Any suppliers of small amounts of car paint?

You won't get perfect matching paint especially in metallic by simply reducing the paint formulae which is what will happen when attempting to reduce the quantity down to 100ml.

1000 Millilitres = one Litre 500 Millilitres = half Litre 100 Millilitres = one eighth of a Litre Mixing a quantity as low as 100ml would prove quite difficult because the mixing ratios won't go down that far and they tend to be measured by weight in Grammes not Mls.

The paint mixing formulae is designed to be accurate on larger amounts which is why paint is usually mixed and supplied in litre form although some outlets will mix as little as half a litre. I don't know of any paint mixing factors that can mix is smaller quantities.

The formula is far less accurate on a half litre mix than it would be on a litre or more so 100ml would be impossible to match accurately.

The only way to guarantee an exact match is to have the paint mixed and applied at a car body shop who have the necessary equipment to apply it by spraygun using the correct viscosity air pressure and temperature.

You could actually use the same batch of paint the vehicle was originally painted in and it would still not match accurately unless it was applied the exactly the same way. Metallic in particular can only be accurately matched successfully professionally because you can alter the colour slightly from light to dark simply by increasing or reducing air pressure. You obviously cannot do this with an aerosol but could possibly using an air brush to some extent.

Because metallics are generally basecoats (a matt or flat finish) they need a protection coat this is called the lacquer coat which provides the shine and durability.

Steve.

Those touch up bottles with a brush in the cap? You could thin it down for spraying.

Thanks for the advice both. I guess the best thing for the dash panel at least would be to try to remove it from the car and spray the whole thing, then I wouldn't have to worry about a perfect match. It's a dark metallic silver so I guess I might be able to find a can of wheel paint (possibly aluminium?) to do the job. I remember using Spectra wheel paint in the past and being very satisfied with the finish. Problem is going to be trying to find out how to remove that part of the dash without having to dismantle half of the inside of the car :-(

Steve. What do you prime plastic with to give paint a good key? Or is is sufficient to just give it a light rub down with fine wet and dry?

SilverB

In the trade you would use "panel wipe" which is a solvent cleanser to de-grease the panel or bumper first and then rub rub with a coarse (red) scotch-cloth to provide a key, then use a special plastic promotional primer to spray the plastic or rubber composition bumpers to form a key for further substrates. You can use wet-or-dry but it's not very effective unless it's really a coarse grade which is why scotch-cloths are used instead. You can however use a kitchen pan scourer though.

The interior dash does not necessarily need to stand up to the same wear and tear as a bumper would so the chances are an ordinary primer will stand up very well even to the high temperatures reached inside the car during hot summer days.

Clean, scotch and just paintaway :)

Steve.

Thanks Steve. I might give it a try

Hi "Stephen Hull"

Your calculator needs a smak, i make that a 1/10th of a litre.

Well it was near enough :)

Steve.