Citroen XM Forum

I think I agree with Dean on this one since when I recently collected paint for the Poland car the shop brought out swatches and offered several shades. There is a subtle difference between my two Platinum cars that hopefully the attached photograph shows, but it might be just the reflection of the black doors behind! I also include a photograph of the earlier car following an initial 'budget' repaint of the front nearside wing, which I later had properly blown in. Regards, Matthew T.

Here is an after photo for BLY with apologies to Ray for stealing his thread! Regards, Matthew T.

MTXM wrote:I think I agree with Dean on this one since when I recently collected paint for the Poland car the shop brought out swatches and offered several shades. There is a subtle difference between my two Platinum cars that hopefully the attached photograph shows, but it might be just the reflection of the black doors behind! I also include a photograph of the earlier car following an initial 'budget' repaint of the front nearside wing, which I later had properly blown in. Regards, Matthew T.

We'll agree to disagree, but I would like to point out that if the front wing that was pained on a budget was new paint against the old "faded" paint, surely it would be darker, not lighter? Grey and Silver are the two hardest colours to match and even the angle the paint is applied, the brand of paint and the lacquer thickness and clarity will make a difference to the apparent colour.

Have a look in the door-shuts and under the bonnet. Barring not being lacquered in parts, the paint colour will be identical to the outside of the car.

That is fair comment Will, although I included the photo of the lighter paintwork more to illustrate that there can be slightly different shades, rather than to suggest any fading on the car. I am sure you are correct about the application of paint and lacquer and the brand of paint, which all underlines the importance of 'blowing in' adjacent panels. The same issue occurred with the gold car as my further illustrations show. Regards, Matthew T. PS. We missed your banter at the Northern and did you not plan to attend?

Based on my experience it appears that the lacquered metallic paints appear to darken and discolour rather than lighten with age! Regards, Matthew T.

MTXM wrote:Based on my experience it appears that the lacquered metallic paints appear to darken and discolour rather than lighten with age! Regards, Matthew T.

That will be the lacquer going cloudy due to scratches and UV damage. A machine polish should restore the original colour and lustre.

Just my experience, but on both the mandarin and the silicon grey, new paint on both was darker. Even with clear coat. Both paints have faded. One thought, would shampoos, polishes and waxes effect paint colour?

That's quite a difference on the gold car Matthew. Going back to the platinum, for me at least, the two look different only because the bumpers are colour coded on the 24v. It does change the appearance beyond the obvious for me for some reason. It looks lighter than the auto.

MTXM wrote: PS. We missed your banter at the Northern and did you not plan to attend?

Thanks Matthew. It wasn't a dead cert to attend and I have a lot of things going on at present, but in the event, I was overtaken by events outside my control.

MTXM wrote:

I am sorry to disagree chaps, but Gris Dolmen and Platinum are actually the same colour, or least the paint code of ETB is the same!
Regards,
Matthew T.

My paint chart shows platinum and Gris Dolmen is the same. That's based on Citroen tech data. So you are right Matthew, as already proved! .

Hope to see you next time Will and thanks for your clarification Russ! Regards, Matthew T.