Autobody Painting & Refinishing Ames IA

Because nearly every repair ends up needing blended, you need to get it right the first time or you can kiss your profits goodbye.

By Mike Muir
5/1/2004

Aahh, the good old days.

Remember when you'd get a body job - like replacing a hood? You'd order the hood and call the local paint store to order the paint, usually acrylic enamel or acrylic lacquer. After installing the hood, you'd mask off the fenders and paint the hood. Of course, 90 percent of the time, it didn't match.

The good thing was, it wasn't expected to match.

If the customer complained, you could always blame the paint company. "It's the only formula they have," you'd say.

If you were lucky, you'd have stripes on the fenders so you could at least paint over the top of the fender to hide the mismatch. Yep, those were the days.

But those days are gone.

Today, one of the biggest assets in refinish technology is the ability to blend. Done properly, blending can actually allow you to take a paint formula that would've been unacceptable 15 years ago and create a match to the eye.

And that's the only reason for blending - to trick the human eye into believing the paint matches.

Almost every repair that goes through your shop will end up being blended in some manner. Luckily, blending isn't rocket science. It's simply a way to make your job easier and your customers happier.

With that said, let's get started ...

1. Plan the blend.

The ideal time to decide which panels will be ...