None really for oem go to napa.

The painting BOOKS I've read up on still suggest finding a local automotive paint supplier and making friends with the guys there..they will be invaluable and save time and money over the long run. Sort of like most of the people on here with their knowledge and feedback.

Online hit or miss i always get from the auto paint store. Dont cheap out thinking its gonna match, just do it right from the start.

I 100% reccomend that you buy primer and clear from southern polyurethanes. Get your color from automotive art motobase. Southern polyurethanes has a reasonable forum, where you may find someone nearby that might help you get this done. Automotive paint is particular that you follow directions. Buying from a place like napa or summit or eastwood will get you sub-par material at an elevated cost. Many silvers are very hard to spray even and not blotchy, and cheap paint will be much more difficult. Many cheap paints do not have much pigment in them so they take more material to cover, you end up with a thick chip prone paint job. Cheap paints have lower grade solvents that do not leave well, and can promote delamination. They also usualy have poor UV durability.

bastarddsm said:

I 100% reccomend that you buy primer and clear from southern polyurethanes. Get your color from automotive art motobase. Southern polyurethanes has a reasonable forum, where you may find someone nearby that might help you get this done. Automotive paint is particular that you follow directions. Buying from a place like napa or summit or eastwood will get you sub-par material at an elevated cost. Many silvers are very hard to spray even and not blotchy, and cheap paint will be much more difficult. Many cheap paints do not have much pigment in them so they take more material to cover, you end up with a thick chip prone paint job. Cheap paints have lower grade solvents that do not leave well, and can promote delamination. They also usualy have poor UV durability.

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when i did the rear bumper 2gb swap i did buy some paint from a site called automotivetouchup.com and we painted it ourselves the paint turned out to be different even though i order the A52 Minden silver Mica, which is what i assumed to be my car's color. I wanted to check with you guys this time to see if there was a website/ store that would have a closer match or that it was something on my part i did wrong.

Automotivetouchup.com


It's not as high quality as something like PPG or similar, but it will definitely do the job. They will send you everything you need pre-mixed according to your factory color. You can also buy clear, primer and everything else you need. All their urathane stuff is great for the price.

I've used their stuff with great results. I recommend buying a nice paint gun to lay their stuff down with, however. The paint gun is something you can't cheap out on.

They also will ship you ready-to-spray cans, but they are exponentially more expensive and don't lay paint like a quality gun will. For a bumper only though, cans might be the way to go.

TheLunarEc1ipse said:

when i did the rear bumper 2gb swap i did buy some paint from a site called automotivetouchup.com and we painted it ourselves the paint turned out to be different even though i order the A52 Minden silver Mica, which is what i assumed to be my car's color. I wanted to check with you guys this time to see if there was a website/ store that would have a closer match or that it was something on my part i did wrong.

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Silver is hard. same guy can get 10 diff colors out of the same gun, same cup of mixed paint on the same day on the same undercoat. Some brands of base have really poor metallic control, and can be about impossible to spray and lay the metallic right. Generally what happens in a shop is they would start with base that is very close to your color and blend it into the adjacent areas. It's very rare to get base mixed and not have to blend.

Further more a good mixing system might have 10 different varients of the color, not every A52 is the same, the got big batches of the stuff when they built the cars, but there is some batch to batch variation. flex additive will tint it. position of the bumper, air pressure, ect. Million things can effect it. Point is, it's about 100% unlikely you can order paint from online and spray it and get a match that will be perfect the first try. Most shops are very good and experienced at mixing and tinting, and they still have to blend.

So, my reccomendation is to find a friendly body shop that is still spraying solvent and see if they can help you get some base that is close. Probably gonna have to find a sketchy looking run down place. Some old timer that is getting ready to retire and does custom work. A new fancy place is gonna be spraying water, and probably too busy to give a shit.

Some paint shops have a camera that can come up with a formula that should match, but in most cases I've seen it wasn't even close enough to blend.

TheLunarEc1ipse said:

when i did the rear bumper 2gb swap i did buy some paint from a site called automotivetouchup.com and we painted it ourselves the paint turned out to be different even though i order the A52 Minden silver Mica, which is what i assumed to be my car's color. I wanted to check with you guys this time to see if there was a website/ store that would have a closer match or that it was something on my part i did wrong.

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Color matching is an art. Either that, or it's done with special equipment.

For a home grown garage job, you're likely going to have to settle for close enough, as most people don't have the skills to perfectly color match an aftermarket bumper, even with high quality paint products. You could mess with the two tone color combinations and see if you could get it matched closer.

Honestly, even most beginners can get it pretty close if you're diligent about the prep and application process. It does take practice, and some knowledge, however. Primer has a lot to do with how the final color comes out. Was the end color too dark? Did you use cans or a paint gun? Did you use dark or light primer? What clear did you use, and how did you apply it? All of this stuff can affect the end product, and resulting overall color appearance.

IMO, you're going to have to settle for a place like Automotivetouchup, or do like bastarddsm is saying and take it somewhere local and see if they can color match it. That route isn't going to be cheap, though, since good body work isn't cheap.

thanks for the help guys

You'll never get the correct color or finish from a website, mainly because they need to sell paint that is uncatalyzed or it would be dry by the time it reaches you...and the only uncatalyzed finishes out there are lacquer or enamel which are both quite outdated. Another issue is even if they make the correct color, there's no way they'll be able to match 25 years of fade. Your best bet is to find a parts store that mixes paint, or even an auto body repair facility that can assist you in getting the correct color made.

At my Orielly's, they have a gun that they can use on a flat panel of your original color and the gun tells them how much of each color to add to match it. It won't account for paint fade but we have used it on interior panels and it matched up real good for that.