Does anyone know somewhere you can get someone to make up paint to a car's colour by reading the colour off the car with some sort of electronic measuring gizmo? I have heard this is possible but not been able to find anywhere that does it.

I ask as my red car appears to have faded, got a can of paint mixed up at halfords, but it looks darker - which wasn't unexpected but thought I'd try. The guy at halfords was accommodating and asked if it looked like the colour before putting it in the can but was difficult to tell without having them side by side, and said to bring it back if it didn't match and they'd try mix up another. Would rather get it right without trial and error though if I can

Will be interested if this is poss as I need a front bumper spraying on a 2001 car so could well bit a bit of colour diff there (altho silver aint gonna fade quite the same as a red one of course)

Jawel paints I find are ok, leave them the front grill or something loose and cut it back with some auto-glym or t-cut whatever you may use and they can match it, failing that under the bonnet of the Favorit at the back under the windscreen to your left the paint code is there on a little sticker.

If your paint has faded then it just needs cutting back, when I brought my Favorit it was a very pale pink so I used a mop and G3, then used autoglym wax. I find the wax to work best when you don't buff it off at all untill you have done the whole car then buff it back off the order you applied it in simply to allow it to dry where is applied last.

Have t-cutted the whole car - bit abrasive though, gone through to primer in two small spots so either greater care or less abrasive product needed

I am guessing based on the pic yours is apollo red same as mine.

I'd probably be able to get to the Tamworth Jawel paints if I'm making a journey down to Newport as it's not far off the m42 - although somewhere West Yorkshire would be better

Edited 29 October, 200817 yr by anewman

Have t-cutted the whole car - bit abrasive though, gone through to primer in two small spots so either greater care or less abrasive product needed

By hand or machine??

Oh and I wouldn’t trust Halfords with paint if they where the only paint shop in the country. Their accommodating for the faded paint means they are guessing what the colour should be like on your car. I had a bump at work and scrapped the driver’s side wing on my Favorit and whilst I was at it I repaired some ripples on the rear quarters and the rotten arches are yet to be welded and re-sprayed. I would also advise if your any good with spraying buy 2 pack primer ms (medium soft), leave it a couple of days to go hard then flat it off, then 2 pack of the colour of your car and leave over night and mop it the next day and wax. I'm told "perfect is only just good enough" with body-work and I agree because you can see every single ripple and dent and stone chip with shiny paint. You can always tell where a car has been re-sprayed aswell especially if it’s only a blow in on the door or on the bonnet or something because it's always alot hazier.

Sorry to sound patronizing if you already know what your talking about!

Hope this helps anyway (Y)

By hand or machine??

Used a cheapie £15 machine thing never again, lol. Have some AG Super Resin Polish which I believe to be quite highly rated so will give that a go if I need to do it again.

Have t-cutted the whole car - bit abrasive though, gone through to primer in two small spots so either greater care or less abrasive product needed

I am guessing based on the pic yours is apollo red same as mine.

Yeah it's the same code then. If you cant find your code il pm you tomorow with it.

I burnt through a couple of places on, but that was through my own doing when I caught the body line with the mop.

Used a cheapie £15 machine thing never again, lol

Hey! my mop is cheap

and I did the same thing

Used a cheapie £15 machine thing never again, lol. Have some AG Super Resin Polish which I believe to be quite highly rated so will give that a go if I need to do it again.

Take care, although T-Cut is fairly abrasive its not that abrasive that it would quickly cut through to primer (I'm guessing its a single stage paint on the the car), it would take a fair bit of attention hovering over one spot with a rotary , with a halfords type 'buff' it would take even longer as they are usually low torque.

Chances are you have really thin paint at that point (any chance it has had a previous repair and only a dusting of paint?) so from now on I would avoid anything abrasive unless you get a paint thickness check over the car so Autoglym SRP will be fine

From what I can tell it's single stage paint. The points it went through are like on the shaped bits/edges on the metal. Will have been my fault though rather than previous repair. Only did it on two spots (actually only noticed one on the bonnet at first, didn't spot the one on the roof till later).

Yeah it's the same code then. If you cant find your code il pm you tomorow with it.

Have the sticker so know the code So if I find somewhere like Jawell paints they can match to the actual colour rather than just make it to the code? Is it likely to be expensive?

That's what they were going to do for me and they said something like £4.

The paint they mixed for my wing and rear arches was very slightly more red than the rest of the paint, so its worth the extra little bit in my opinion to have it matched.

I would definetly use 2 pack and it's only primer and a basecoat. You will have to leave them a panel or something with that paint on and make sure it's very well cut back.

Is the 2 pack stuff like the equivalent of Halford's filler primer and standard primer? Or etch primer and standard primer? Or will it become more evident when I go to a professional shop like Jawell rather than Halfrauds?

Is the 2 pack stuff like the equivalent of Halford's filler primer and standard primer? Or etch primer and standard primer? Or will it become more evident when I go to a professional shop like Jawell rather than Halfrauds?

Put simply two pack will kill you unless you use the correct respirator... although in terms of results it's easier to apply and gives better results.

By the way, most Halfords stores get it right first time... and we make no more mistakes than any other retailer/paint supplier/motor factor.

Someone mentioned it earlier though - the paint we sell will be the same as the colour code when it left the factory...

Is the 2 pack stuff like the equivalent of Halford's filler primer and standard primer? Or etch primer and standard primer? Or will it become more evident when I go to a professional shop like Jawell rather than Halfrauds?

etch primer is for going back to bare metal, filler primer/high build primer is for doing pretty much as it says but the results tend not to be as good. 2 pack primer is primer and hardener its what the proffessional's use in the paintshop's its more resistant to stone chips etc it simply dry's much harder.

Don't mean to offend anyone working in halford's but to be honest mixing the paint darker than what's on the car is in fact guessing and probably wont match the paint on the car even after its cut back. I haven't ever been to a professional paint shop and have them guess how dark the paint should be, they cut it back and match it up that way.

Have a machine at work for this called CHROMAVISION.

it cost 3 grand to buy. and lets face it, its crap.

You hold it up to a panel and get 3 readings then you plug it into the comp and it tells you the closest match.

The results aint brilliant. The manufacture states that it is only for guidence purposes only.. (what the point of it then) colour chips are cheaper.

To be honest anewman I would just use the paint code, it will save you allsorts of hassle (Y) but if you feel you could get a better match by eye, then use the paint chips as westy said.