I recently did a repair that reminded me of the one thing I could never do well enough to suit me. My big bugaboo is that I’ve never been able to match the paint or pigment/tint on larger repairs very well, and I was wondering if any of you have some super secret tricks that I may be missing.
For instance, on this one it appeared to be a few shades darker than neon yellow plus some extra darkening from age and sunlight damage. I think it had a pigmented lam because I could not see any foam texture at all. The only pigment I have or was able to find online is the “old style” yellow which is really dark. Even if I could’ve found a day-glo yellow it would have been too light to match.
What I wound up doing was painting the foam using neon yellow poster paint with a little neon orange to help darken it. But when I added more orange, it started to look orange and was mismatched even more. The way it came out didn’t look that bad, but I sure would like to be able to match the existing color a WHOLE lot better. I appreciate any pointers or advice I can get.
Thanks.
(The second pic doesn’t look right because I had my camera set to florescent lighting.)
Howzit ozzy, As far as matching paint the trick is to first paint the area white then hopefully you have the exact color to match to paint over the white. Trying to color match over a filler just doesn’t work because the texture isn’t the same as foam but by doing the white paint first it should match. Got on in the shop right now that the guy tried to match and gave up so he brought it to me. If it’s a pigment match it should match without the white, just have the same color.Aloha,Kokua
Thanks Kokua I’ll remember that, but that is a foam replacement (~1" deep), so the freshly shaped foam plug is white white. My main problem is that I can’t ever seem to match the color well enough to the amount of aging, fading, etc. that used boards have.
Kokua is right on the money. You have to get it white first. I repair, glass and sand first. Then I spray white acrylic and hot coat. Now match the color with a light fog and blending out. Spray with UPOL or gloss and polish. I never tape off an area to be sprayed, just let it blend with the good. The trick is in the paint. Every manufacturer will dry out differently. Some whites will turn yellow, and most colors will turn out quite a bit darker once glossed, especially red. I hate red, my red either looks like blood…or pink. Once you get a good color match for white, mix up a big bottle of it. A good white is Delta paint, 4 parts white, 2 parts Antique white, 2 drops blue.
Ahhh. So you and Kokua are talking about getting the rectangle of foam I replaced the right shade of “off white” first? I misunderstood because you both just said “white”. (There’s no filler in it, and new foam is white.) My mistake.
Howzit resinhead, I do it different,I fill the ding, sn=and to the proper depth, spray white, spray color then glass,hot coat, sand ,gloss if necessary,done.Aloha,Kokua
Howzit ozzy, I never replace foam, I use Q-sel to fill. If you are replacing the foam it would seem that the only place you would have a match problem is where you overlap the new pigment over the old which will result in a heavier coat of pigment which will be darker due to more pigment depth than originally. Color matching in general is not that easy, that’s why paint stores use computers to do it, but with expierence some people can get the eye for it.Aloha,Kokua
Kokua, I use q-cell or cabosil or microballons (depending on what I’m trying to do) on smaller voids as well, but on larger holes or for someone who wants to pay a little more and get it back almost “like new”, especially to save weight, I replace the foam. …especially for a structurally critical area like fin plugs/boxes. On this repair, I just taped off the area around the new foam block then painted.
But getting back to my original question:
There is no trick to matching the paint other than just having the “eye”? I don’t have fifty shades of colors, so I’m pretty much stuck mixing with the few colors that tempra makes and I can get relatively easy (and cheap) at Hobby Lobby.
UPOL is an automotive clear coat in a can. It is a 2 part catalyzed process that dries as hard as glosscoat. it polishes out well and is easy to use. Buy it at an automotive paint supply store.
Thanks Jay. I’ll check that UPOL out. It sounds like you have a pretty good way of doing it, although I’m afraid if I don’t match the paint color really close, I would just increase the mismatched area by fogging it in then blending (but eliminating the hard color edge of the repair). Most of my foam replacements are usually on unpainted hulls, so I haven’t done a whole lot of color matching.
Hey ozzy, those structural areas would be stronger with the qcell.
My structurally critical phrase wasn’t meant to suggest that foam is stronger than filler. I should have said “places where fin plugs and fin boxes are”.
For me, it’s just so much easier to replace the foam then re-install the hardware like I would for a new board. It doesn’t need to be stronger than a new install, and no extra weight (a major factor with performance shortboards), no funky or jagged edge lines to tape off and paint, and most of all, the customers LOVE it.
I often do use filler in those situations and in lots of other places, but if the customer wants to pay a little more, I’m happy to oblige. It makes the hardware re-install so much easier, and avoids some potential problems.
On this board the fiberglass and foam was so buggered up from an old garage repair attempt to fix a leak around the edge of the plug resin, I would’ve had to cut out a 3" hole around the rear plug and 2" hole around the front and 1" deep on both. My camera doesn’t focus well close up, so the first pic doesn’t show it.
Your painting skills look great to me. I tell people if they want perfect color they will have to go somewhere else. I spent too many years in the car painting trade dealing with perfectionist. I only do this part time and I focus on smooth not color. Thanks for the post ! I got some good info.
Here’s one of my little tricks :
You just did the filler work on the nose or tail of a short board and the filler covers the stringer. The person that owns the board says he doesn’t really care about looks. Mask off where the stringer should be and color it in with colored pencils. Brown ,tan,and a hint of red. Lick your finger and blend it all together. Glass over the top.
Thanks, I’ve done that as well with colored felt tip pens on small areas of filler.
I’ve picked up some good info also. ResinHead has a really good way of fading the painted repair in with the rest of the board, and I have copied his receipe for off-white to a text file and saved. Kokua laid it out simple that there are no shortcuts, just experience and a good eye for it.
Although if someone could point me in the right direction on this, it may save me a lot of fruitless trial and error work everytime I try to match a color.
The original problem I had was: I added a tiny bit of orange to darken the yellow a little, and that worked, but after a couple or three tiny bits of orange the base color started looking orange and not yellow. I’m still left wondering if I could have darkened the yellow area more by using a touch of green and a touch of blue and still had it look ‘yellow’. Or maybe a touch of red and a touch of (green and blue?), without changing the base color appearance from yellow.
