After a car accident, you expect your auto body shop to return your vehicle to nearly new condition, and one of the most important parts of that process is a high-quality paint job. However, automotive painting can be tricky. Paint fades with time and exposure, so the original paint shade of your car might clash with its current color. Technicians have several color matching tricks to provide the best results. Below, Basic Auto Collision Team, a respected auto body shop in Honolulu, HI, explains how color matching works.

How Auto Body Shops Perform Accurate Color Matching

Original Paint

Technicians start by checking the VIN (vehicle identification number) of your car to learn what its original paint shade was. This gets them into the ballpark of the correct shade, but—depending on the intensity of the sun in your region, the age of the car, and whether it was parked indoors or outside—the paint may have faded a great deal or barely at all. To determine the car's current color, the auto body shop uses a spectrophotometer.

The Spectrophotometer

This leading-edge tool enables technicians to determine the precise color required to match the finish. It measures the intensity of the light and the color wavelengths coming off the car. By pairing this information with the original paint color suggested by the VIN, the team develops a recipe to recreate the exact hue of the current paint job.

Blending

Because the amount of fading may vary across the vehicle due to differences in UV exposure, automotive painting experts blend the paint to disguise the difference. In other words, the shade they apply at one point on the car may differ from what they apply elsewhere, but it blends so seamlessly with the surrounding color that it's unnoticeable.

As you can see, the process of color matching and automotive painting is as much an art as it is a science. For the best results after a car accident, you need an experienced auto body shop with hundreds of painted vehicles under its belt. Basic Auto Collision Team in Oahu is just such a shop. They have the experience, expertise, and state-of-the-art equipment needed to precisely match the current color of your car. Call them at (808) 842-3966 to schedule an appointment or visit their website to view directions and business hours.