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Just go to your local paint store and ask for a basic black basecoat. No metallic or pearl or anything added. Other than that, black is black.
Not true! You wouldn't believe the variations of black. Some have a blue cast or a brown cast or even a red cast to the paint. I swear it's true..........I thought the same thing, that black is , well, black, but a custom car painter showed me the differences. Was I astonished. It may make little difference to the eye since the fender is so far away from the rest of the painted parts, but if one is trying to spot-paint a panel, it must be matched perfectly or it shows.
I have to agree with the others, Being a color technichan for a large ink manufacturer myself, there are many different shades of black. Without the proper color code it will never match!! You can go to your local Harley dealer and they can order any color you need (they are just real proud of them if you know what I mean) PPG also has a direct cross reference to the Harley Codes and they match. If you are painting a fender or tank, don't look for the depth that you get with the factory paint, I have been told that the way they are getting that real deep look is a special low temp clear powder coating . Good luck
ORIGINAL: bamclean
Just go to your local paint store and ask for a basic black basecoat. No metallic or pearl or anything added. Other than that, black is black.
All I know is I've painted 3 HD's that were vivid black, and I haven't had any trouble matching the paint. Went to the local auto paint store and told them to give me a quart of basic black, and never thought twice about it. They gave me 1950's era GM black which matched perfectly.
the Dupont DBC Black isn't the exact same as the vivid black, but the fender is not near any other bodywork so it doesn't need to be a spot on match.
Trust me on this the DBC 9700 works, I have it on my front fender and unless I pointed out the slight color difference you'd never know.
a pint of DBC runs about 42 bucks around here, plus the activator. The good thing is you can pour the leftover paint back in the can, unlike DBU. Spend the money on the DBC clear too... don't go cheap. This pic was before it was sanded and buffed.
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