Paint Colour equivalent to Gell coat

[Badger56]

Silly question I'm sure but is anyone aware of a close match to any of the Westfield gel coat colors? I have a "blue" Westie with the odd chip and mark, mostly out of the way i.e. not in obvious places so I think a close match would be good enough. Any ideas?

[corsechris]

Pretty sure the gelcoats are all RAL colours and you can get paint to match. Just need to find out which colour you have.

[Thrustyjust]

Colours are really a game of how much colour they put in the gel. Best way to also compensate for fade too is to get it checked at an automotive paint shop . They will match it up and make a small amount of paint. I had to paint a towbar cover on my Volvo and they found the satin silver was close to being an Alfa. Cost £20 for a couple of cans, job done.

[Badger56]

13 hours ago, corsechris said:

Pretty sure the gelcoats are all RAL colours and you can get paint to match. Just need to find out which colour you have.

Thanks for the reply, Mine's the dark blue, "RAL" forgive my ignorance but what's that?

[CraigHew]

It the (German derived) classification system for shades of paint colour for cars.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ral+colour+chart&client=firefox-b&tbm=isch&imgil=UlIcT9otBwqSOM%3A%3B7J3-pw2c6Gf2wM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.spectrumpowdercoaters.com%252Fpowder-coating-ral-colour-chart.asp&source=iu&pf=m&fir=UlIcT9otBwqSOM%3A%2C7J3-pw2c6Gf2wM%2C_&usg=__OXs4X3bsEfrt4w4wQiPo_IM1Ns0%3D&biw=1384&bih=804&ved=0ahUKEwipr_Ht_pvSAhXlK8AKHX43AmIQyjcIQg&ei=r3ipWOkb5deABv7uiJAG#imgrc=UlIcT9otBwqSOM:

Pantone is another system used in printing

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

Forget RAL colours. Technically what's been said might be true, but even with brand new bodywork there's just to many variables to stand a hope in hell of getting a good match for 90% of Westfield gel coat options.

Westfield may have at one time used pure RAL colours, but from people's experiences, that seems a long time ago. They've used at least three different grp suppliers now that I'm aware of, and I've not particularly kept track! In addition, each of those grp suppliers will have their own preferred raw material suppliers. Not only do batches of gel coats from one supplier often have small inconsistencies in colour, similar colours from different suppliers often aren't quite the same.

Then as Justin said, mix it ever so slightly differently, and you alter the shade a tiny amount: a real world example, I patched some holes on my old black scuttle. I used Westfield supplied gel coat, but as it was winter, I needed to increase the ratio of catalyst slightly, I also added styrene solution, as due to accessibility issues, I wanted something that would act more like concpventional filler, and not remain tacky. That 5% difference, combined with minor differences in the amount of pigment/gel coat was enough to give a subtly different shade of black, that was visibly "off" viewed in sunlight from a few feet away!

Dont forget, coloured gel coat doesn't arrive at the grp manufacturer as coloured gel coat, (with certain expectations for specialist coats). It's made on site by combining normal, standard gel coat, which is clear, with a colour pigment. (Or more than one if making a non off the shelf colour). This is done in batches, usually, so if the amount of pigment added varies a little, the batches will be slightly different. Additionally, even if the amount of pigment is absolutely 100% identical, (never easy with thick, gloopy liquids), any slight differences in how well and uniformly mixed in it is will affect the final colour.

Of course, you then have the elephant in the room. All the above assumes you're colour matching relatively new bodywork that's not seen much sun light (UV). The minute it does, it will, ever so slowly start to change. Even here though it's inconsistent, with some colours, notably some of the reds and dark greens being worse than others. After a few years there can be quite obvious differences in bad cases, if you compare areas that aren't exposed to daylight with those that are. And after ten or more years, in some cases, you can even see the fading just looking at the car.

You may gel lucky with gel coat only repairs, but the odds are stacked against you, the more so the older the car.

The only really safe way to get a good colour match on a small repair, is to get it paint matched and either fill the problem area with body filler, or re-grp that section, and then over-paint.

[S2T]

I got my bonnet colour scanned which enabled the paint supplier to prepare the exact formula. The advantage of doing it this way is it takes into account ageing

[corsechris]

.....yes indeed to the treatise, but the OP did say he wasn't looking for a perfect match, hence my offering of a quick and hopefully practical solution that didn't require an entire respray. Might even be able to achieve an acceptable result just using some 'colour magic' polish?

[Davemk1]

I would get the color tested and matched to get a very close touch up paint match mixed up or I'd go to a department store and buy any woman's nail polish that is close and then test them in a hidden spot or on a piece of scrap.

The nail polish deal is well proven in the high end bicycle business where getting matching touch up paint can be near impossible. There are so many shades of nail polish that one can almost always find a very tight match....and they come with a small brush right in the bottle making it super easy to apply.

 

dave