Silver paint suggestions?

[deevergote]

Next year, I hope to get the Miata painted. The stock color is Mazda color code 3L, Silver Stone Metallic. Since I don't want to deal with the cost or compromise of a color change, I'm going to keep it silver. However, I'm toying with the idea of painting it a different silver than the original color.

Now, to me, silver is silver. Still, I figured it could be worth looking at other factory silver colors to see if there's anything that jumps out at me!

I'm looking for suggestions. Silver cars that I'm likely to see on the street. A weird request, I know... but I want to see if there's anything that has a more distinctive look to it than the original factory silver.


Edit: added a pic of the car for reference... because that makes sense.

[Fleetw00d]

Our 2005 Lincoln Town Car was silver: http://www.cb7tuner.com/vbb/showthre...light=town+car

[Crankshaft]

Next year, I hope to get the Miata painted. The stock color is Mazda color code 3L, Silver Stone Metallic. Since I don't want to deal with the cost or compromise of a color change, I'm going to keep it silver. However, I'm toying with the idea of painting it a different silver than the original color.

Now, to me, silver is silver. Still, I figured it could be worth looking at other factory silver colors to see if there's anything that jumps out at me!

I'm looking for suggestions. Silver cars that I'm likely to see on the street. A weird request, I know... but I want to see if there's anything that has a more distinctive look to it than the original factory silver.

Toyota has some amazing paints but they tend to use glass and pearl tones on the formula so it tends to cost alot more than other manufacturers not to mention a pain to match in the event of a minor repair. I mixed paint for almost 3 years and the inside joke among the people who mixed is that we could look at a car and almost guess what was in the formula, kind of how i look at cars know and guess the tire by the tread pattern.

[cp[mike]]

A weird request, I know...

Not weird, but the best way to pick a color! Now that it's on your mind and there isn't a major rush to get it done, start paying attention to stock cars on the road and in parking lots and see if any of the colors make you go "I can feel that!" and take note of it. NY was nice in the fact that the registration sticker in the window included the year/make/model to make it easy to look up the paint code. Tip: once you find one that keeps sticking out to you as something you like, start paying attention to that car in particular and take note of how it looks when it is both clean, and dirty.

[AccordWarrior]

There's always Porsche Arctic Silver Metallic (993 bright silver) or Silverstone from the S2000.

What's your goal, dark, light, interesting?

[deevergote]

Probably going to stick close to the factory color, as to not clash too badly with the doorjambs and such. But the idea of more metallic, pearl, etc... Might be a good way to go.

[AccordWarrior]

Probably going to stick close to the factory color, as to not clash too badly with the doorjambs and such. But the idea of more metallic, pearl, etc... Might be a good way to go.

Unless you want a high dollar paint job, I'd avoid going with more metallic as you'll end up with tiger striping. I have tiger striping in my Tacoma's grille from the factory (although the truck looks good) due to all the new requirements for paint jobs, unless you can find a shop that will hook you up as far as ability versus cost. I'm assuming you're going the Maaco route for this.

[deevergote]

I'll be looking at real shops first. Maaco only if a proper job is excessively expensive.

[Crankshaft]

Maaco

I'll be looking at real shops first. Maaco only if a proper job is excessively expensive.

Maaco quality varies greatly from location to location and although you can pay for a higher quality paint job i have doubts about the quality of the paint that they use. I went to one close to where i used to live and they quoted $500 for labor since i was going to provide material, when i asked him what did the quote covered and he explained i was unimpressed at the improper preparation he described. Scuffing and taping over trim is not preparation and as soon as i tld him that his quote jumped to $950. I asked what if i prepare , sand and remove trim, how much to shoot the paint? his answer $650. I turned around and walked away.

[Crankshaft]

Tiger striping

Unless you want a high dollar paint job, I'd avoid going with more metallic as you'll end up with tiger striping. I have tiger striping in my Tacoma's grille from the factory (although the truck looks good) due to all the new requirements for paint jobs, unless you can find a shop that will hook you up as far as ability versus cost. I'm assuming you're going the Maaco route for this.

I personally think tiger striping is due to improper spraying by the applicator, i have noticed in recent years that cars are leaving the assembly line with orange peel which used to be unacceptable years ago. Quality control has gotten so bad that i see shops putting out work without sanding and buffing and customers are happy as long as it has some type of shine, even if its grainy. The car i was referring to on the last comment i ended up paying $2500 to get it done, the guy gave me the keys to a car that had not been buffed when he told me what the final price covered before he started the job. We need to demand that we get the quality job that we pay for.

[AccordWarrior]

Can you please describe what do you refer to as tiger striping?

See the stripes? It's a case of not having the metallics in the paint lay correctly. From what I've read, the new water based paints have more issues with this than before.

[deevergote]

I never even realized that was a potential problem!

Hopefully Maaco won't be a consideration, but if they are, the one near me is quite good. They painted my CB7 twice, and I was very happy with their work (the first time especially.) I don't want them to do any welding (that's why the second time was necessary...) but they do prep and paint very well. The paint quality isn't the greatest, I know that, which is why I'm looking to a real body shop first.

[Crankshaft]

[QUOTE=AccordWarrior

See the stripes? It's a case of not having the metallics in the paint lay correctly. From what I've read, the new water based paints have more issues with this than before.[/QUOTE]

I remember seeing this ALOT back when I used to work in paint, back in those days it was common to see this with Candy paint but it was not an issue with the material but user error; incorrect pressure, technique etc. Then again I might be wrong since DuPont had issues with their product peeling back around 07-08 and they tried blaming customer at first until more and more cases started to arise(sounds familiar?) and they started trying to resolve but many painters stopped doing business with them. My personal opinion is that water based IF is having issues it may not be due to the product itself but because people are not used to working with it and are using same technique as in conventional paint, once again I saw this with folks trying Euro high solid clear and trying to shoot it like the product they were used to but it was too thick, the ones that thinned the product had no problems, the ones who didn't did. Adaptability might be the answer here.

[oni_cb7]

Millennium Silver Metallic - common Toyota/Lexus silver

[kseriescivic]

Kaiser silver