So you buy your first Audi (B8.5 A4) *used* and you're excited for all the toys (and maintenance
)that come along with a purchase of a bone stock used car. Its your first week (3 months ago) with the car and you decide to compound, polish, and wax. You notice a 10 inch span of missing paint on the rocker panel 
). At this point you're saying, "noob you didn't look the car over well enough"... and yeah maybe you're right but silver body panels and a silver car makes something like this blend in... Black car, no way this would get past anyone. But yeah, my bad, because as you can also see the rocker panel was jacked up and I mean JACKED UP 
pun intended.So anyways I decided to go the route of Perfect Match'ing the car and head to advanced auto and dupli-color doesn't make a direct match to my paint color (Ice silver metallic LX7W). They do make VW Reflex silver LA7W. I searched the forms and maybe one post suggested this color would work. No photos provided. So in a place as innocuous as my blemish I figured id give it a try and write a review so people in the future could be better informed.
I want to preface that I am not a body paint professional (to be honest this is the first time I've tried something this extensive) and I could have taken extra steps and done my project differently to get a better results. However, I am very happy with my result so no need to criticize what I could have done differently. This post is more oriented towards the color match for people in similar situations as myself.
Cliff Notes for the result:
Dupli-color Perfect Match VW Reflex Silver LA7W matches Ice Silver Metallic LX7W
I followed ideas similar to this guys tutorial. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=na1FNBB9uxA
Materials Used :
- 220, 400, 800 grit sand paper
- Masking tape/ News paper
- Tack Cloth
- Rubbing Alcohol and PT
- Rust-oleum self etching primer
- DC Perfect Match Reflex Silver LA7W
- R-O Acrylic Lacquer Gloss
- 3 Beers
Cost: $37 for everything minus the material I previously had (alcohol, PT, 220 grit, masking tape)
Total time: 4 hours
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Who knows when this happened but I’m impressed in the little rust that was there. First step was remove rust. I used 220 grit (because I had it) but 100 would have made this much faster. Horizontal strokes until rust was gone then vertical to smooth it out. Then 400 with the same pattern. With the 400 I expanded the working area, followed by 800. Same as the 400, expanded the working area for better paint adherence. Masked and Cleaned the entire area with alcohol and PT and hit it with the tack cloth before primmer.
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Primer- two coats (1 very light, 1 medium, 10 mins dry between). At this point some people can use a filler primer. I sanded that thing so smooth there was no point. On a more obvious body panel this could help incase there may be a slight divot from paint taken away. I didn’t care enough in a place so hidden.
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Wait 30 minutes, tack cloth the area and first coat of color. (First light, second medium, third wet, 10 mins between each)
(first coat below, ended up being a medium)
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(third coat below) (nighttime at this point)
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*Option to wait a few hours here and wet sand.*
I waited 30 mins then hit it with the tack and did my clear (1 medium 1 wet, and me being an idiot did the last coat very wet, 10 mins between)
Next morning pulled the masking and here’s the end result. I used masking arrows to show the hard lines
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The bad... masking... should have left a larger masking area for better color blend and no hard lines. First pic (towards the front of the car) had a larger transition area and can hardly notice the line. Second pic (towards the rear of the car) had a smaller transition area and harder line (maybe I sprayed heavier here too). Lastly, I should have left ALOT more room on the top edge. Third pic you can’t even notice it unless you’re looking hard (notice how jacked my rocker was... FML)
That very wet coat I talked about... yeah there’s some wavy dripping buildup from it (not visible in pictures). This coat was probably so heavy because it was black outside. I should have waited for a day I should have started this earlier. All of the bad is unnoticeable from someone who’s not looking for it.
I’m going to give it a few days to cure and hit it with compound to even the transition and maybe remove some of the wavy build up. From what it was before and what it cost me I couldn’t be happier.
Bottom line:
Dupli-color Perfect Match VW Reflex Silver LA7W marches Ice Silver Metallic LX7W
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