Overheard a customer say my paint match was off by a hair on his '05 Ford Mustang

He was right about the door edge, the metallic flake was tilting just slightly under the light, so now I'm wondering if I need to revisit my mixing ratio for that silver code, has anyone else had trouble with Ford's G1 paint code acting different on vertical panels?

2 comments

2 Comments

jones.brooke16d ago

Flip the script on this one completely. I'd bet money that customer was wrong and you're overthinking it. Silver metallic flake is notoriously finicky on old Ford panels because the factory clear coat tends to yellow unevenly over 20 years, which makes any fresh paint look off even if your mix is spot on. That door edge he pointed out could have been from a previous blend job or just sun damage on that one panel. I've matched G1 code on dozens of late 90s and early 2000s Fords and the variance from panel to panel is huge due to how the factory laid it down. You probably need to check your gun distance or air pressure instead of touching the formula. Are you spraying with the same overlap on vertical panels as you do on flat ones?

craig.tessa16d ago

Absolutely agree with you on the clear coat yellowing thing. I've seen it myself on a few older Fords where one panel looks almost greenish next to the rest because the clear broke down differently. You raised a good point about gun distance too. I'd add that metallic flake lays down completely different if you're even a few inches off from your normal pattern. The flake can tilt or stand up depending on how wet your coat is, and that changes how light bounces off it. On vertical panels you need to slow down your arm speed a bit or you get dry spots that mess with the flake orientation. People forget that the factory never got perfect matches from panel to panel either so chasing that customer's "perfect" match is a losing game sometimes.