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Paint Match Gone Wrong

12K views 29 replies 11 participants last post by  tech69 
#1 ·
I recently painted the doghouse and passenger front door of a kia sportage as a wreck repair. Like most of my work, this is an "economy fix", which basically translates to a only fix major defects/damage, rough it up and shoot. I know this isn't the philosophy here...and it isn't mine either, but I do the work I am told and paid to do.

I used my typical paint supplier which will remain anonymous and ordered a quart of paint matched SS urethane. In my booth, the paint looked like a dead match, and all of my previous orders have been correct. Today I finished buffing and decided to pull it outside for a look in natural light before applying swirl remover...and obvious as day the paint doesn't match at all. It is bad enough at 25 feet away I was getting comments of not matching from people who don't know a crankshaft from a headlight. Under florescent tubes, it looks dead right. I have heard things about florescent lighting throwing off the look of paint before and to use halogen, but I never gave it much thought.

I have never run into this before. I am not an overly skilled painter, never tried blending and only paint whole panels (or typically, whole cars). I only have a few spoonfuls of paint left, maybe 1/2 cup sprayable. I am out of budget to buy anymore paint, not counting the labor time as this car is due to the customer by next tuesday. Despite being a true economy fix, this error is out of the question...I know I wouldn't accept it. My paint supplier won't do anything about this, stating a "no paint match guarantee". This is in the fine print I didn't read. I suppose it falls under "penny wise, dollar stupid" by choosing my supplier based off dollar signs alone, although we have had a trouble free relationship up until this point.

I have attached two pictures. The camera seems to hide the problem a bit, it is even more obvious in RL. The original paint appears to be what I would call a pure white, while the new paint is a bit like a creamy white...a bit difficult for me to describe colors.

I have lurked this forum for a few months now and have read threads for countless hours...and it is because of the advice here I have got the courage to start painting my own wreck repairs instead of subbing it out. This has been just slightly more profitable for me, but really makes things easier to manage, being in control of the entire operation. I suppose this day would eventually come...in any case, is there any solution short of a repaint? I don't feel that I have enough paint to blend in both sides of the car with no blending experience. I don't know of any other fix besides painting the rest of it (which it honestly needs as it is rusting around the rear hatch, and although it isn't in budget, I am considering it as a distinct possibility to keep my reputation up).
 

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#29 ·
Yes, that does make good sense and I am well aware of that from the mechanical side. This is an issue no matter where you are on the quality scale. There are people that will try to get free labor from every small detail, whether or not it is actually an issue. Dealing with this isn't so much about how much work you put into their project, but falls into your business skills and covering your ***. I have a few things in place trying to prevent this from happening...nothing I have ever ran by a lawyer, but I haven't had any arguments yet. My paperwork spells out not just the job I am to do (such as paint a fender), but also to what quality level with samples.

Having thoughts of finish painting that kia to give it a dead match had nothing to do with the customer demanding it and giving in to the demands, but my own personal desires for the quality that I put out. I did not guarantee a perfect paint match (and never have), although that does not mean that I won't try my best to make it so. The paint job on that kia is not top notch, not by a long shot, but I feel is should have matched better than it did. If I had any enough extra paint left, I would have blended it (or attempted to). I have now learned from this to get a bit extra if this happens again, which sounds likely.

I don't do all cheap work, although that is about 60% of my business. The all over scheduled for this weekend will be the best I can do, and it is getting charged appropriately. I am not trying to argue business practices by any means and I know I could have more money in my pocket (at least in the short term) by caring less on the cheap jobs, but I don't morally feel I should operate that way. One may get a lot less man-hours into it, but all jobs will still get the same effort.
 
#30 ·
you don't have to explain yourself, lots of shops do cheap work now cause that's what pays the bills. I've done it and there's no shame in it.

With experience comes knowing what to expect or to foresee possible hangups and to then verbalize this with the customer so he knows and you have given him the option to pay for it to be done in a way with less risk and to cover your end on liability and full disclosure. This is what makes experiences like this more valuable to you in the long run cause you have gained knowledge from it.
 
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