Fascia painting front and rear color

[coreydmc]

I have painted my front and rear fascia's in the past. I would like to change the color. What DMC owners out there have painted their fascias using a spray paint from a local store? If so what brand and color did you use for the silver and black?

[Michael]

I have long thought the fascias would look better a lighter shade. If I were to choose a color for looks and not accuracy, I would go for a silver, but no so light that it would appear lighter than the stainless. I would Mask the headlight and tailight recesses and keep those the factory gray, but for the outside I would paint the silver color, then score it with sandpaper to give it grain, followed by a satin clear coat to lock in the detail. This would bring the stainless look all the way to the ends of the car.

[coreydmc]

i was thinking of using stainless steel paint. any thoughts?

[DMC3165]

My car has the glossy clear coat on the fascias. I personally like the matte finish better because I think it blends better with the rest of the car.

Having said that it might be a cool custom look with stainless or aluminum colored paint. Worst case you could always do it again

[jawn101]

I have long thought the fascias would look better a lighter shade. If I were to choose a color for looks and not accuracy, I would go for a silver, but no so light that it would appear lighter than the stainless. I would Mask the headlight and tailight recesses and keep those the factory gray, but for the outside I would paint the silver color, then score it with sandpaper to give it grain, followed by a satin clear coat to lock in the detail. This would bring the stainless look all the way to the ends of the car.

Michael -

I can tell you that #2100's fascias were painted a light silver in an attempt to match the stainless. This failed. So what you end up with is a paint job that looks like a failed attempt to color match, instead of the darker "accent" colors. I expect this is why DMCL chose to go with a noticeably darker shade in the first place, to avoid the "bad match" look. I personally am very, very unhappy with how the fascias look and can't wait to get around to having them re-painted properly.

This is the best pic I think I have of my car next to a proper one (I'm in the foreground) - see what I mean about the color?

[Tillsy]

what you end up with is a paint job that looks like a failed attempt to color match

I was about to suggest the same thing. It is hard enough at the best of times to colour match plastic/fibre bumpers to painted metal panels - I can only imagine any attempt to match stainless panels would look like a bad colour match no matter how good a job it is. Sadly your picture demonstrates exactly that

Then again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder - or my density has brought me to you... something like that

[jawn101]

I was about to suggest the same thing. It is hard enough at the best of times to colour match plastic/fibre bumpers to painted metal panels - I can only imagine any attempt to match stainless panels would look like a bad colour match no matter how good a job it is. Sadly your picture demonstrates exactly that

Then again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder - or my density has brought me to you... something like that

Lol, she's still a beautiful car, just with bad makeup. Too bad it will cost so much to get her cleaned up

She's still my density.

[Kenny_Z]

I always thought the darker ones looked like a bad attempt at matching the stainless. The light ones I thought were just faded.

With today's paint technology you'd think might be easy to get a good shop to mix some paint to match the stainless. It is something I'm going to think about when the time comes for Red.

[jawn101]

I always thought the darker ones looked like a bad attempt at matching the stainless. The light ones I thought were just faded.

With today's paint technology you'd think might be easy to get a good shop to mix some paint to match the stainless. It is something I'm going to think about when the time comes for Red.

I invite anyone who thinks that matching the steel with paint is a good idea to come check out mine. I'll buy you lunch and show you what a bad idea really looks like. But act soon, cause I'm painting those bad boys as soon as I get the chance!

[TTait]

Dupli-Color BNS0604 Precision Grey (W40) is a very close match to the original...

I have it on my wife's car. Can try to take a photo of both side by side next weekend.

I tried a brighter silver on a fascia 5 years ago, it was terrible. Its unlikely you will get showroom results with paint from a can, but with minimal experience I got pretty satisfactory results with the Precision Grey.