Mag Red Paint

[Paul Eggermann]

Larry,

We got back from Florida last week and have settled back into daily life. On our way down I managed to hit a square curb in a parking lot and broke the right front fender just below the door post. The mounting tab is broken off and the rocker took a small hit. You cannot see this damage without laying down on the ground. Needless to say, it ruined my day.

I have taken it to two Corvette body shops near me. One has probably never worked on a C5 and the other one replaced the same rocker two years ago when I also hit a taller square curb and broke it good. He had lots of trouble matching the paint and the finished job is not great. You would not notice the difference in color if I didn't point it out to you. I have a quart of this paint which I took after he did the job.

Both of these guys are afraid to try to match the MagRed on the whole fender and propose to patch it up with epoxy and paint it with my paint. This will probably look ok but expands the area where this not perfect paint would be. I think it would be less costly to replace the fender and work on a perfect paint match. A new fender costs $163 for gmpartsdirect. The rocker needs a small patch and also needs repaint.

Do you know of anyone who can successfully match this paint? I know that there are at least five variations from the factory on the 99 Mag Red's and they probably changed to the Mag Red II in 2000 to try to overcome these QC problems.

Any suggestions?

Also, what is this fender made of? It looks like a yellowish plastic. There is certainly no fiberglass in it.

[Y2KFRC]

The problem with matching paint on the optional paint colors is that they are" TINTED CLEAR COATS ". (Mil Yellow, Mag Red, Nas Blue.) There is a shop in the NE part of Philadelphia who has done many jobs on these colors. My neighbor hit a deer and did 10,400.'s damage to his 99 Nas Blue cp. You can't see where he painted and where the old paint is. Just perfect, best paint guy in the N.E. He's not cheep but the work he has done on our club members cars is outstanding. Alan's Collision Center, # 215-677-7773.. owner,Dennis Winokur, tell him that Bill Burkholder from CCDV sent you. I know that you live in N.J. but I'm not sure how far from where he is.

PS. He has done painting for Calloway (Speedsters)

[fatherlarry]

Paul,

Gotta stay away from those curbs!!!

Well, matching is an art, and each craftsman has his own technique for matching. I would discourage using your left over paint. A lot of times the metallic drops to the bottom, or it may not have been stirred properly from the beginning which could throw the color off when its reused. Just use it for touchup. A shop owner should never say, "I'll use leftover paint", unless the car was a repaint from him and he has to do a repair on his old work. So it's better if the paint shop orders it from his supplier or does the mix himself, if he is equipped with a computer color scanner that picks up the pigments or with scales so they could scale the mix. Make sure that wherever you go they have state of the art equipment. This assures the right measurements so that the match is as close to factory as possible. Paint matching is controlled by many methods, and today you are working with a base coat/clear coat color. Different methods produce different results, such as, mixture of the base coat with the thinners, the amount of air pressure coming through the gun, the width of the spray, the distance that they spray from, if they spray it on too wet or too dry, and so on. Dupont has a new clear that I have seen good results with on the newer cars. Ask them what brand paint they are going to use. I would stay with the original fender, since it matches the hood, door and rocker. What they can do when they repair it, is blow the paint into the fender, rocker and door, which is one of the techniques used in matching fender to door, and door to fender. And, it would pick up the pigmentation from the original paint when they do this. I don't know anyone in your area that I could recommend, however, Outten Chevrolet has a good reputation, they are in Allentown, PA, and Vette Doctors of course. It might be worth the trip to Long Island and tell them FatherLarry sent you. I hope this was of some help to you. Just some things you can bring up to the autobody technician the next time you talk to him.

Keep us posted.

[Paul Eggermann]

Thanks for your thoughts. I would only use the old paint if we couldn't get any closer and a test spray showed that it was still useable. I am more inclined to try for a better match and feather the new paint on the repaired fender. This will avoid having to make a perfect match to the hood which I am beginning to think think is impossible. I would never allow anyone to feather into the hood or door since this is just asking for halo problems and a very unhappy owner, Me.

[fatherlarry]

Originally posted by Paul Eggermann
Thanks for your thoughts. I would only use the old paint if we couldn't get any closer and a test spray showed that it was still useable. I am more inclined to try for a better match and feather the new paint on the repaired fender. This will avoid having to make a perfect match to the hood which I am beginning to think think is impossible. I would never allow anyone to feather into the hood or door since this is just asking for halo problems and a very unhappy owner, Me.

First of all, that's why I'm telling you to repair the original fender so you don't have to go on top of the fender where the fender meets the hood and have an off color. As you would call a halo. It's actually called a metallic blush. You're blending your color on the bottom near the rocker and then slowly taking away the color to the next stage by adding more clear, and by the time you get half way up the fender, you're using straight clear, so as not to affect the original color of the fender on the top near the hood. But, you're clearing the whole fender with your last three coats of clear, so there's no way to burn through. It's kind of hard to explain to a non tradesman. When feathering or blowing into the door there is a procedure and scuffing method used, and a product called 811, which is an adhesive that melts the clear so you can make your blend without worrying about any peeling and blotching in the future. And feathers beautifully if the car is ever redone. And, don't forget, the color primer that is used has a lot to do with the matching of the color too. Always match the primer to the original factory primer. Also, some clears have a certain tint to it. Most people don't know how to do it properly. If you find someone that is experienced in this technique, you won't have a metallic blush. Not only that, it seems like maybe you are telling the body shop what you want, and they are doing what you want, however, you may want to find someone you truly trust and just put it in their hands. I know that's hard to do. There are only two people that I know who can match the color without going into any panels, and matching the oxidation of the old paint, and that's my father and I. My father used to teach a paint class down at Tarrytown, NY, and this is before clear coat/base coat, and he used to get a gas cover door, spray it, either metallic, blue, gold or silver, whatever the color of the car was, and put it right back on the car and the match was perfect. The students were amazed. You could even look at it with a magnifying glass and you couldn't tell it wasn't factory. Of course, he taught me the trick. What I'm trying to say is that it could be done. Like I said in the beginning, its an art. And, you have to pay. How much faith do you have in the answers you've been getting from the shops you have gone too. If not much, why don't you try the shop that the gentleman above gave you in Philly, Outten Chevrolet or Vette Doctors. You know, sometimes it's very hard to please Corvette owners, so it pays to go to someone who may charge more, but give you better results. Well, good luck to you. Too bad I'm retired or I would tell you to bring it in to me. PS. Your insurance might cover this too, depending on your deductible.