corolla paint trouble

[wil_rolla]

hi all, i'm a newbi.

i have a '02' white corolla sedan, and my trd style front grill has just arived,

my trouble is that i can't seem to find the right paint color!!!!

i'v painted the grill twice already, and both of the colors i got seem to be a touch yellow

and don't match the car...

i got 2 cans of paint from autobarn. as they told me that there was no need to get it mixed...

i gave them the color code of '040' (is this the same for all white corolla's???)

the first can was 'Power plus spray paint, in Polar white' and that was way to yellow....

the second time i went, they gave me a 'Power plus in Glacial white'and this was alot closer but still didn't match..

so my question is:

has anybody with a white corolla painted a grill or done a DIY paint touch up to their car?

and did you find an off the shelf item to match the color, or did it have to be mixed to match?

or does anyone have any recomendations of places to go to for help in melbourne..

any help would be great...(as i'am very eager to get it on the car)

thanks

[JJCRU23R]

your first mistake is youve bought your paint from autobarn!

they dont give a crap about matching paint! the best they can do is get the colour code and cook up the colour based on the recipe they have in their computers which does not result in a decent match, since your cars paint changes in colour as the car gets older and is exposed to the elements.

go to a professional paint shop that specialises in colourmatching the paint exactly! check the yellow pages for businesses that specifically "colour match".

by that i mean they do it by hand, going as far as taking the tub of paint out to the car to see how well it looks compared to your cars paint.

wont cost much difference to getting it done at autobarn. btw, spray cans only give at best a 7/10 result.

btw ive previously painted my old sportivo grille, mud flaps, eyelids and other bits using colour matched paint, and ive been to autobarn too so i know what results from using their paints.

Edited March 24, 2008 by JJCRU23R

[J e r e M y]

I`m painting my own spoiler..

same colour ' 040 white '

went to Malz to get it mixed..turned out there are like 8 different ' 040 white '

lols..yellow..less yellow..shallow yellow..all those bullcrap

haha..so the guy directed me to a auto paint shop..i really n strongly suggest u go to an auto paint shop if u dont want ur car to look patchy..they mix the paint till it is exactly the same as ur car..they keep comparing till it matches ur car completely..and its cheap.. should be even cheaper over the Eastern States..

Got 500ml of custom mixed paint.. n 2L of thinner..came to about like $34?

Paint itself was like $15 - $16 from memory...

SO bottom line is..go to an auto paint shop n get it mixed properly..even thou the spray can says ' 040 ' dont expect it to be the same..like i mentioned earlier..they are heaps of different shades of ' 404 ' .. best option..get them mixed

[keifer33]

Agreed with everyone, bought some of the touchup paint in a pen from malz, what a huge mistake, its nothing like the paint on the car. If your gonna get it done get it done right