Feddy_Ace
Senior Member
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2019
- Threads
- 18
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- 453
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- Location
- Rancho Cucamonga, CA
- Vehicle(s)
- 2019 Civic Hatchback Sport CVT
- Thread starter
- #1
I’ve been meaning to discuss my experience with finding a good color match paint for Honda’s SGP for awhile now. As us owners of this color know, it’s tough to find a solid match. Even Honda’s own paint pens are off at times. I spoke to a professional shop who showed me how many variations of this color Honda produced and it’s, uhh, questionable how many there is.
Last year, I clipped my front bumper on my garage and caused some gnarly damage. The OEM bumper cover just fractures at the slightest bit of collision. A local shop quoted me at $1500 paint match a new front bumper and I revolted. They told too told me the pearl grey is a bitch to match and they’d likely need to blend the fenders or it would be off. My car in particular has a shitload of flakes the fender, to it was going to be almost certain to need blending.
I decided I’d rather do it on the cheap myself. I had no experience in body work, but I’m not stranger to painting as a trained fine artist. I was sure I could do a well enough job with rattle cans. Couldn’t be that hard.
Turns out it was really fucking hard. My initial attempt to get the color mixed had too little pearl and was practically powder blue. My second attempt was too much pearl and reflected very green. My third attempt to paint it was closer, but too dark, and at this point I lost patience and decided to just go forward with it. You can see below my number is visibly darker and lacking pearl of the fenders. In direct light is was visible, but you could hardly see a difference at other angles.
After awhile, I just couldn’t deal with the paint being off. I had to install my new intercooler, so I decided to try painting it again. This time I ordered a few pre-mixed cans from different sellers online: Harpy, Touch Up Direct, and Scratches Happen.
I tested them all out to see which was the better match. Harpy was a single stage and not remotely a close enough match. TUD was water based and had a really well matched base color, but not enough pearl. This would be more suitable for small jobs. As soon as I opened the box from Scratches Happen, I knew this was gonna be good. I could see the pearl flakes swirled on the cap from when they pumped it into the can. This was the most expensive of the options, but it also came the fastest and produced the best test. It’s also water based, but had way more pearl.
I decided to use this to paint my bumper and clear it with Spraymax 2K gloss. The paint goes in so smooth and flat. The nozzles do not drip and spit. Literally not once. I actually ran out of 2K to finish the job, but thankfully I ordered the kit from Scratches Happen that included their own clear coat. I didn’t expect much, but it was surprisingly good. Maybe just one step below Spraymax. I followed the job up with a cut & buff. The results were excellent.
The finish looks OE. The pearl match isn’t quite perfect, but it’s a good middle ground and you can’t see the difference unless your face is 5 inches away from the car. It initially looked a bit darker, but lightened over a few weeks of sun exposure to look just like the original paint. You would never know this was a rattle can job.
If you have DIY projects that need a paint match on this color I can’t recommend this enough. I have some left and I’m thinking about painting my valve cover with it.
Last year, I clipped my front bumper on my garage and caused some gnarly damage. The OEM bumper cover just fractures at the slightest bit of collision. A local shop quoted me at $1500 paint match a new front bumper and I revolted. They told too told me the pearl grey is a bitch to match and they’d likely need to blend the fenders or it would be off. My car in particular has a shitload of flakes the fender, to it was going to be almost certain to need blending.
I decided I’d rather do it on the cheap myself. I had no experience in body work, but I’m not stranger to painting as a trained fine artist. I was sure I could do a well enough job with rattle cans. Couldn’t be that hard.
Turns out it was really fucking hard. My initial attempt to get the color mixed had too little pearl and was practically powder blue. My second attempt was too much pearl and reflected very green. My third attempt to paint it was closer, but too dark, and at this point I lost patience and decided to just go forward with it. You can see below my number is visibly darker and lacking pearl of the fenders. In direct light is was visible, but you could hardly see a difference at other angles.
After awhile, I just couldn’t deal with the paint being off. I had to install my new intercooler, so I decided to try painting it again. This time I ordered a few pre-mixed cans from different sellers online: Harpy, Touch Up Direct, and Scratches Happen.
I tested them all out to see which was the better match. Harpy was a single stage and not remotely a close enough match. TUD was water based and had a really well matched base color, but not enough pearl. This would be more suitable for small jobs. As soon as I opened the box from Scratches Happen, I knew this was gonna be good. I could see the pearl flakes swirled on the cap from when they pumped it into the can. This was the most expensive of the options, but it also came the fastest and produced the best test. It’s also water based, but had way more pearl.
I decided to use this to paint my bumper and clear it with Spraymax 2K gloss. The paint goes in so smooth and flat. The nozzles do not drip and spit. Literally not once. I actually ran out of 2K to finish the job, but thankfully I ordered the kit from Scratches Happen that included their own clear coat. I didn’t expect much, but it was surprisingly good. Maybe just one step below Spraymax. I followed the job up with a cut & buff. The results were excellent.
The finish looks OE. The pearl match isn’t quite perfect, but it’s a good middle ground and you can’t see the difference unless your face is 5 inches away from the car. It initially looked a bit darker, but lightened over a few weeks of sun exposure to look just like the original paint. You would never know this was a rattle can job.
If you have DIY projects that need a paint match on this color I can’t recommend this enough. I have some left and I’m thinking about painting my valve cover with it.
