Factory Paint type - Repaint, what's the deal?

Hello all, this is my first post.

Here's some info on the truck.

Recently acquired 2006 Tacoma Access Cab. The truck was rolled over on it's side at a pretty slow speed causing damage to the driver side - fender, door, access door, bed panel. Lost a mirror and headlight brackets were broken. Fender flares are in amazingly good shape still but the brackets that hold the fasteners are broken off. Sadly enough the tow truck driver did the most damage righting the truck.

So here I am now nearing the end of the body work and starting to look toward the painting portion. All I am after here is a factory matched paint job so the truck is back to looking like a factory rig.

I decided to check out the website automotivetouchup.com based on some of the threads I read on the forum here. I was surprised to see the recommended paint was an acrylic lacquer?
The package they offer is made to work together and seems convenient with a Primer/Base/Clear and if you enter the vehicle year model paint code, they come up with the lacquer. It seems they do offer other paint, but not what they are recommending.

I was under the assumption that most of the factories have been using urethane paints for some time now, except possibly GM uses a newer formulated acrylic lacquer? I thought I had read that somewhere.

What is the factory paint type on this truck? (Silver Streak Mica #1E7)

Should I be looking at something different? I am mostly concerned with putting a hard acrylic over a flexible paint (I will be attempting to blend some of this into the undamaged factory painted panels) and also trying to match the texture/finish of the factory paint job. Again I am just trying to match the other 2/3's of the truck.

If I go into Napa and have them mix me some paint is going to be lacquer?

Whats the deal?

 

I repainted the tailgate on my 02 Taco Double Cab with Automotive Touch up paint with no trouble work fine matched and clear coat buffed out nice and shiny. Have use it on my wife's Mini with problem. The thing I like is it dries quick so makes it harder for dust or bugs to get on it. Use a respirator if in doors even in a garage with the door open. The 02 Was Lunar Mist my 2010 Silver Streak Mica, painted my engine cover and worked fine. Use their products and follow their videos and you should be fine. I used and Rattle on my tail gate and it was fine. They have a Urethane paint I think it is pricy and they recommend a respirator for that. Don't want to paint on a real hot day either don't ask 105F is not a good day even in the shade.

 

Factory paint is hydrostatically painted on and cured on via high heat.

You will not be able to purchase factory color paint that is exactly the same... because obviously no one can replicate factory painting techniques.

Most self help type paints that are provided will be a different formulation of paint because they will be self cure rather than heat cure.

Unforunately you have pretty much the worst color in the world for blending paint jobs. Black and reds are almost easier.
If you want a factory looking paint job I recommend you go to a pro. You may find they recommend you repaint the entire truck to get a perfect match.
Its very difficult to feather in silver and have it not noticable. And just painting the new panels will definitely not look right.

Talk to a pro about how to best approach the project to get the result you want.

If you want near factory perfection, let a pro do the repaint.

 

Thanks for the reply. Did you mean NO problems on the mini?? Did they send you a test card to see how good the match was before spraying?? Thank you for the advice with the respirator, I will be using a supplied air respirator so I should be good to go there.

Thanks for the reply. That makes more sense on the factory paint.

Yeah, lucky me, with the Silver. I do know how hard it is to blend silver, and I am pretty good at painting, so I don't think I will go the pro route. Though, I WILL take any advice I can get.

It would be great if anyone had some feedback on blending the silver acrylic over the factory paint. Thanks for the helps all.

 

Well hey... idea... why not repaint the whole truck yourself?

Sounds like you are doing this project on your own anyways, and sounds like this truck isn’t your primary vehicle.

 

That's exactly what I was just thinking.. might be best to do a full repaint, I am mulling it over right now. You are correct in that it's not my primary vehicle, so there is no rush other then getting it done before summer is out. I guess just more money for the paint. I am just not sure if I want to paint the whole truck in acrylic, It's going to be parked outside, and driven daily I am thinking.

 

Are you dead set on factory look?

Vinyl wrap or Line-X is an option.

If my life gave me lemons (a rolled Tacoma) I would probably make lemonade and Line-X the truck.

 

Most modern paints are indeed urethane types that require an activator like epoxy -- once it is mixed, you have to use it or it hardens. Hard to get that in a spray can. I would NOT use lacquer on anything but a classic car that is taken down to metal and then kept under cover -- it is just too brittle. Buffs out really nice, though. But even then, I'd still probably opt for a modern paint. Lacquer over the original paint may even cause it to wrinkle up (I've stripped enamel paint jobs by spraying lacquer thinner all over the car, then using compressed air to blow the wrinkled up paint off).

At a minimum, go with an acrylic enamel, but have a clean space (it takes longer to dry, any dirt or debris will not be easy to get out and you'll have to wait longer to fix anything). If you are going to buy paint from a paint supply place and use a spray gun, just go with a urethane system and follow the directions. Best to get some scrap to practice on.

That said, you have the worst color to deal with if this is your first paint job. Silvers are mostly clear with just a little bit of pigment and a lot of metal flakes. Getting the paint to lay down and the flakes to flow out evenly within the clear takes a lot of practice and adjustment of several factors for ambient atmospheric conditions (paint mix, air pressure and paint flow). Silvers never match and must be blended, which I hated doing, but if you do the whole side, it might be tough for anyone to really notice since it is on a different plane than the top. Personally, I would opt to actually NOT blend things over onto the hood and roof, as over time that blend is going to be more obvious than a color difference between side and top.

