What Does Factory Matched Auto Paint Mean for Pre-Painted Auto Parts?

If you get into an accident, or even if you get a small scratch or ding in your car, you are now likely in the position where you need to match the paint on the area to be fixed. What does it mean to match paint? Isn’t it simple if the car is a standard color like red or black? It’s not always simple to match automotive paint as every manufacturer is different with their paint formulations. For example, there are many different shades of red, even bright red. The red used by Toyota now is likely different from the red used 20 years ago, and almost certainly different from the red used by Ford. The other issue is that your vehicle’s paint may not match the paint when it first rolled off the assembly line. Weather and sun damage eventually fades paint, so even if you get a 100% match of the manufacturer paint, it may not match the paint shade currently on your car.

Automotive paint matching and how Paint A Part can help.

What Is Automotive Paint?

Automotive paint is made from resin, pigment, and solvent. The resin determines how durable your paint is and the quality level. The solvent provides viscosity, which allows the paint to be applied properly. Pigment determines the finish and final color. It’s made of various colors and toners and is initially in powder form.

How To Match Paint

The first step is to look up your exact car with the manufacturer name, car model, and model year. You can put this information in a search engine along with the term “color code”. This will turn up results from various sources where you can find the color code of your vehicle. From there, you can take the color code to the auto body shop or parts shop to order the paint. Sometimes vehicles have two-tone paint, and you will need to order more than one color. It’s also often possible to get touch-up paint from the manufacturer or similar. Otherwise, you’ll have to blend the color yourself to match your vehicle.

Why Do Auto Body Shops Have to Paint More Than One Area?

If you’ve been in an accident and received minor damage to one area, such as a front fender, you might be wondering why your auto body shop needs to paint several adjacent areas as well. Naturally, this will increase your costs. Why is this necessary? Replicating automotive paint, especially metallic paint, is more difficult than you might expect. The amateur DIY method would be to find manufacturer paint codes, mix up a paint batch to match these specs, and then paint your fender, and bolt it back on. However, when you see your car at a distance, or in full sun, you won’t be happy about the obvious lack of matching. It will be glaringly obvious that a damaged part was replaced and repainted.

Tricking the Eye

To accurately match the paint on your car, some technique is required by the auto body shop. They will mix up paint to spec, spray a card, let it dry, and then match it to the car in bright sunlight. It might take several of these test cards before a match can be found. They then have to paint your car in a way where they blend the new color into the nearby areas of your car so that it doesn’t look glaringly obvious that parts of your car have been repainted. This is an effective method used by experienced auto body shops everywhere. However, as you might imagine, you can expect to pay more and have it take more time to get perfect results.

Is There An Easier Way?

Instead of trying to find a paint match through an auto body shop or doing it yourself, and then having to repaint several areas on your car for everything to match, what if you could get pre-painted body parts guaranteed to match the original factory color of your car? That’s what Paint A Part offers. We provide professionally pre-painted auto body parts that can match the factory color of your vehicle the day it rolled off the assembly line. The pre-painted parts also fully match factory fitment standards.

How Paint A Part Works

Select your vehicle through the year, make, and model search located at https://paintapart.com/ or search for pre painted auto parts through our list of vehicles by make, then select your paint code, add the item to your cart, and place the order. We prep and paint the parts to match the factory original finish. You can then get the parts shipped directly to your door or pick them up at our Houston location. The Paint A Part method is less expensive, an easier process, and a faster turnaround than a traditional auto body shop.

Here’s a quick example:

I need a front bumper for a 2016 Honda Civic Coupe.

Go to the Paint A Part Home Page
Select the Year, Make, and Model of your vehicle in the provided search fields and click “Find Your Part”.
Select the right part for your car.
Select the correct factory code for your car from the provided dropdown, located above the yellow “Add to Shopping Cart” button. (If you need help finding this code, it can often be located on the doorpost of your vehicle. You can also try VIN lookups online or call a dealership for the codes). Check out our FAQ page with more details on how to find the color code.
Add it to your online cart, follow the checkout steps, receive your new prepainted bumper or other car part and replace your old damaged bumper, fender, hood, etc.

In short...

If your car is a few years old and has some fading due to weather and sun damage the paint will not be a perfect match but the price is right, it will look a lot better than the damaged part you have now, and your car is back on the road in a fraction of the time… And looking pretty darned good.

Order top quality pre painted auto body parts with OEM fitment through Paint A Part and save money today. Contact us if you can’t find what you are looking for or if you have additional questions. You can also check out our FAQ page for more information.