Halfords paint

6575 Views 14 Replies 10 Participants Last post by andyps, Jun 22, 2012

Barneyboko

Discussion Starter · Jun 12, 2012

Fearing the worst I decided to have a look under a bubble that had formed on the NS wing. Surprisingly there was absolutely no rust, just clean metal. I took it back quite a bit but still never found anything bad. I can only assume that there was some kind of contamination under the primer.

So I now had to get it covered again. I read up on the process and went to my local halfords as I knew that they had a paint mixing service, you take the the paint code and they make it up in 15 mins. Mine was JHA Saphire blue metalic. Armed with zinc oxide primer, my fresh paint and the clear laquer, I set about it.

Taking plenty time and being careful I got to the paint stage. The paint looked good quality and was easy to use, but looked darker than the existing paint. I was advised that this is not unusual as the laquer would lift it and I would be able to cut it and blend it back to the same colour.

Well the laquer is on it looks great, but I can can guarantee that this will never ever get back to the original colour. its at least two shades darker. Having the paint code clearly does not always get you a match. Its possible there is a hidden story like a previous respray or something that I am not aware of, but I doubt it.

I have now ordered another can of paint from a dedicated paint company and will let the forum know if there is any difference or not.

Barney

1 - 15 of 15 Posts

designxkr

· #2 · Jun 12, 2012

There are paint companies around that you can take a small part of the car i.e petrol cap flap to and they will match the paint. Halfords paint always comes out darker.

For small jobs like wing mirror use a company called HMG Paints in Andover and they always manage a perfect match. They do have other branches around the country.

Barneyboko

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jun 12, 2012

Thanks for the feedback designxkr

I am slowly climbing the curve !

Barney

Marko 1

· #4 · Jun 12, 2012

Barneyboko, I have used Halfords to mix some touch up paint for me Antiga Blue paint code JHH, must say the match was perfect and you would be really pushed to see the touched up area on the front bumper.
Guess it depends somewhat on the person doing the mixing.

Marko

Litho

· #5 · Jun 12, 2012

I used some Halfords silver aerosol cans to spray my wheels. Silver ? Nowhere close ! Just Steel colour was the result. Had to do all four so they look alike.

Barneyboko

Discussion Starter · #6 · Jun 12, 2012

Paint

Marko 1 said:
Barneyboko, I have used Halfords to mix some touch up paint for me Antiga Blue paint code JHH, must say the match was perfect and you would be really pushed to see the touched up area on the front bumper.
Guess it depends somewhat on the person doing the mixing.

Marko

You are probably right Marko, I got a kid who was clearly doing this for the first time since she got trained. A supervisor type guy was keeping an eye on her but he was clearly making sure she got the first hand experience. Unfortunately the margins on the mix quantities are likely to wafer thin and I think I paid the price for an "on the job" training excerise. Might sound harsh, but thats how it looked.

Barney

scm

· #7 · Jun 12, 2012

Barneyboko said:
Having the paint code clearly does not always get you a match. Its possible there is a hidden story like a previous respray or something that I am not aware of, but I doubt it.

I expect BuckMR2 will be along soon, but he's posted in the past that there are a number of "alt" shades for each paint code, and they should be matched against a paint sample to choose which of the "alt"s is the best match.

BuckMR2

· #8 · Jun 12, 2012

When paint is put on at the factory it (like all other paint) comes from batches.
Whenever you paint your house you always get matching batch codes to eliminate the very slightly differences between each batch.
Car paint is the same.
Each paint code can have as many as 7 different variations to the shade, and SCM says these are called "alts".
If I remember Bristish Racing Green has 7 alts but without checking the paint computer at work I wont know how many there are for JHA.
The best place to get your paint is from a bodyshop.
They can colour swatch your paintwork in good daylight to get the exact "alt" for your paint code and make some up.Dupont is the ideal one to get (the only paint manufacturer to give a lifetime guarantee) but different bodyshops will use different paints depending their supplier.
If your paint is metallic you wont get a "perfect" match unless paint is blended to adjacent panels and touch up spots will be noticeable as the metallic particles in the paint will not lie in the same direction as the original nor have the same amount of layers etc.

