Good comment in the 2008 .triumphrat.ne thread I got the above from
If Only it Were So Easy
grasshopper is our resident paint expert. This is what he had to share earlier.
Getting Replacement OEM Paint Every one of us has been there (or will be there soon). SOMETHING on Triumph (/BSA/Norton/Vincent/MV/etc) needs painted and you go to Auto Zone to get a half pint of 2005 Caspian Blue so you can repaint the red front fender you got on Ebay for $10.00 colored right so your buddies will quit calling your bike Rudolph.
The 16 year old pizza-faced snot wearing the 'Imports Rule' wife beater looks at you like your speaking french when you tell him it's for a Triumph. "Who makes that?" After a half hour of looking for some book.. he finally tells you he doesn't have any codes (*** is a 'code'??) on any "Try-ump's". He tells you that maybe the Bodyshop Supply house down the street may have it. You go there only get get laughed at for not riding a Harley.
So you say screw it and start looking on the internet, figuring shipping it in can't be too much more than what's already been carved out of your ego. But the only thing you find are other guys who ALSO can't find any reliable source for Caspian Blue. What gives?
First off, you have to understand how different colors of our bikes are organized. In 2006, Triumph sold bikes in 5 colors.
Each color had a two letter Triumph 'Identifier'. Caspian Blue's Identifier is JD. This doesn't mean much to anyone but the guys and gals who were assembling your bike off of the order form.
Each color also has it's own name (duh... Caspian Blue). However, as you'll find if you try to buy some Caspian Blue from a Doupont or PPG supplier, what you 'Need' is the Color Code or 'code' for Caspian Blue.
What is the code? It's typically a 5 to 7 alphanumeric code that tells the paint mixer how much of what to put together to make the color. For Doupont, Caspian Blue (or a very close version) is BEC1349. Why is that a 'very close version' and not 'the' Caspian Blue? We'll get to that in a minute.
The guy who's mixing your paint doesn't go to the backroom and find the 50-gallon drum of Caspian Blue and dip you out a half pint. He translates the color code into a list of base toners, fillers and binder with amounts of each onto a list. Keep up here, because this is importan later on.
Base Toners are the 'building blocks' of all of the colors you see. Tornado Red actually has 8 different Base Toners that go together with a red pearl and binder to make what we know as 'Tornado Red'. A couple of the Base Toners in Tornado Red are what you'd expect; different shades of Red. But there is also a Grey in there, some yellow, a purple and white. If you saw the Translation of the Tornado Red Color Code (which happens to be BEC2211), you'd see the list of Base Toners on the left, and the amount (in Grams) on the right which, when added together, sum up to the amount of paint that you asked for (Qt, Pint, Gallon, etc).
Back to why we can't match Triumph colors 100% using Doupont and PPG (the two main US paint distributors): Doupont and PPG weren't the original manufacturer of the paint that comes on Triumphs, Triumph uses a couple of different suppliers in the UK:Standox and IVC. Standox uses slightly different Base Toners to make their paints than PPG and Doupont does. They are just different enough that PPG and Doupont can get REAALLLLYY close using THEIR toners, but it'll never match 100%, especially on tri-coats, pearls and metallics.
Standox kind of has the Import Bike Paint Market in a Monopoly here in the States. They have the conversion charts to be able to tell what Triumph's JD is (Caspian Blue), they can convert that into their own Color Code, which gives them the list of their Toners and amounts that are needed to reproduce the Original Caspian Blue, but they dont send their Toners to the states, and they wont give conversion charts to PPG or Doupont.
So what's the fix? Well, there's a few ways to get around this.
First, call . They are the national importer of colors (and color codes) for all motorcycles brought into the states. Check out their website (they have a terrific online search tool). Dont be discouraged if they dont have the color on the search tool. Call them up and ask them what they can do. Typically, they can find a source to match whatever color you're looking for. Prices are high, but quality costs money. Their paints are regular BC/CC, so if you're outsourcing the spraying to a local painter, he shouldn't have a problem painting with ColorRite's products.
Second; you can use one of these resources to get a pretty-close copy of the Standox colors found on Triumphs:
Triumphnet Color Conversion Chart
Link Removed
Or you can find a paint distributor with a Prophet Machine. The Prophet Machine is a handy-dandy gadget that they can put on something that is the 'right' color, and it will give them the closest 'known' ColorCode. Typically, this works pretty well about 80% of the time. The other 20%, your paint supplier will have to be willing (and able) to hand-tint the 'known' Color Code that the Prophet Machine outputs to get a closer match. Because there are no Triumph color codes in the PPG or Doupont ColorCode libraries, you'll never get a 100% match from a Prophet Machine. But typically it's so close that a painter can usually make up for the difference with some liquid voodoo to where it's nearly invisible.
If you can't get help anywhere else, get ahold of me. I've got a very talented supplier local who can hand-match any color (and he's been doing it since the late 60's) even when noone else can. He works for beer, but that's what I love about him. You'd need to ship me a part that's the right color, but he can match it better than any other mixer I've seen.
Hope this helps.
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I will say this in response to Grasshopper,
he is correct. I worked for Dupont for three years and was a paint guy. My specialty was creating paint from scratch to match existing paint. For example I had a customer come in with a Taylor Made Driver and wanted to match the head color orange. So I would start from scratch and create using Dupont paint an orange that would match the Taylor Made head. It is a long process that takes an incredible eye.
The point of these codes is to give the paint shops somewhere to start. The list of off the Triumph website and the codes that are there are the original spray codes. So if you look at the Caspian blue and if it gives you a dupont code that is because the origanal was sprayed in Dupont and that is the code they created.
That being said tinter batches, weather etc will all effect the color so a good body shop will take this into account and either scan the panel to match (yes it can be done) or they will take the code, spray a test peice, see if it matches, adjust, spray and get the tint to be very close then blend it.
Hope this helps. These codes are only meant as a starting point. Reds will have the most problems with matching.
As another note,
For those of you in the North American Continent - it was brought to my attention that these are the British codes and something that I have overlooked. I know that for any Dupont spraying shop they will have to call the tech line and get the mixing ingredients or a north american code. Although with the addition to Spies-Hecker in NA (Duponts European Paint) this will be an easier process.
I would assume that any other paint manufacturer will need the same process.
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Phantom Black is a Standox colour from Europe. Even though Standox is part of Dupont, Dupont NA does not have access to the Standox formulation. There are some car paint dealers who do have the Standox colour bases in NA but they are few and far between -- usually in the larger markets.
I was told that Phantom Black is a tri-coat and Standox adds the hardener together with the paint during the spray gun phase. I was told as consequence a shaker can match is not possible.
The Dupont camera and software used by the paint dealer gave me KIA Midnight Black as a 90% match to Phantom Black. That's what I purchased but I still have to use the shaker can.
To complicate matters further in 2010 all VOC based car paints are to be replaced by water based paints. What this may mean for future matches of Phantom Black and other paints, I do not know.