The quality of your results will mostly likely come down to the prep work, though. Even the best painter's work will look crappy over a poorly prepped surface.

 

Not dead set on the factory look. I just wanted it to look as good as I could make it, without it being too expensive. I cruised around on here and found the touchup site. At about $300 on the repaint supplies (I had most of the body work & painting equip) I figured factory would be best looking for the price, *IF* I was able to do it decent enough and actually get it to blend into the panels.

I thought about Line-X or similar but this tacoma was single owner, immaculate condition inside and out / low mileage / never off-road so it made that decision a little more tough.

I hadn't thought about wrapping it yet, but I wonder about the price. I think the last one (tacoma) I heard was about $2000.. is this way off now? that might have been a while ago

I appreciate your input, I have some options to consider here..... some days it seems like I might as well open a lemonade stand around here...

 

This is exactly what I was hoping to hear. I am pretty familiar with spraying, doing restorations on antique engines and tractors. I have painted a couple cars though but they were exactly as you said, a classic restore and garage stored. I was concerned with putting the hard lacquer over a flexible urethane.

You answered my question exactly. Also you touched on my other big question. You will only be able to see 1 side of the truck at a time. Since it would be the whole driver side- with the tail light division on the tailgate and barely visible roof pillar connections, I would be mostly dealing with the fender to hood seem where you would see the biggest color difference. I thought about making a soft edge maybe a 20" into the hood and lightly feather dusting onto the hood to blend the silver. Feathering it and knocking down the flakes until it seemed to be a good blend/match. But you had the same thinking in that it might be better to NOT blend the panels, as time may tell the tale, and it may actually help the not blended panels fade to match. Is this your opinion also?

I wonder if they do the system where you paint a sample card and if its not close enough they will send you a new batch? I might give them a call and find out more information on the urethane's.

 

Vinyl looks really cool but it does take some special detail care to keep it up and they are expensive to have a pro do. I think $2,000 is about right.

A Line-X job would probably be around $1,500 on an access cab.

 

The problem with blending on a clear coated vehicle is that you've got the original color and clear, then color and clear over that as the blend (unless you sand down evenly through all the clear, but good luck with that). When I was doing it, I would not blend onto a horizontal surface -- if it needed it, I would just paint the entire panel. If you live in a sunny place and the vehicle is outside, I guarantee you will start seeing that blend within a year. Just not worth it, IMHO. The break in plane will do more to hide any color difference.

As long as you go with a quality paint and supplier, the mix you get should be pretty close. Much of any difference would be due to atmospheric conditions and how the paint was laid down -- you could do 5 test panels using different gun settings and likely see a difference between all 5. Modern paints are better at resisting oxidation, but there will likely be a slight difference. My recommendation is to focus on prep and do some practice panels to figure out the gun settings and not worry about it.

Not sure where you live, but you should be able to find a local paint supplier that deals with the local body shops. Go chat them up.

 

Again I appreciate the input. I was hoping someone that has blended before would chime in. I was also going to attempt to do a little trick I learned mixing clear into color to try and blend into the clear as you were saying its very tricky and I would prefer to NOT do it. After reading your input and thinking about it, I completely agree. The panel division and break in plane should do the trick. I will do exactly that, I will just do some test panels, get the lay out looking close and go for it.

I'd buy ya ten beers if I was closer. I live in Oregon. The humidity is always fun. Thanks for the input from everyone. I will try to get some pictures posted up if anyone is interested in what it looks like or how it turns out.

 

No worries, happy to chime in, and I'd be happy to join you for a Hammerhead! Been a while since I was up that way, and even longer since I did paint & body work, but not a lot has changed. I was more wondering if you were in a rural area where you might not find a local paint dealer.

The blending technique you mention is the one that I used -- have the panel prepped but maksed off, and when the repaired panel is covered with base, pull the paper off and and feather the base over the edge, then add some clear and feather out more, add more clear and feather, then top the whole thing with clear. Biggest problem is having that feathered edge too dry, it needs to melt in. I'd say I was really only happy with 50% of my blends, although I never had a customer complain even about my worst ones. A big part of the problem is knowing it is there . . . and yeah, humidity sucks for silver.

Interesting bit of trivia (to me, anyway), the shop I worked at in Dallas used to be Carroll Shelby Sports Cars.

 

Then I most certainly trust your opinion. Mmmm Hammerhead!

I saw they recently auctioned a couple million dollars worth of his personal cars mostly Shelby's. You must have seen maybe laid hands on some of the cars? no? What an awesome experience.

 

I'll take 2

LOL, hell no, when I worked there it was Coker Automotive, Shelby was long gone. I didn't even know it used to be his shop until later. They had built a new mechanic shop, but the bays we used for paint & body were part of the original shop. I just thought it was an old shithole shop. A porter did have a Dodge Omni GLH, though (not sure why Shelby put his name on that one).

That said, it was located in the "old money" Highland Park area of Dallas. I did get to work on some neat cars. My favorite was a mid-60's Maserati with 4 double-barrel carbs on a dual-cam V8. That thing drank gas like it was a Hammerhead. Did some minor repairs on a Checker Marathon as well, with custom blue-green paint that I had to match. Took a lot of metal scraps and tests to get it close. Those are neat cars that should have a .50 cal mounted.