Paint matching help and advice, please...

[Tonka]

......as I have a dilemma!

I have bought some panels that now require painting to match the bike colour, however, despite providing the colour code, I'm told they (garage and paint guy) are having difficulty finding a good match.

Just now I'm a bit fed up as if I'd realised there would be this problem I would have bought them directly from Suzuki. I know I will not be happy if the colour match is not right and am being told that they will 'blend' if not perfect by taking colour onto bike, which is not what I want.

Is it really that difficult to match the colour? How likely are they to get it right? (there's talk of going to Dream Machine to get a better match)

Thanks all.
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'The core of a man's spirit comes from new experiences'
Suzuki SV650S (Clean); Yamaha XT250 Serow (Dirty)

[robbobnob]

Just a thought but if it's a suzuki colour can't you get the paint code from them...

[G]

Remember that if the bike's been around for a while, the colour may have changed from the original anyway, which could be their problem.

[NiteMare]

my brother wasn't happy with dream machines efforts to colour match his belly pan to the rest of his bandit6 , he gave them the grab rail as a sample colour, after something like three or four returns both him and DM gave up on thier attempts to match it and while all this was going on DM managed to chip the paint off his grab rail ...

to say he wasn't impressed with thier efforts is an understatement

his bike was something like 18 months old (2 years maximum) with about 2.5k miles on it and absolutely spotless when he bought it, the bellypan and a blueflame were bought before he put it on the road
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it ain't broke...

i ain't fixed it enough

[Itchy]

Colours overtime change though , in that restoring my Africa twin , removing all the black paint made it look white, I then put some masking tape to mask some areas of it and the white looked a tad yellow , it'd gone to a yellowy white presumably through UV exposure.


My CBR600F has a mint panel OEM one on it, it doesn't quite match my other panels as its new fresh paint, the old one has been exposed to the elements for a few years and thus look different.

You could always contact autopaint bolton though , as they've always got it spot on for me and have taken fade into account when I repainted a few panels of a car.
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Spain 2008France 2007Big one 2009 We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. In the end, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.

[Tonka]

Thanks for the advice

Robbobnob: I had the code from my Log book, but apparently that's not helping, as the colour mix isn't made available by Suzuki.

G and Itchy: This could be part of the problem, as the bike is just coming up 3 years old, but it had hardly been used for the first 2 years and has always been garaged. I was thinking that if they were able to start with the original they could work backwards to get to the current shade, but they don't seem to be able to ge to the original I've been told it's developed upwards from a silver base and that they're adding the 'blue' until they get to where they need to be.

NiteMare: Yep, that's what's worrying me. The bike is in beautiful condition and I really don't want someone else spoiling it (if I break it, it's my own silly fault).

Progress so far is that I've asked the garage to get as close as they can and then the undertray and hugger can be sprayed up without too much worry, as they're not next to any original paint work or directly on show. If they can't get it spot on I'll have to order the lower fairings from Suzuki and hope the colour fade hasn't been too dramatic and they match. Definitely understand the street fighter or naked look even more now - I had a choice and made the wrong one I think!!

Only compensation just now is that the new exhaust sounds absolutely awesome and looks fantastic - cannot wait to get it back on the road!
____________________
'The core of a man's spirit comes from new experiences'
Suzuki SV650S (Clean); Yamaha XT250 Serow (Dirty)