Superformance paint
 

I'm trying to fix some of my rock chips on the front of the cobra. I tried Dr. Color Chip using monza red (#974). It was too orange to match. I have an early year Superformance red cobra.
Dose anyone know the exact color I should be using?:confused:

Scott.
Have you tried calling Hillbank? I got the paint code for my car from them.
Bob

Lance was the one that thought the color was monza red. So I'm open to other suggestions!

Automotive paint supply houses use something called a "color eye" to match paint for smaller automotive bodyshops. Perhaps call around to see which ones in your area have this $3,500 tool in their possession and make arrangements to go down and have your car "shot" (uses a laser to bounce a beam off the car, then analyses it, and comes up with the top three paint mixes). Using this type of apparatus works well for cars that have been repainted, or painted not on an assembly line, as it takes in to account the mistakes that can be made when mixing automotive paint (tints measured to a 10th's of an ounce). For an overall paint job, this is not ever an issue, so variations can occur. For touch up, or panel blending, this is a necessity, as 1/10th of an ounce of "tint" (Monza Red has 11 tints that must be mixed to make the color, that is 11 potential under or over pours by the painter who is mixing the product to be sprayed), and the overall color changes.....


Thus ends todays lesson on touch up paint and paint mixing in general :cool:


Bill S.

Was the color mismatch using just the paint or was it using the paint and then clearcoat over it?
I ask this because using paint alone will not match up properly most of the time as well as being a less than proper methodology.
I'll tell you what I've learned from big time concours prep folks and what I've used with very good results.
Any clearcoat painjob requires extra steps from ,say, a straight lacquer job, but the principles are the same. All it requires is some patience and a little elbow grease to yield results that are hard, if not often impossible to detect.
First, clean the chip out with mild solvent/cleaner. Next use color. I should emphasize using color paint that is fresh and allowed to flow. Air is the enemy, old paint will notflow properly, if you can't thin it yourself, get fresh color.
Don't use a brush and slobber it all over the chip. Think of a chip as a hole with edges, all you want is the paint to flow out to the edges. Use a wisk broom bristle or small piece of wire. All you're going to do is dip it into the paint and touch it into the chip. the paint should flow to the edges. Rarely will you need more than one touch. This is step one, if the paint covers the chip, leave it alone for several days and allow it to dry. It will dry & shrink up below the paint surface....this is fine. The second step it to hit it with clear urathane, same technique, except now you may need 2-3 applications between drying because now you want a bump above the level of the OEM paint.
Understand, with many colors, it may not look matched UNTIL the clearcoat is applied.
Once you have it built up, after a few days, you get your, 600 grit wet/dry paper and WET sand it down slowly to level it out. As you get close, you switch to 1000 grit and then 1500. You should do this so the effected area is not much more that 1/2"-1" and if you go slow and use ample water you end up with a slightly flat spot that will clean up with hand compound or machine polish and will yield nice results.
My once/ twice a year chip fixes take 20/30 minutes for each step and works well. The only thing uglier than chips is big blobs over the chips.
Good luck.

Bill and Tim,
Thank you
for all your information. Time to go to work!
Scott

if it helps you to understand further:

Under the name Monza Red, and not including the original mix formula:

Sherwin Williams Automotive shows 11 "alternate mixes"
Dupont Automotive shows 7 "alternate mixes"
PPG Automotive shows 9 "alternate mixes"

These are all for "Panel blending" (or touch up) purposes.


Bill S.

Early cars (1-200) were painted with the Spies Hecker Paint Technology System. A quick search on the net infers they are still around, but my notes say otherwise. I believe a color matching service will be your best bet. Registry also only identifies your color as red. Sorry there was not a unique name attached to the color. Thus the importance of registering any new car and ownership.
Blas