I used to let customers pick their own paint matches until a 2018 Nissan Altima taught me a lesson

Back when I first started, I figured hey, bring me the color code and I'll shoot whatever you want. That worked fine until a guy brought in a pearl white Altima and insisted his code was right even though the fender clearly didn't match the door. I sprayed it anyway because he was adamant. Three days later he came back furious because his wife's cousin who works at a dealership said it was a different variant. I had to strip the whole panel and respray it on my dime. That was in February of 2019 and I have not let a customer pick their own match since. Now I always pull a sample off the car and blend at least two adjacent panels. Has anyone else gotten burned by trusting the factory code too much?

2 comments

2 Comments

casey_wood21mo ago

Used to be on the opposite side of this actually. Always thought the factory code was gospel until a 2020 Honda Civic 2 door taught me otherwise. Guy swore his code was correct, turned out Honda had like 4 variants of the same pearl white that year. Had to eat the cost on a whole door respray after he came back three days later saying it clashed. Now I just pull a sample from the car no matter what, learned that lesson the hard way. Trusting the code without looking is just asking for trouble in my experience.

alicehernandez1mo ago

Hold on, that Honda pearl white thing is kind of a special case though. I've been doing this for over a decade and my experience is the complete opposite - most factory codes (especially for non-pearl or non-tri-coat colors) are dead on accurate if you look them up on the right database. The issue with that Civic is that Honda has been bad about documenting their production line variations (they're notorious for it actually), but that's more of a Honda problem than a "don't trust codes" problem. I just think pulling a sample every single time adds a ton of unnecessary work for something that usually works out fine, plus you're relying on the customer's car never having had a repaint before (which is a gamble in itself). Maybe I've just been lucky, but I'd rather spend those extra minutes double-checking the code against the VIN and paint manufacturer's notes than taking a sample from a car that might have faded unevenly over the years.