Pulling my hair out trying to get correct Ms Pac Blue

MrGorf

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Pulling my hair out trying to get correct Ms Pac Blue

Been working on the old gal for awhile and am finally at the painting stage.

I've seen a boatload of threads about color codes for the blue and how certain paints are no longer available and the codes are in Home Depot's and Lowe's systems, etc.

Went to Lowes and they had two rhapsody blues in their system - one seemed very light and one seemed pretty dark.

Tried Home Depot. They have Rhapsody, Rhapsody Blue and Rhapsody in Blue. Bought the one that I thought was closest, judging from the pics of other guys restores.

Looks like it's way too light. Here is a pic.

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Left is the color I bought, right is the back door. You can even see the original overspray through the coin door hole which matches the back door.

If I take the back door and do a color match, how do I know the color hasn't faded and is not correct?

Does any of the artwork - marquee, CPO, or monitor bezel match the color so I can do a color match?

Or even better - can anyone who has recently gotten some paint post the code.

Thanks very much.
 

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Pulling my hair out trying to get correct Ms Pac Blue

I just painted mine looks pretty good though my original was so faded I don't have a good point of reference but next to the Phoenix arcade artwork looks good.

I found this on another thread when I was searching

I went with semi gloss though rather than the satin that's showed

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You get what you pay for with paint. Going to a big box store will give you a close approximation for certain, but if you want a superior match, go to an auto body paint store. With the tint codes and a chip of what you want to match, they will match it. Ask to get spray bombs made up also. It's going to cost more, but it will give you the best results.

And don't be afraid to tell them what you are doing. If they are in any way pros, they will be more than happy to give you all the tips and pointers you need, something a HD or Lowes worker might not know about. Auto body paint shops are all about restoration work.
 
Are paint codes universal? If I go to an auto paint store can they use the home depot codes or do they need a sample to match.
 
Nope, I work for Ace Hardware and our paint system is able to mix colors from most other brands into our paint. Many times we have looked up a paint color by name it brings up that color from every brand in our system and most of the time, the color isn't the same between each manufacturer and everybody uses different colorants. We have a color match machine that can scan a sample and usually gets it dead on, and we can tweak it if isn't quite right. The only drawback is, thank to the EPA, we had to switch to water based colorants in 2013 which did away with our ability to custom mix oil based paints. I would never repaint a cab with a water based latex paint, not going to be very durable. That being said, like mentioned, going to an autobody paint store would be the best route. I will be heading down the street to Napa to get paint when ever get to a point to respray any of my cabinets.
 
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I quit buying paint at Lowes or HD.

If you have Sherwin Williams in your area, they're often running 40% off type sales and can actually color match. I get All Surface Enamel oil based gloss in quarts, spray it with cheap HVLP gun from Harbor Freight.
 
Nope, I work for Ace Hardware and our paint system is able to mix colors from most other brands into our paint. Many times we have looked up a paint color by name it brings up that color from every brand in our system and most of the time, the color isn't the same between each manufacturer and everybody uses different colorants. We have a color match machine that can scan a sample and usually gets it dead on, and we can tweak it if isn't quite right. The only drawback is, thank to the EPA, we had to switch to water based colorants in 2013 which did away with our ability to custom mix oil based paints. I would never repaint a cab with a water based latex paint, not going to be very durable. That being said, like mentioned, going to an autobody paint store would be the best route. I will be heading down the street to Napa to get paint when ever get to a point to respray any of my cabinets.

I also would never use latex. It just doesn't look like the old lacquer. I've actually sanded a couple of projects back down to wood to redo. Oil or 2 part automotive finish.
 
Are paint codes universal? If I go to an auto paint store can they use the home depot codes or do they need a sample to match.

Nope...I wish it was that easy.

I'll second JoeyCuda in spraying with an HVLP spray gun if you can. Spray cans of automotive paint are possible, but it will be significantly more expensive. I think it was like $15-20 per can of automotive paint in a spray can around me. I'd budget 2-3 spray cans per side depending on your spray can painting ability.

Joey, unfortunately, I can't get custom mixed oil based paint in this state. I can get automotive paint but that is pricey.... I've sprayed latex through an HVLP gun several times and it holds up well. Not my preferred paint to spray, but I'll make due given my local laws and availability. If you have to spray with latex, I add Floetrol to help smooth it out. Unfortunately or fortunately, expect it to be the way of the future and we must adapt. I will add that every time I've sprayed Latex I've stripped and sanded all previous coats of paint, so that may help.
 
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Pulling my hair out trying to get correct Ms Pac Blue

The Ms Pacman blue that is in the system, and the pic above is the color match to my back door, I had them save it in the system as Ms Pacman blue, and its funny this still comes up and that was years ago when I stenciled my ms pacman. Now i had them color match it to my cab. I have always thought that mine was way darker than everyone else's, but it was the original factory paint.

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Over time here in California with all the regulations on paints that color is obsolete they don't even offer the paint l used when i did it. the other colors was passion flower and sunny side up I believe, i still have the paint cans

To be honest, i have no idea why people obsess over this. Look inside behind the back panel threw the back door, there should be lots of overspray... if your door is close, then match to that. If you want I still have the cans of the paint and i can dip a stir stick and mail them to you for them to match.

Again i always thought mine was dark compared to others, but i really really dont care, none of them were exactly the same, the stencils were always miss set, the graphics were all over the place, your game will better than it ever was to begin with if you made it this far..
 
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I'm also knee-deep in a Ms Pacman restore - and currently have the entire cab stripped and bare wood. My gameplan was to take my new side art or CPO into Ace and have them color match it directly to the graphics. Seems to make sense given the desire to have a similar tone to the new graphics as possible...
 
So I took the above paint code label to Home Cheapo and they said it was still available. I asked him if I could get it in semi gloss oil. The only way I could do that was have him make a sample of the code I gave him and if it was OK, color match it for the oil base.
He made a sample and I tried it on the corner of my back door. It was a perfect match. I took the paint stick I used and had him mix it in oil.
This is how it turned out.


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I thought it looked pretty good.
Went to order the stencils and found they are out of stock.
Email asking when they will be available went unanswered.
So I figure I will go with Phoenix's side art decals as I want to get this done.

One thing I was wondering. When he does the mix, are the colorants used latex or oil. The paint didn't seem as smooth as the oil based primer I used and I was wondering if it was because of the colorants.
 

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I'm also knee-deep in a Ms Pacman restore - and currently have the entire cab stripped and bare wood. My gameplan was to take my new side art or CPO into Ace and have them color match it directly to the graphics. Seems to make sense given the desire to have a similar tone to the new graphics as possible...

How are you gonna take the side stencils into ace for a color match?
 
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