How to find out the car paint number yourself
Content
If the vehicle has been damaged in a traffic accident or has been mercilessly affected by time, the owner has a question of how to find out the car's paint number. After all, not everyone is ready to get rid of damaged vehicles. Yes, and often it can be restored, and it will be almost like new.
If the vehicle has been damaged in a traffic accident or has been mercilessly affected by time, the owner has a question of how to find out the car's paint number. After all, not everyone is ready to get rid of damaged vehicles. Yes, and often it can be restored, and it will be almost like new.
Car paint: colors and features
Now cars are painted in different colors and shades. In addition to traditional colors, rare and bright ones are sometimes found - crimson, golden, purple or any other. It doesn’t matter if it’s a factory shade or a repaint registered with the traffic police. It is important that when painting individual elements of the body, the color should be the same. Otherwise, traces of repair will be noticeable. So that there is no difference in tone, you need to find out the car's paint number or accurately select the shade in another way.
The choice of autoenamel is not an easy task. Even the same colors from different car manufacturers or in different years of production have different shades.
Even the drivers themselves know about the insidiousness of gray and silver. Many of them have repeatedly encountered the fact that even an experienced colorist could not choose the right shade of these colors, and the painted part began to differ in color from the rest of the body. And this does not always indicate the unprofessionalism of a painter or colorist. Sometimes this turns out to be an almost impossible task.
True, bodybuilders have their own secrets that help to visually hide the inaccurate selection of shades when painting. Such methods work, and the repair is almost invisible.
But there are techniques to avoid mistakes, for example, you can find out the paint number of a car by the VIN code. And then the colorist will select, according to his tables, the necessary formula for a car of a certain model. There are others, but none of them can be called infallible.
Paint color matching by VIN code
Now one of the most accurate selection methods is the ability to determine the paint number for a car by the VIN code. This method is useful if the tone is not listed on the machine itself or in the owner's manual. On many models, this information is available on stickers in the doorways, in the engine compartment, as well as in the documentation given upon purchase.
What is VIN
VIN is his machine identification number assigned to it at the factory. It contains 17 characters, which may include numbers and letters. They contain basic data: year of manufacture, equipment, model and much more. The car paint color number is not specified. And Japanese cars assembled for the domestic market of this country do not have such a code at all.
Where is the VIN
In different models, it is found in different places. Usually - under the hood, in the luggage compartment or next to the driver's door on the rack. Sometimes it is placed in other places. At the same time, the location of this plate for Russian cars and foreign cars is different. It may also depend on the year of manufacture of the vehicle.
If you need to find out the paint color number of any car by VIN, it is useful to look into the service card. This information is also there. This is necessary for those whose body plate was damaged due to an accident or for other reasons. True, such cars are difficult to register with the traffic police. But that's another story.
For foreign cars
Usually you can find out the paint number of a car from foreign cars by looking into the luggage compartment, under the hood or by looking next to the driver's door. There, in addition to the VIN, you can see the designation of the color of the body iron. It is marked with the words COLOR or PAINT. The presence of such designations allows you to quickly select a shade.
For domestic cars
For domestically produced cars, you can select paint for a car by its number. You need to watch it in the same places as in foreign cars, with the exception of racks. Sometimes only the VIN number may be indicated there. But it happens that there is information about the shade.
How to find paint color by VIN
It is impossible to determine the paint number of a car by identifier. It does not contain this information. This code gives different information. And the paint number of this car can be found on the website of the car factory or similar resources on the network.
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Understanding how to find out the paint number of a car, you also need to know how to decipher the VIN. This information for almost every car is contained on the Internet. It is also possible to get it from car service masters, an authorized dealer or specialists involved in the selection of cars. They will help you read the data correctly.
Definition of LCP online
There are websites on the network that help you find out the car paint number. There you need to specify the VIN and other data about the car. The service provides information about the body shade code.
The method using an identifier may not be accurate. Sometimes in the same year, cars at the factory could be painted in different shades. But the color is the same. Therefore, the car paint selected by this method differs from the color of the entire body. When painting, there will be a noticeable difference. This also applies to the paint code indicated on the machine. After selection, it is necessary to check the ordered enamel together with the colorist or painter.
Determination of paint color offline
In the absence of information on the car or in the documentation for it, the most correct method of finding out the formula of the dye is to contact the colorist. This also applies to used cars. Experts recommend doing this with complex metallics or rare colors.
For selection using a computer, it is necessary to remove the fuel tank door. Using this part and computer programs, the picker will be able to make the paint of the prescribed shade. It doesn't matter how much enamel is needed - to paint half the car or a small spray to fix minor damage.
A good specialist is able to create even a complex shade with maximum accuracy. But sometimes it turns out to be technically impossible. Therefore, auto painters use some coloring tricks to avoid visual differences in tone.
Code table for commonly used paint colors
There is a simple method for finding out the paint number of a car. This is a table of common codes. These designations are used for many models of Russian and foreign brands.
But this method is also inaccurate. It helps to choose a dye not for all cars. The technique may not be useful for older or rare cars. It is better for owners of such vehicles not to use such tables. Sometimes they give incorrect information for new machines as well. Therefore, if you need professional coloring with perfect color matching, it is better to contact a colorist. And the methods discussed in the article give an approximate result. You can use them when the accuracy of the shade is not important or to select a bottle of tint to eliminate small defects in the paintwork. But even when eliminating scratches or chips, it is recommended to achieve maximum tone matching.
In addition to the accuracy of selection, other factors can cause a color mismatch. These are painting technology, varnish, primer and putty. The wrong shade after painting the body elements also occurs for other reasons.