FL 96 Owner

I just finished a total interior renovation of my C4 and had an issue with some exterior painted areas. I own an unusual color 96 C4 – Dark Purple Metallic (GM code 05 – sometimes also called Cyclamen Metallic 05) – only 320 were made in this color in 1996. DupliColor doesn’t even try to match this paint so I searched on the Forum and Google and found several companies who claim to be able to match this old paint color.

I decided to give Automotive Touchup (www.automotivetouchup.com) a try since they provided a lot of information on their site and didn’t seem to deal in “flash and dash”, only serious paint information. So I ordered a rattle can (my need was small – see below) to give it a try. The paint came in quickly and a few weeks later (after finishing my interior renovation) I was ready for my test.

My issue is that there are inset words “Corvette” molded into the front license plate insert and the rear bumper. They are filled with silver paint and must have looked very nice when the car was newer. I don’t know if the dealer did this or the previous owner but if you look at the “before” image below you will see that the silver paint has faded and it is not looking so good any longer.

After reading through the process on the can label I realized I had not read far enough on their site. I needed not only the paint but a clear coat as well. I decided to do some tests anyway to see how it would come out.

I pulled the front license plate from the car and masked off one side and painted the whole area, then masked off some more and sprayed that part with some RustOleum high gloss lacquer clear coat I had in my paint storage. No one would ever see this area so I had nothing to lose. Here is what that looked like:





Above the yellow arrows is the original color and below the test areas. To the left of the red line is the paint only. Note that on the spray can they say that it will be dull – in fact it HAS to be dull – and it is. To the right is the paint with an overcoat of the RustOleum clear coat. Obviously I wasn’t getting anywhere near the sheen of the original paint and if I had proceeded this part might have been the right color but it certainly would have stuck out like a sore thumb on the car when re-installed.

I went to the web site and sent an E-mail with the image above and my questions. I didn’t get a timely reply so I called a few days later and talked with the customer service person who had answered my inquiry (but I never got their reply E-mail). She was VERY helpful and said that I should follow the instructions on their site and not mask it off and that I did need a clear coat but I needed to apply a MUCH heavier coat. She also said that using the RustOleum product is not what they would recommend.

I pointed out that I had no problem ordering their clear coat but that the freight on a can of that would be about half of what the clear coat cost. We discussed using a locally obtained spray can of DupliColor clear coat and she said that that would be OK.

BTW, as I understand the process when you get the spray paint they send a coated piece of cardboard that you are encouraged to paint before you do anything on your car. Once you get the paint and the clear coat on the cardboard compare it to your car. Then if it doesn’t match you can call them and I THINK that they will work with you to reformulate your can of paint to come up with a better match – that is a nice service if it works that way. Fortunately I didn’t need that. Since I was working in a hidden area I went back to my test area, masked off the already painted area again and following the directions on the can I sprayed three LIGHT coats of the DupliColor clear coat and then a much heavier coat for the final coat.
Here is what my license plate insert looked like before the new paint was applied:





And here is what it looked like after applying three light coats of paint and one heavier one and three light coats of clear coat and a much heavier final coat:





When the final coat of clear coat went on some real magic happened. The whole complexion of the job changed. The color changed somewhat and as you can see below got almost identical to my original paint job but the sheen is what was most impressive. As you can see it’s nearly identical to the original when installed on the car and the metallic in the new paint really shines (literally) in the sun.





Should you need some touch up paint I can highly recommend Automotive Touchup (www.automotivetouchup.com) – somehow they had the magic to give me a paint that would match the original on my car after almost 20 years in Florida sunshine.

Now I’m going to tear down a 1:18 cast medal model I have of the car that is in the wrong color (red) and paint it with the remaining purple paint in the rattle can so it matches the car I actually have. I hope things go as well for you if you decide to try painting project on your own Vette.

corvetteronw

Those chrome color letters may have been foil. I know that I had some gold foil letters that I got from Corvette Central for a metallic brown C4 I once owned.
Nice job on yours!