Hey guys,
Have a question for you all.

I need to get the door for a Ford Falcon painted (long story). The colour code is W5. A few places I've called have said that colour is 'pearl' which will mean they will need to spray the adjacent panels.
This means the cost of getting a brand new bare shell that I'm buying from Ford sprayed, is going to be upwards of $600..
That seems a little steep for just the price of one panel.
Can anyone confirm if that colour is indeed pearl? As I can't find that it is anywhere. It just says that it is a metallic paint..
I'm aware they will probably need to see his car to make sure his paint hasn't faded (I doubt it will have, he takes good care of it) but it seems weird that to spray one panel they will need to spray half of the car as well.

Cheers.

If it is a door, you will only need to blend halfway into the ajacent door and quarter panel weather it be front or rear. About the same as spraying 2 doors all up. The clear coat is what will be the killer because they will need to clear all over the ajacent doors and quarter panels. The price probably isn't all that unrealistic if its including labour.

That doesnt sound bad for a new door + pearl paint. A lot of fords are pearl colours

Sounds about right. I have sprayed that color quite a few times lol ( used to paint for a ford dealership ) It is indeed a bastard to paint and to blend properly at least 2 and a half panels need to be blended

The price quoted isn't really the issue, the question should be - can they do a good enough job so that you are not embarassed when you drive the car? Metallics and pearls are really difficult to blend in. Too many variables at play here. When its done, look at that side of the car from different angles.

i agree , depends on how fussy the owner is. i had a guard and door painted by a panelbeater , blended all the rest of it. during daytime it looked great . under a street light it looked like chalk and cheese. care factor ? nah i got used to it.

I'm new to this so i'm prepared to be shutdown here.
But the car is quite new, does the paint only need to be blended if the original paint has faded? Or if the paint is still in good nick would they just be able to paint that one panel?

Age of the orginal paint isn't important - if the spray painter can match EXACTLY all the variables in the factory booth at the time of the original spraying, he would get an exact match. In practice this is impossible.

Paint supplier.
Paint batch
Paint type
Air temperature
Humidity
Gun pressure
Gun distance from the metal
Gun speed
Layer thickness
Speed of drying - air temp, metal temp, time.

Probably some other variables I've missed, lol None of these are important in the factory, as a whole car is sprayed in one go, but the same colour on different cars sprayed with different paint batches on different days can look different if put side by side - even the factory can't control all of the variables. Not a problem until a spraypainter has to do a few panels . . . . .

You could get him to do just the door, but it will stand out.

Alright thanks.
As for everyone saying that it only matters if I won't care - it's for a friends car that I dinted. So I'm not going to stinge on the paintjob and make it so that he has a shit painted door through fault of my own. I'll find a good sprayer and get it done right, so that it blends as perfect as they can get it.

Thanks for your advice guys, now I know at least that I'm not getting ripped off.

Cheers.

Is there a ford wrecker that might have one in the same colour, and theres a chance it would match as I'm sure a lot of the varibles MadMax listed would be controlled as best they could at the factory.

Age of the orginal paint isn't important - if the spray painter can match EXACTLY all the variables in the factory booth at the time of the original spraying, he would get an exact match. In practice this is impossible.

Paint supplier.
Paint batch
Paint type
Air temperature
Humidity
Gun pressure
Gun distance from the metal
Gun speed
Layer thickness
Speed of drying - air temp, metal temp, time.

Probably some other variables I've missed, lol None of these are important in the factory, as a whole car is sprayed in one go, but the same colour on different cars sprayed with different paint batches on different days can look different if put side by side - even the factory can't control all of the variables. Not a problem until a spraypainter has to do a few panels . . . . .

You could get him to do just the door, but it will stand out.

Im a sandblaster and spray painter by trade and everything you have said is exactly right!! 90% of our work is tray bodys for comercial vechials so matching to factory paint is a biarch!!! even if you get a good blend buffing the clear coat afterwards is just as hard to get an even gloss without any obvious start and finishing points.. in most cases if you can get 2 out of three angles in the sun pretty close its good enough for the average jo so to speak...