to know that different types of car enamels will look different, although they have the same color.

If you paint a damaged part of the body with this paint, you will get a stain that will greatly affect the appearance of your car.

What to do in this situation?

Paint code definition

At the factory where your car was made, the car's paint is assigned a specific code. This code carries information not only about color, but also about the percentage of various components in the enamel. In most cases, the paint code plate is quite easy to find - it can be attached to the bottom of the trunk lid, the rear door, in the driver's side doorway, under the hood near the VIN code plate. Sometimes it is located in hard-to-reach places. Please note that the paint code is also indicated on the warranty card.

If your car was purchased at an official car dealer showroom and has never been repainted, then there should be no problems with the selection of paint. You can select the color directly by code or VIN code. We have already written about what a VIN code is on our website Vodi.su, and so it contains encrypted information about the color of your car.

There are a number of online resources where you can find out the color name of a car by release date, model, VIN code, and so on. However, there is one problem - even according to the VIN code, the colors do not always match, since the color depends on many factors, even on the production date of the car enamel or on the paint mixing technology.

In this case, you need to contact a service station that offers a computer color matching service. Using special programs, the colorist will select the required ratio of components and check the result first on the computer screen, and only after that will begin painting the damaged area.

Paint Color Codes

The easiest way to understand the paint codes of domestic cars.

Automotive enamels for almost all domestic models - AvtoVAZ, GAZ, IZH, Volga - are marked according to a single scheme:

• color number - a three- or four-digit number (627 or 1158);
• color name - gray-blue metallic, light gray metallic.

In addition, each color has its own original name, in this case:

• 627 — honeysuckle (gray-blue metallic);
• 1158 - Auster (light gray metallic - this color is one of the main colors for GM-AVTOVAZ products).

A table of color codes for domestic cars can be easily found on the Internet. The very first color is metallic cherry with code 100.

The picture is clickable.

There are other interesting tones:

• Name: Coral - No. 116 (color: bright red lilac metallic);
• Name: Cup - No. 171 (color: red);
• Name: Ivory - No. 207 (color: beige-yellow non-metallic);
• Name: Asparagus - No. 305 (color: silver-green metallic);
• Name: Red Pepper - No. 1017 (color: metallic silver cherry).

If you have, for example, a Chevrolet, then a plate with the paint number can be found on the trunk lid, under the hood or on the inside of the glove compartment lid - in the Chevy Niva it is right on the glove compartment lid.

The color code is indicated using Latin letters and numbers, and the coupon indicates its name and type:

• ANTIQUE SADDLE - 64 Metallic;
• DARK SPIRAL GRAY - 878K/62 Metallic;
• AQUA BLUE – 25U Solid
• REGAL BLUE - WA360E/27 Metallic and so on.

It is very easy to choose a color for a specific model; to do this, the colorist goes to the official website, selects the model and year of manufacture, and is shown the full palette of colors that were used that year. Then the selection is purely by eye.

If you have a Mercedes-Benz, the paint code plate may be on the front doors on both the driver and passenger sides, or under the hood.

The colors are indicated:

• CANYON ORANGE PEARL - DB2450/DB450 Metallic;
• GALAXIE SCHWARZ MICA - 971 Metallic;
• KADMIUMGELB - DB1643 Solid.

That is, as we see, you need to know at least a little foreign languages, because if you get a sign with the name of a color in your hands, it will be very difficult to determine what kind of color it is. However, names like “Coral” or “Aventurine” won’t tell you anything specific. That is why the PTS, STS and warranty card indicate a specific color - green, red, beige - so that the traffic police inspector can make sure that the color matches the passport.

The picture is clickable.

Well, it’s worth recalling that most drivers, if they cannot determine the paint code, proceed in a simple way - remove the tank flap and colorists select the color. For this they:

• polish a small area a little to remove the faded layer of enamel;
• find color numbering using online resources or catalogs;
• they look at how well the sample corresponds to the real paintwork of the car;
• A recipe is generated using a computer program.

Colorists also take into account that after drying the paint darkens several tones. In addition, the painting and drying technology influences the result of the work.

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How to choose paint color for a foreign car by VIN code

As for foreign cars, the location of the data plate depends on the specific model. Let's look at them:

• Alfa Romeo: The label can be found on the inside of the trunk lid or on the front passenger side, in the wheel well.
• Audi: cover on the inside or spare tire niche (enamel codes for the main part and plastic are written separated by a slash).
• BMW: you should look for the plate on the supports or rail, or under the hood.
• Fiat: wheel well on the front right, inside of the trunk lid, partition under the hood that serves as fire protection for the interior.
• Ford: front radiator trim, space under the hood (to determine the color, you need to look at the numbers in the line with the designation “K”).
• Honda: pillar on the driver's side, in the space that is closed by the door.
• KIA: driver's side pillar (enamel color number is the last two digits).
• Mercedes: passenger side pillar, radiator trim under the hood (2nd digit in the penultimate row will be the paint color code).
• Renault: the plate can be located in the space under the hood on two supports.
• Volkswagen: pillar on the passenger side on the left, as well as a transverse radiator strip in front of the hood.

The manufacturer's classification may be different and have its own codes and names. For this reason, to determine the required combination of paint pigments, it is better to seek help from a specialist. There are also special programs for choosing the right paint.

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“Kia Cerato car 3 color Golden Beat Metallic. I ordered primer, varnish, and K3N paint on Sunday, and they arrived exactly a week later on Monday. I was pleased with the delivery quickly. Paid by cash on delivery. delivery …

and 220 rub. paint 300, varnish 250, primer 200. total together with delivery 970r+118r with kopecks at the post office. on the K3N website the name of the color is listed as Golden Beat Metallic - golden metallic, just like my color is called by the manufacturer, in fact it came K3N, but the name is BRONZE PEARL bronze metallic. I talked with the manager Ksenia, a very pleasant, competent person. She explained that the name does not matter, that at first the color was called that, then it was changed, and that the main color code is K3N. I touched up the chip, it seems that it is darker than the original paint, but I immediately make a correction that maybe I applied too much paint, I have no experience in this matter and I am still slightly worried because of the different name of the paint). Photo attached) In general, I really liked the work of the organization and the attitude towards customers

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The VAZ paint code must be known to all owners of domestic cars who decide to carry out local body repairs themselves. The website's catalog presents aerosol paints and touch-up pencils with a brush in a wide range of shades, labeled according to the factory palette. With their help, you can easily deal with scratches and other paintwork defects; you just need to choose the color according to the code of your car.