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x25mbr

· #9 · Jun 12, 2012

I obtained a new facelift Growler grille for my X-Type wich came primer painted. Having painted many parts
over the years i was confident to finish it myself so gave Halfords a chance to mix the paint as there is a
store nearby.
Their 1st attempt was way too dark. Their 2nd attempt to lighten the paint was pure guess work and still
no way near. I was not going to give them a 3rd chance and used an established paint shop. I've heard
good and bad reports but too risky for me to use them again.
On a good note i finished and fitted the grille with a proper match, so a job worth doing is worth doing
well. Note the paint shop was cheaper in price to that of Halfords.

RaceDiagnostics

· #10 · Jun 12, 2012

I have had a good experience with halfords paints lately, did this job last weekend, now this is the first time I have painted an outer panel so was not too confident.

Rust around the rear badge

I peeled the badge off after heating with a hair dryer, it took the paint of with it.

After a bit of scraping I could see the extent of the rust.

600 wet and dry got it to this, put some rust eater on the exposed part then sanded it back again.

A couple of coats of acid etch primer next.

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RaceDiagnostics

· #11 · Jun 12, 2012

Now I was thinking, I could do with some high build primer, but cart be bothered driving up to halfords to get some, big mistake. It looked ok at this stage with about 4 coats of standard halfors primer.

Flatted it back, and was thinking, "I think I will see the sanded part when I top coat, should have gone for the high build primer."

This is about 5 layers of topcoat, halfords made up spray can. The colur match is good but I should have featherd it more. The colour is consistent but the change in reflection gives it away.

Now when the badge is on it will not look so obvious, but I will need to fix it properly sometime.

On Sunday I clearcoated the area, I had to put it on fairly thick to get a nice smooth gloss finish but I eneded up with two small sags, they looked worse when wet but when dry they are almost impercievable. I will try to photograph them before fixing, however they will be easy to remove. I decided to leave the clear for a week to harden before polishing. First I will take out the sags with 1500 then polish with megs scratch x and my cheap lidl electric polisher, it works a treat.

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kg7657

· #12 · Jun 16, 2012

I think you have done a really good job with this - shades of silver are often difficult to match - but the pictures look really good. Cheers

Barneyboko

Discussion Starter · #13 · Jun 17, 2012 (Edited)

OK so I got the Halfords paint off and I spent the weekend applying coats of paint that I got made up from a Midlands company. (name to be revealed once the saga reaches a conclusion)

I had hoped to get the lacquer on today but after flatting I saw one or two areas that needed more attention so the lacquer will need to wait until next week.

first impressions are the colour match is quite good, when I stand 2 metres away I cannot see any visible difference and thats before flatting, lacquer and cutting. so far so good.

I know there are some experienced DIY painters on this thread, so I have some questions that have come up during the painting process.

Flatting - the reccomendation is to use 1200 wet and dry, but I found it left visible scratching, I now have purchased 2000 W&D for the next go, is this OK.

secondly - flatting the paint then applying the lacquer before cutting and polishing feels counter intuitive. every guide I have read states that this the way to do it, but it feels like I have put a layer between me and the paint, that I will partially at least be removing in a bid to get the shine. I would have thought that you would cut and polish then apply the lacquer as a clear protection.

Deliberately playing the daft boy here hoping someone can rationalise this for me !

Thanks
Barney

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RaceDiagnostics

· #14 · Jun 17, 2012

OK, I am no expert but would suggest the following, only flat your primer coats, you then need to make sure that your final colour coat goes on wet to get a smooth finish, but not too wet so that you get runs or sags. Don't flat your colour coat, then put on your clear, again they need to go on wet to get a nice gloss finish, use a bright light to check your finish as you go. If you get a good glossy clear coat polishing may not be needed, but generally you can never get a perfect finish from a can (at least I cant). Leave your clear for a week to harden before cutting, I use megs scratch x to get a nice shiny finish.

Perhaps a real expert will also comment, I am a novice at this.

andyps

· #15 · Jun 22, 2012

I had a couple of Halfords can mixed recently for spraying a wing I fitted to my daughter's Mini, the guy mixing it asked which shade I wanted as there were variations available. Not knowing anything else I just asked for the standard colour which has actually given a pretty good match. The good thing is that they are generally good quality paints with reasonable nozzles for a spray can.

My understanding is that you should flat the final coat before putting on the lacquer to ensure that it sticks properly, 1200 grit being the right one to use. After about a week flatting the lacquer with 1500 and using rubbing compound can give a great result, but obviously the colour has to match. It does seem to depend upon the base colour as to whether the lacquer makes it lighter or darker from my experience.

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