Re: Might pull triger on this one.... But was it hit?
Here is a previous post by pbassjo on the subject of color matching Spa Yellow Pearl, but in his reply is some information about color matching from the factory on body panels. Here you go.................
Re: Is the Spa Yellow pearl hard to match when it comes to repainting rock chips?
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Automotive paint that is pearl and/or metallic is not likely to blend or match if it is applied in any manner other than spraying. The mica and pearls will not lay down correctly and the spot will appear a different color, usually darker. You have to just live with it because respraying your car every time you get a few chips is just not cost effective. If done carefully a touch up will be a acceptable alternative to seeing a contrasting color spot where the chip is. Touch ups extend the life of your paint job and I touch up my chips too.
Chips are part of owning a NSX. It's going to happen sooner or later and especially of you do a lot of highway or track miles.
As for the pearl yellow being hard to match, straight off the showroom floor the bumpers don't match and often the vents or pillar garnishes don't match either, at least not to me. I know I'll hear from some folks who will say that their factory painted panels all match and I'm sure to you they do and that's all that matters... but they don't.
Honda and Acura bumpers don't match the body panels, throughout their product lines IMO.
Yes, the color can be matched but as with all colors you can't match what you can't see and that is the problem. You either see what is missing in the color or you don't. From what I've seen, in person, people with the yellow pearl NSX's who get them repaired/refinished seldom get the results they'd like.
The techs who are mixing/matching the color just don't know how to adjust the color or are unable to determine whether it is the base or the mid coat that needs adjusting.
I recently had to do a small repair to a Spa Yellow NSX quarter and the repair area was far enough from adjacent panels so that I could have blended within the panel and never get close enough to the adjacent panels to make a difference. Problem was that the bumper didn't match from the factory and I did not want someone to think that I painted the quarter and now the color didn't match the bumper, though the job I was doing wouldn't of came close to the bumper. I decided to match the color to bumper(not paint the bumper) and blend in that color in the quarter. The result was beautiful except the side I did now matches the bumper and the door but the factory side does not match the bumper. I just didn't want some wise guy to say "hey the paint don't match" when what they were seeing was the factory's work not mine so made sure MY side matched.
The problem is that these parts, that is the bumpers, vents, pillar garnishes, are painted at different times and places at the factory then the rest of the car.
Whew!
This got to be kind of a long winded post and I am not trying to make a commercial, just a explanation of the problems.
The color can be matched, just not by everybody. A good painter can't always tint color just like good singers can't always compose.
There might be an ultra-slight variation in that pic. I am sure that is factory paint. There is no way that the above pics are factory paint!
