So I've been working on my Torino, and originally had painted the fenders and the body of the car separtely, but the parts store mixed two differnet paint codes, and we're repainting it. However, when painting a couple of small parts with the same mix of paint at the same time with the same gun, one piece being in the shade and another in the sun, I swear the piece in teh sun came out whiter.... is there any thing about if a piece is painted in the sun and dries there, does it have a different color than a piece that dried in the shade? Or is it an optical illusion? Both pieces were the same color before, both pieces were painted at the same time.

The color is Ford's Wimbledon White, and the paint is Omni by PPG in basecoat/clearcoat.

 

Yes, the part being in the sun will dry faster than the part in the shade. That is enough to change the color just enough for them not to match. Paint is finiky. Temperature, air flow, spray pattern, how wet or dry you apply the coat, air pressure it is sprayed at, many things affect how the color turns out. If you want something to match 100% you need to spray everything in the same place, at the same time under the same condition. Of course you cant always do that and things tend to not match sometimes. Sometimes its just a little off and sometimes it leaves you scratching your head and looking at the can wondering if you used the right paint.

 

were the parts that dont match matel vs plastic by chance. plastic will always turn out a lil different than paint on metal. just walk buy your local car dealership and have a look at the bumpers on the new cars. the bumpers will always be a tad darker caus paint on plastic dries at a different rate than metal.

are you using solvent based or water borne paint? did he/she forget to spray the control coat on some parts if using water borne?

also would help to know the color you were painting. metallic, solid, pearl or tri-stage. metallics which dry to fast (in the sun) doesnt allow the flakes to lay down properly and flat in the basecoat... and thus changing the color.

lso what the above poster said is also true. many many things effect paint, including temp. the rate of dry time definitly effects color , solids not so much

 

I was spraying... I suppose the sun drying the paint faster did it. Just have to make sure when I apint this thing for the final time that the whole car is in the shade....