paint

[mainah]

Yes between the camera and the printer it ain't going to be exact so the ideal is to get close instead of bring home 50 samples of colors that are not even remotely close. When you look at this thing it looks like an off white but next to a white back ground it definitely is a gray. It just seemed easier to carry a print then the camper. It sure would be nice if I could pry some thing off and take it for a ride.

[Gene]

This color matching thing reminded me of a construction project in an old issue of Popular Electronics. It was a box with 3 photo sensors with color filters, one each for red, green, blue. It had a meter that was switched to each sensor to measure the amount of light for each color. The downside of that was that each light source has a different color so light reflected off a "white" patch with one light source would give different readings that from a different light source.

... oh well, back to the drawing boards ....

[Jim-Bev-2363]

To "pry off something" it might be possible to pull a light fixture and trim some metal. Maybe? Lots of metal behind tail lights.

[bunjin]

"It just seemed easier to carry a print then the camper."

LOL. I'm with you there!

I was at the ADK M&G this weekend and was thinking about yoiu and your paint project. I was hoping to see a grey or gray trailer; Sunline of course to get a feel as to the color being warm or cool. No luck. The reason being, if you are lucky you could just get white base and add a little black. If the color is very cool, then you also possibly need a touch of blue, if warm, a touch of red. This would be most likely VERY little of the black, red or blue.

To follow up on Gene's comment. All samples need to be viewed outdoors or under a daylight lamp. Incandesance will give warm (red) and cool white floresance will give cool (blue) effects.

[mainah]

Yes the indoor lighting at a big box is very blue around 6500K.

[mainah]

Well still trying nothing close I really don't want to paint the entire thing if it wasn't for the repaired damage on the side I would not care if the paint matched the sides white is fine with me. We tried the scanner and mixed a small sample it didn't match.

[bunjin]

To bad your in Maine and we are in Connecticut. We could color match and mix your color to the camper the old fashion way...eyes and spray test strips. We have been doing color matching for years.

We are extremely busy these days with production, however, if this painting can hold until next year, maybe you could come down and camp here. There are some very nice camping in this area (Northwestern, CT). We could have a mini M&G. We would be able to color match then.

[mainah]

This is going to drive me drink more! I thought OK there is metal folded under the edge of the bottom of the wall wall so I cut a small piece off guess what it's a different color underneath! OK I took the left tail light off and low a behold if any one wants to know where their rear light wiring is it's behind the left tail light there is a 2" factory hole full of wiring. So I now have a inch by and inch sample stay tuned for further details. If all else fails I'm going to paint the whole damn thing white or green or purple!

[mainah]

By the way the wife is now involved she came back this afternoon with samples that don't match either.

[Gene]

hmmmm ..... purple would be interesting. .

Good luck.

[mainah]

Huston we have a match! One of the scanners (Behr) actually got it right it was a strange mix yes even including purple! A little squirt if this and one of that and it was a perfect match. A bit of compound to feather the edges and it will look like a brand new old one complete with dents. if any one needs a sample I'll be glad to paint some chips the numbers must mean some thing to Behr I'll ask when I go back for enough to paint the front and rear or I can scan the bar code.

[Gene]

Yeah!

[Jim-Bev-2363]

Another miracle of modern science. *clapping hands*

[bunjin]

Not surprised on the violet. Great! Now you have the formula. Would like to see pictures of your project.

[mainah]

Thanks every one for the ideals the match is slightly off I'm sure it's because the old paint is faded the sample I used has never seen the sun. I would call my self a "coverer" not a painter but here is how it turned out at least it's not an old decal bill board and the sides no longer have holes in them.

[Sunline Fan]

That looks good! Like you say, it's slightly off, but as long as it isn't clearcoated, leave it outside for a year or so and it'll match even better yet.

[bunjin]

I like it. The two-tone works well together.

My front is two-tone.....from the factory. Sunline did some interesting I believe, running inventory change match ups.

[mainah]

Strangely depending how you look at it,it does match if you look at the sides and front/rear it's fine but just below it doesn't. I looks fine to me I can't see it from the window when the the garage door closed!

[Gene]

To be honest, I can't tell what was painted. It all looks good. The entire area below the horizontal stripes all around looks a bit lighter but I thought it was just the natural light in the photo. I can tell from the shadow that it was late in the day when the pix was taken. I don't notice anything that looks "repaired".

Looking again, the first picture of the rear I see bright spots on the tire cover and below the stripe but they look like reflections from something else.

[mainah]

The front is painted from the roof to just above the red decal and the rear from the roof to the dark gray line and yes there is sun reflecting off a glass door. The repairs were mostly on the left side. The rear and front were covered with decals that no amount of effort would remove completely I had to sand them off. The worst was a good Sam's it had some kind of metal backing that just got into the paint the decal with the numbers on it.