Re: Paint

I can tell you tons of stories about paint match, all that follows is just scratching the surface. Colour is a combination of several component colours, of course RGB being the basis (red, green, blue). After many years in automotive, where my job was mostly supplier quality, one facet being part of a plant team that policed paint match weekly team meeting. Various suppliers of add-on parts had to match the painted body (done in plant), with the goal of everyone meeting the Master Sample. Everybody was given masters, 3x8 metal coupons all painted in a single batch all at once by a robot at the totally anal Styling Studio's facility at HQ. Styling folks were experts (sometimes arrogant thinking they were god) who could pick out the teeniest of deviations from master. I had to take a very lengthy exam (Hue Test) where you were given about 20 round buttons of say "white" and had to arrange them in order of progression... pure white to slightly off white. Repeat for several shades of pink, purple, blue, red, yellow, etc. etc. Takes a coupla hours in a specially lit room with special gray decor (neutral). I got 98%, which means you can see teeny differences in match that most can't. Styling wanted to hire me.. What an average customer perceives as good can be a bad match to us. Been away from it too long now, not an expert any more.
The paint suppliers would develop new colours with Styling's direction, the "recipe" formula for the paint was cast in stone once approved, recipes given to the major paint suppliers (PPG, Dupont, etc.). Presumably, all would match.. there are several variables at play. Each batch/supplier/run has to be checked and tweaked to get it right. Metallic is aluminum flakes of a certain hue/size/shape to reflect through the paint. Direction of spray determines how they "lay down"... look at it 180 degrees it has a different "flop" as the flakes don't lay flat, e.g. Proper tint required of course, some take tinted clearcoat, others clear clearcoat. Iridescent paints have multiple colours of aluminum flakes... all from the far east, which I equate to China's monopoly on rare earth minerals. As you walk around, these paints morph into a whole other colour, kinda cool actually, but simple (and expensive).
Scanners (the good ones) shoot a pure white light and take readings at 3 angles, 90, 45 and 25, and spit out the readings. Must be taken on as flat a surface as possible, hold the thing just right, should take 10 readings and average them. I chuckle walking into a paint store, one shot and they think they got it.... maybe, if you're really lucky, and it's not a hard paint formula. So when you look at paint, try it at those angles and you'll see how it "flops" to darker as your angle increases.
Of course, the OEM's want unique colours and they do market research to see what consumer trends are, etc. FJR colours are hard formulas, thus we struggle to match with somebody guessing with a scanner what the formula is. ColorRite may have access to the OEM formulae, that's why they might be closer than anybody else. IF you knew who the original paint supplier was... ain't likely to happen, too much supply chain going on. Worse that very little paint will be sold for FJR's, whereas automotive is huge.
So, when I bought some root beer FJR parts.. saddle bag lids are painted in India, side fairing elsewhere (can't remember now). Multiple suppliers, and they all match amazingly, and send these to the OEM assembly, and supply the service parts. I'd bet there is only one paint supplier in that "low volume" situation.
No wonder to me at all why the aftermarket guys, your local supplier, or even you mixing/tweaking can't get it good enough with what's available, based on one scan with a questionable scanner that may not have been calibrated last week. I am not an expert at mixing paint at all, admire guys like Garauld and Festus... you need experience to be good at it. I can only stand there and say... hmm, looks a little too red, hasn't enough blue, too dark on the flop..... Your top box can be a bad match to the bike, and most won't even notice. Stuff that is side to side, much different. If they got lots of curvy surfaces, you can get away with more.
Statistics: Posted by raYzerman — Thu Aug 01, 2019 10:11 am