Painting

Dave, Is it metalic? as this will determine how you proceed.

Gary

David French wrote:

Yup. Fox Fire Metallic to be precise.

Actually, it's "micatallic" if this makes any difference. Car says metallic, parts book says micatallic, dealer says they're the same thing.

David

Dealer is mistaken! A glance at the colour chart for the same year as yours reveals that like nowadays, there are three paint types in use, normal, metallic and micatallic. Micatallic has speckles of something or other within it to make it even more reflective. Obviously the success of this rather depends on how little mud the vehicle is coated in........

David, A Micatallic is still a metallic but it is a completely different composition. Mica is a "crystal" as opposed to ordinary "metal" metallics that often use aluminium or metal flake particles.

Because of differing light reflections you get from crystalline mica and indeed a pearlecent you'll find it quite difficult to match up using aerosols, But perhaps it won't really matter on the roof as you may not see a notable difference.

However the only sure way to guarantee a match is to have the panel sprayed professionally, This way the sprayer will be able to not only match the colour but also match the exact way the original paint has been applied by following the same way that the mica particles lay by catching the light.

Any metallic colour can be altered from dark to light to aid colour matching by adjusting spray pressure or paint volume but you cannot do this with an aerosol.

Because of the way mica and pearlecent colours catch the light they are particularly difficult to match even when done professionally.

Good luck,

Steve.