Did you know your C5 black paint has 8 shades?

[Nevets2004]

Good news, thanks. I'm not too worried about the weather on my Vette. She's rarely out in the sun or bad weather. I'm not even sure if my wipers work :L

 

[Mike Todd]

Nevets2004

I just got my car back and it looks great. It was a dead on match. I had my car painted from the driver side door to the passanger side quarter panel. I paid extra to paint my front right quarter panel and passanger side door so it would all look right. You absolutely can not tell where my old paint ends and new paint begins. They did no blending. They did however, buffed out the old paint.

Each paint manufacturer have their own set of deviations. It is up to the repair shop to submit these if the code doesn't match. Nevets2004, I would notify your repair shop of the different shades and have them look them up. There paint representative will have a book with these different shades. There may be a different number with different manufacturers. If they tell you there are none, they are wrong. I have seen the chips myself from the paint manufacturer that has my code no. and the deviation numbers as well. I would always have your body shop paint a swatch before painting and you approve this prior to them painting. Only match it outside on a very sunny day!!!!!!!! Well worth the time. I would also pay close attention to how they match the orange peel to the rest of the car.

My car now looks as good or better than factory. My car has been wet sanded and has a mirror like finish. Very little orange peel. With some good communication with your body shop you turn a problem into a plus.

Please email me if you have any questions,

Mike

 

[C5Richard]

Each paint manufacturer have their own set of deviations. It is up to the repair shop to submit these if the code doesn't match. Nevets2004, I would notify your repair shop of the different shades and have them look them up. There paint representative will have a book with these different shades. There may be a different number with different manufacturers. If they tell you there are none, they are wrong. I have seen the chips myself from the paint manufacturer that has my code no. and the deviation numbers as well. I would always have your body shop paint a swatch before painting and you approve this prior to them painting. Only match it outside on a very sunny day!!!!!!!! Well worth the time. I would also pay close attention to how they match the orange peel to the rest of the car.
Mike

Like I said there are no variants for GM's Covette black with the major paint manufacturers. And black is the easiest color to match of all colors. Which would be real clear if you could see our paint program. Each code is rated as anywhere from prefect match to blend required. Mellinium Yellow and Magnetic Red are the only corvette colors that are difficult to match properly and that's because they're three stage colors. As noted by the upcharge on pricing.
Variants are really more color differences between the plants they were manufactured at which could be anywhere from the US to Mexico to Canada for US cars. Not fading differences. As you know there's only one Corvette plant. So there would be no variants.

Instead of trying to match orange peal most enthusiasts begin the process of eliminating it altogether. Since the C5 has basically plastic panels it's easier to get a flatter shinier finish than on the glass vettes that are typically very wavy.

Richard.

 

[Senator75]

I've owned two black cars myself, and neither was a Vette...I had my fill of trying to keep a black car looking nice. Ironically enough, with the last black car, I got a body shop guy to tell me that black is the "easiest" color to work on...that was the first I'd ever heard that!

Thanks for convincing me to live with some of the minor blemishes in my new Vette...I'm reluctant to try to fix a small problem at the risk of creating a bigger problem!!!

Sen

 

[cavettefan]

...The most common codes for black in GM are 19u and 41u. Each is followed by a WA# like WA990A and WA984A respectively. There are no variations for these two codes. There's about six GM blacks codes altogether that cover older cars. ...There are about about eight different WA#'s that follow code 41U and the same for 19U. These are not variants buts simply different colors all together. ON GM one has to match via the WA# located on the codes sticker not the U number. Black is the easiest color to match period.

Richard.

So, Richard, based on what you have posted above, the code of 19U WA990A would be referenced for color formula match by the 19U or the WA990A?

 

[C5Richard]

So, Richard, based on what you have posted above, the code of 19U WA990A would be referenced for color formula match by the 19U or the WA990A?

GM codes are a bit odd. Interpret it as the color is under the 19U family with the actual color code being the WA number.

Richard.