i just recently parchuced a pearl white 96 maxima and it needs to have some panels repainted. i just started taking body shop classes and im gonna take advantage of the state of the art booth my school has to repaint those panels. my teacher told me that most pearl paints are two stages, meaning that the perl gets sprayd after the base coat. is that true for the maxima? is the white pearl for our cars really two stages? if not, where can i get the matching oem paint?

 

I believe that our pearl coats are three coats. He's right about the pearl getting sprayed after the base coat. He didn't mention the clear coat and that concerns me. Any bodyshop supply store should be able to mix your paint codes.

Good luck.

 

Yep, 3 coat.

Of course you'll (OP) need to bring in a chip of paint to have everything matched, it'll probably look worse with a few fresh factory looking QN0 body panels with the rest of them faded.

 

Pearl white Max ftw i need a paint job and got quoted for $1500 gL

 

it will never match... they will tell ya that also... never buy pearl, even though it looks good...

 

Really?
Hmmm, Ive had parts painted such as a bumper and quarter panels painted and they matched perfectly. The parts painted HAVE to be blended in with the rest of the car.

 

cant you just look up the paint code?

 

The paint code is QN0, but the paint code doesn't say how to blend the color differently to account for how much his paint has faded over the past 12,13 years.

 

I could see the difference, even when blended but to the average eye, pearl blended looks fine. It really depends on the shop and the age of the paint. The shop I went to take pics of the paint and different angles and sends it to their dupont guy and gets the paint. At least that's what they told me

 

im going to need my front and rear bumpers repainted QN0 pretty soon.

are you saying they are going to need to fade them into the rest of the car? even tho its just the front and rear bumpers?

 

My friend had an MK2 (85) Pearl White, he had the front bumpers and fenders re-painted oem colors, = It matched, yeah you could tell that it was newer because it was.. well perfect but. To the average person they wont be able to tell the difference. If you are really concerned about it, Take the shop to advantage and just paint your whole car. Labor and work would be free you'd just be paying for paint = Cheap.

 

Bingo. Hit the nail on the head.

 

Hmm, I don't know your instructors experience with paint matching, but pearl CAN be matched damn near perfectly if you have a good painter. If you're that worried about it, take it to a reputable shop. I went out on a limb and took my car to a pretty quiet shop in town because I remember driving by and seeing a new Mustang converted to a (modern) Studebaker Avanti painted pearl and it was completely flawless. Here are some pics of my $300 results.

 

i apreciate everyones insight. alot of helpfull info here.i think im am just gonna take advantage of the shop and just paint the hole car. if i paint it the same collor i dont have to do jambs and engine bay. since im gonna be doing the paintjob myself, any tips or sugestions on what i should do that a bodyshop wouldnt. any special cares, prep tips, things like that, and also, how much paint would i need to paint the hole car?

 

i guess you guys have way better painters there... here almost every shop will tell ya that they will try to get it as close as possible but it probably wont look right..

i had to have my spoiler repainted and it took them 3 times to get it right, and my car isnt pearl its gold..


so i dunno...

 

damn, if the shop couldnt match gold, chances are they suck!