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Color Match Misconception

HealeyRick

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When I was painting my BJ7 in Healey Blue in the '90s, I had the original paint on the inside of the trunk scanned with a Prophet PPG spectrophotometer. I believed what was happening was the process would churn out a custom match to the original Healey Blue. Turns out I was wrong. What the system does is match the result with the closest formula in the PPG library. Found this out this morning when I spoke to a "color librarian" at PPG.. Turns out the color I always thought was Healey Blue came from a Mack truck. Funny thing is I always get lots of compliments on the color with people asking me for the formula. At least with Healey Blue, it's in the ballpark of what was original if not in the same box seats.
 

aero3113

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That’s funny, whenever I see the pic of your car below your posts, I always say to myself it looks like a Mack truck! LoL, just kidding!
 

roscoe

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Color, like sound is a mash-up that is only in our brains. It is an absolute miracle that our perceptions of these two things tend to be close from person to person......our opinions certainly aren't. A tree falling in the forest really doesnt make a "sound" unless there is someone or something present to interpret the vibrations in the air. Same with the electromagnetic spectrum, which includes our visual wavelengths we call color. If somebody says " that is Healey blue", who am I to disagree. If you are happy, don't let anyone spoil your party.
 
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RAC68

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Hi All,

Rick, I appreciate your story as I also fell into that situation. In the 1980s, when I completely redid my Healey, I had it painted Old English White as it was since new. Sometime in the late '90s, I was hit in the rear by an SUV piloted by a newly wedded couple. Since the car was completely paint stripped, the body shop painter asked if I wanted the original Old English White or the color on the car (which seemed to be darkened with a more pronounced brown tint). My decision was slowed by all the complements I received but I finally decided to go with the Original OEW color.

Recently, when working on fixing the Flasher relay box, I needed to remove the driver side fender and door. In doing this, I caused some paint damage on the lower portion of the rear fender. In order to correct the marred paint and not wanting to purchase a costly small volume of custom mixed paint, I happen to be at Walmart looking for some satin black in a spray can when I cam across a Krylon Satin Ivory and took a shot at under $5. Well, after testing the Satin Ivory with a coating of clear against the car's OEW, I found it to be very close, if not an exact match. Conclusion, as Rosco has pointed, although I see this color as an exact match, I can't say others will but its worth keeping your eyes open.

All the best,
Ray(64BJ8P1)
 

RAC68

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Although I appreciate Reid's opinion and must accept the Judges perceptions, Color is as Rosco indicated, in the mind of the beholder and unless evaluated by accurate technology, will remain an opinion.

Ray(64BJ8P1)
 

Bob_Spidell

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FWIW, a spectrophotometer--probably the PPG one--matched my nominally 'Colorado Red' BJ8 with 'GM Peking Red.' It appears to be a pretty good match with Colorado Red based on the paint chips I've seen (well, mainly Picovnik's). The shop mixed some up for me and it was, indeed, a perfect match to what's on the car.
 

kozelding

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I had my car sprayed with Herbert Standox paint years ago in, supposedly, Colorado Red (I'll have to dig to figure out the code).

At some point I wanted to touch up a small ding underneath the car, and not caring too much about it, grabbed some gloss Rustoleum off the garage shelf (Sunrise Red maybe?).

It matched perfectly! At first I thought, oh, I just can't see well because of the dim work light under the car.... But, no, even in the bright of day on a top-side panel chip, it is the exact match.
 
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When I had my BJ8 painted many years ago at a hot rod shop, they had 3 "OEW" samples. They claimed the formula changed several time during Healey manufacturing. All were very close. They had about 40 other whites that were close. Most made OEW look "dirty grey" when held side by side. I went with 1996 Mazda white used only half a year and I get comments/complements on how nice it looks at every Healey car show. It has a hint of cream making it look very rich.
Do what makes you happy unless you are going for concour judging.
 

Bob Claffie

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I have a similar but different story. In 1985 I had my Corvette painted Roman Red in Acrylic enamel (including the hard top). A good friend had his newly restored Corvette painted Roman Red in 2004, he used Base coat/Clear coat. In 2015 I had my Corvette repainted in Roman Red using single stage urethane. Absolutely no difference in color between the new old and middle paint jobs except the BC/CC has a superior shine.
 

vette

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quote_icon.png
Originally Posted by aero3113

That’s funny, whenever I see the pic of your car below your posts, I always say to myself it looks like a Mack truck! LoL, just kidding!


Drives like one, too. :devilgrin:


Hmmm, maybe you do need that Power Rack & Pinion? :smile:
 

vette

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Yes I have had plenty of experiences with trying to match colours. and the only way I have ever been successful is by use of a good friend who owns a body shop and does it all by eye. Mixes his own blend and does pretty good with it. And in spite of the fact that I tell him he has nailed it on occasion, he will insist that there is never a perfect match and it is just an illusion and fooling the eye. I had to paint my '70 Vette this last year because I had a little "fender bender" (Big Crack) a while back when I foolishly punched the new engine and put it in a ditch. Well I went back to the paint supplier 3 times to get the blend right and they never did really match it. (I should have taken the paint to my friend and he would have adjusted it). So I painted the whole car. It's just a touch darker than before. On my domestic vehicles if I have to fix rust because they are old or if a fender bender situation I just tape up the repaired area and paint with what ever the paint supply store sells me. I'm not worried about an exact match. Then one day my SUV got hit in the front end good so there was some insurance money available so I took it to my friend at the body shop. After he repaired the panel and had it primed out he called me, he said, " what part of the thing do you want me to match", LOL. I said, 'I don't care, just tape it up and paint it'.
 

Michael Oritt

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Although I appreciate Reid's opinion and must accept the Judges perceptions, Color is as Rosco indicated, in the mind of the beholder and unless evaluated by accurate technology, will remain an opinion.

Ray(64BJ8P1)

Ray--

Is that like "Alternative Facts"?
 
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