Help wanted with Pearl Black Paint!

[rickyboy]

I've had to have my Nomad painted a couple of times and the colour name they have used is diablo blk. But any paint person I have dealt with has said black is black really. I don't necessarily prescribe to that statement. I'm in the printing industry and work with colour every day. The difference in blacks is dependent on the amt. you put on the paper, and the background or paper it might have under it. If you are printing over a "bright white" surface the resulting black would be different than if you printed over an "off white". Black remember has all of the primary colours in it. The amt. of red or blue or yellow you put together {along with any added "pearl" } will make a difference. I'm sure your guy will get it right for you caddy. Can't wait for photos of the finished job.

[Caddyman]

Thanks rickyboy, I am only painting the hard lowers for now as I fear it would take all Summer to do the fairing due to the way my mechanic is under pressure with family problems etc. I am going to call on a larger outfit next week and see what they will say and most importantly charge me to do the job and if its not too bad I will leave it in with them in a couple of weeks time!

[dmyers]

PPG has something like 2000 different blacks. you can tell a bit of difference in some of them. any paint shop should be able to match black.
some of the newer black paints with pearl can be nearly impossible to match because there is so much color shift depending on light and viewing angle.
If you are painting the hole bike dont worry about it just pick a black you like and go with it
know one will know the difference

[cnc]

There are many variations of black not to mention the amount of metallic or the size of the flakes. We have gone way past the days of Henry Ford and "you can have any color model T you want as long as it is black". I can't tell you why they don't have a number for the black pearl, but as I said those numbers are not the code only a product number.

[Caddyman]

Thanks again lads for all your posts. I just got this text from my painter tonight at 22:45 (good to see he's working late) which was in response go me telling him what ringadingh told me about the computer matching.... ["Computer scanning is a good starting point but generally requires manual adjustment of the chosen colour to get an exact match. That is more or less what we will be doing. It is an electronic camera / eye which suggests a formulation." Regards Richard]

I feel more confident he will come up with a paint that will be very acceptable to me.

[cnc]

Should be OK then. You can get away with a close match when the panels are separated. Little different if you were say repainting just the door of a saddle bag on a solid color bike, the eye will pick it up.