Color Matching Detailing
The number one rated, top color in automobiles is gray. Here is how to match the color gray.
Begin with the lightest color of the pigment structure.
- White, then yellow (90% of time it is yellow,) then black.
It is common for a detailer to select a small amount of red or orange between the yellow and black. This helps to dirty up the mix. The eye matches best!
Detailers can hone their skills practicing. They will go to an upholstery warehouse and request an auto vinyl sample book or pick up scraps used at an auto trim shop. They have all of the colors to work with and can take their time learning until they get it just right.
Detailers will also visit car-wrecking yards and purchase car parts such as a seat, console, headrest, or a door panel. They then set up a workshop and get busy. By the time they are done they are well skilled in this area of color matching. Practical experience is a good teacher in this case!
For practical reasons it is a good idea to work on both colors and repairs. Do some good damage to your practice piece and then work to repair and re-color it.
When the detailer feels they are comfortable with this process they can move next to doing work on a willing friend’s car.
Even after receiving expert instruction a detailer is smart to continue practicing until they feel entirely skilled in these specialized areas.
The best and most qualified car detailing shops can go to great expense in providing superior franchised equipment, however, unless they can also provide the best and experienced detailers to operate the equipment, using the proper technique, they can very well find themselves without any customers. The bottom line will always be in customer satisfaction and quality of service.
You can’t have one without the other.