Is Silver Birch Metallic Really That Hard To Color Match?

[amg280]

So Ive had my (new to me) 06 truck for 4 days, and without going into detail, gets scratched and dented on the left side bed, on Z71 decal, $800 estimate. (not my doings, btw)

 

Took it in monday to a highly rated shop, they called me today and said it was ready. I go there, and the first thing I noticed was the repair area was lighter than the rest of the truck. They blended it at around the rear tire area, a good blend, but the new color was MUCH too bright. It was very apparent looking at it from the back, because the tailgate was not painted. Needless to say i was PISSED! Also things of note, the Z71 sticker was full of "bubbles". And some of the side of the bed had dust spots that they said would be gone if they wet sanded them. Im thinking to myself, then why the hell didnt you do it?

 

The manager there even agreed with me that it was off a little. I didnt pay them a dime, and told them I didnt want the truck. He seemed more than happy to "re-do" it. I wasnt a dick about it, I was very nice. I even apologized for being so picky. Im sure the average joe six pack would be fine with it. Im lucky the sun was actually out today when I saw the truck for inspection.

 

This really pisses me off because this truck was mint with all original paintwork, without a single scratch, ding, or dent. Not even a swirl mark. Now, I feel its going to be tainted forever.

 

Sorry, just had to vent...

[CANiHaveGasCash]

I'm pretty sure metallic silver is one of the hardest colors to get to blend properly. I had the same problem with a silver car of mine. You couldn't really tell unless the sun was out. I took the body shop 3 tries to finally get it to the point that it was acceptable.

[Navaho]

Silver Birch is not a hard color to match; it's the metallic in the paint that causes the problem. Don't get me wrong, I’m not letting the shop off the hook; the paint could have not been mixed properly and indeed have been the wrong shade. Depending on where your truck was made the plant may use a different shade of the same paint code (Toyota’s silver metallic has 7 different shades). I have even seen New Model, Factory Painted Trucks that are the complete wrong shade, and that’s even scarier because the plant doesn't paint 1 vehicle at a time, so all the parts painted with that particular batch will be the wrong color, but 99% of the time the culprit is the metal flake.

 

The way the metal flake rests and reflects the light back to your eyes is what makes the color appear different shades.

 

I have first hand experience using BASF Paint to color match Automotive parts and every now and again a customer would complain that the color was off. Sometimes, the color was off and we repainted the part, in rare occasions the factory color was off and we would have to charge the customer to get a body panel scanned and have a custom color mixed and give them the formula in case they ever need to get paint mixed again. Most of the time (using a paint scanner) the color was dead on to the truck, but when you step away from the part, the way the metal flake sits in the paint made the color look either a shade lighter or darker, depending on how bad the difference was offered to repaint the part but made no guaranty on the outcome, sometimes we got lucky and it looked better but most of the time the color looked the same.

 

Sorry this so long, but there is no simple answer when it comes to paint.