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Saw something at the salvage yard in Spokane that made me rethink paint matching
I was pulling a door off a 2017 Civic at the yard on Division Street. The car had been hit on the passenger side but the driver's door was perfect. Under the yard lights, the factory silver looked spot on to my job back at the shop. I brought it back and held it up next to the quarter panel we're fixing in natural sunlight. The color shift was totally different, way more blue in the new light. I used to think a yard part under bright lights was a sure match. Now I'm bringing my color deck to the yard every time. Has anyone else been burned by indoor yard lighting on a match?
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ross.river1mo ago
Man, tell me about it. I grabbed a fender for a Ford Ranger last month that looked perfect under those big yard lights. Got it back to the shop and it was a full shade lighter in our daylight. The yard had those harsh white LEDs that just wash everything out. I felt like a total rookie for not checking my deck first. Now I keep a small color chip book in my truck just for yard runs. Sunlight never lies, but those yard lights are straight up liars.
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dylanwilliams1mo ago
That color chip book trick is genius, I gotta do that. But man, what about cars that had a factory respray or a weird mid-year paint revision? Like, I had a buddy trying to match a '99 Civic that had like three different shades of Milano Red depending on if it was early or late production. Does your chip book cover those weird nuances, or are you just having to learn which years had the paint issues by trial and error like the rest of us?
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