Paint Shortage

ACME SS said
When I ordered 67 Ford Acapulco Blue for a 67 Mustang, I was shocked to find the paint was mixed and the label said Dodge Caravan Blue... Turns out they recycle all these mix codes. "There are only so many colors in the world", I was told when I complained.

Everyone to their own but I have long ago left Martin Senour, PPG, House of Kolor, and now I'm using Kirker which I purchase through Auto Body Toolmart. You only have a select number of colors to choose from but you can mix them all you want to create whatever you want. None of my restomods could give a crap if they are original or not, which is the liberating feeling you get when you say #$%%^ it, none of the numbers match, I'm doing what I want, not what the code on the data plate says. It feels great to spray a car with 2K for $300k vs $2500 House of Kolor or $2,000 for another brand. Sorry but I used to (in the early 80's) think $150 for ALL body materials was expensive. To be able to do it now for close to that is liberating!

The cameras cross reference the picture to a data base/library of colors and spits out the formula for the closest match. What you don't see if you're not doing it yourself dodge caravan might have been a 98% match and the 97% match listed might have been a toyota color. Color matching is primarily done with the color decks. Pull the formula which will post all the variants, pull out those chips, and check against the vehicle. You might have 10 variants to look at. I've scanned Harley Davidson parts and mixed up Gm wa#xxxx and it was perfect. The cameras are good but not foolproof. Three stage paints can throw the off such as a pearlcoat or candies.

I painted my truck with Kirker base and it was some no covering crap. You're not saving much if you have to buy a second kit of base to get it done. Didn't think much of the clear either. All the major manufacturers have second and third tier product lines that are more user friendly then Kicker for nowhere near top shelf prices.