touch up paint bummer

[jscott]

The one major big thing on my new to me '72 was touching up the many chips and such.  Overall paint is very good, body is straight, no rust.  I was told it had a repaint a few years ago.  I ordered some touch up paint, code 4Q (dark green poly) from Automotive Touchup.  It came in today but it is too light.  I realize the re-paint may have not been spot on but under hood is defiantly original paint and the touch up is too light on it as well.  Not sure what I will do.  I did go down to a restoration shop to talk, not with the car and they specialize in Fords,  I will be bringing it there in a few weeks to have mechanical s checked out so guess I will discuss paint then also.  I had this problem on my 1968 AMX, the original owner had it repainted but not an exact match to the factory so it was always a battle to touch it up.

 

[Don C]

Most automotive paint stores have paint spectrophotometers that can scan your paint and come up with a close match. Because you know what the correct paint code is and that it's too light should also help a good paint store to mix you up some touchup paint.

Did you try the paint, and let it dry, or just compare the wet touchup paint? The paint will dry in a different shade.

 

[jscott]

Nope, checked 4 hours later, it is dry and still a much lighter green

 

[jpaz]

4Q is Dark Green Metallic not poly. If you told them poly, maybe that’s why the difference? Just sayin

 

[jscott]

I just said 4Q

 

[jpaz]

I just said 4Q

Gotcha.

 

[jscott]

looking at websites, this other one lists the 4Q as a poly, pretty sure automotive touch up paint, where I bought it also says poly.

this is from Paint scratch web site

Color Code: 4-Q (1972)

Dark Green Poly

here is a PPG chart and it shows 4Q as a poly, so which is it, metallic or Poly???

 

[Bill73Ragtop]

Don's advice is the way to go. Way too many variables from when and how it was painted to expect a match from original formula.

 

[jpaz]

Hmm... never saw it labeled like that. But I know the 4Q code is Dark Green Metallic, I have a 72 Mach1 with that same paint code. But my car is a different color now. More than likely your car has been repainted, so it could be off a few shades?

Anyway, I would just do like the others say and have your current color scanned. Good luck, hope you get it figured out!

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

The other thing that makes it difficult is the metallic in the paint. Was at my friends shop the other day and he was doing some repair on a car that he did not do. The owner had it painted somewhere else. It was a new job but they did not pull the rear window or windshield and he was having to fix on a brand new paint job. It was a GTO but the owner chose to paint it a Toyota color. It is blue with metallic. He is also putting a vinyl top on it to hide some of the sins in the paint job. 

They came to the shop and scanned it and the color was a good match just the metallic flakes are smaller on the new mix. Back from the car you cannot see the new and old but up close you see the size of the flakes are smaller on the new mix. Look at it with a magnifying glass and see if the added metallic is the right size and also can be a different color than silver.

 

[SteveO_71]

My car has been repainted over the years to the current Grabber Blue color. I got my touchup paint from Dr ColorChip. The match was surprisingly very good and it was really easy to use on any little chip.

https://www.drcolorchip.com

Here is their 4Q paint sample for 72.

View attachment 42360

 

[Hemikiller]

here is a PPG chart and it shows 4Q as a poly, so which is it, metallic or Poly???

"Poly" is Ford-speak for metallic

I'd do as Don suggested and have the car scanned at a paint supply house.

 

[jscott]

Got another order of paint today from another company, I wanted to see if 4Q was consistent and it is not.  The paint I got today is a great match, purchased from https://www.paintscratch.com/  I was so happy I immediately ordered a larger bottle and a can of spray.  I tried it on a small scrape on the front of the hood and it was like I was using an eraser. Waiting on a call back from the first company to see what we can do about the 2oz bottle I got that does not match.   Here are the two, the one marked "yours" is the first order, and theirs is the new matching order.   My color is 4Q, dark green poly,