Matching the paint.
 

I'm going to have some dents pounded out on our '85 300D. A very capable friend will do the work, but he wants me to find the paint, so he doesn't feel responsible if the colors don't match. The car has its original paint which is called, I think, orient red. Maroon, burgundy, dark red, all would be more descriptive. I'm wondering what has worked for those of you who've had body work done on your cars.

Phil

'85 300D
'84 Euro 300d

Phil,

You are going to have a devil of a time matching the paint on your 20 year old car. Not only do all colors fade/change over time, but red is the most notorious color for fading. Your best bet is to go to a paint jobber with something like the gas cap in one hand and the factory paint code in the other, hand both to him and pray to the gods that he is good enough to come close. If your friend is a capable painter he will know how to blend the new paint into the old paint thereby negating part of the matching problem that I stated above. Paint brand makes little difference, if you stick to the major brands. Hope this helps.

Tom

Is he doing the paintless dent removal process? This involves working from the back of the panel with a special tool to gently work the dent out from the edges.

Color match is going to depend on the amount of fading in the original paint and the color. Some colors are easlier to match. Most automotive paint suppliers like PPG or Sherwin Williams do a fairly good job matching the original DMB color code. But face it the car will never look as good as having total respray.

Orient red? no where close to Burgundy red. Dark red is yet a differnt shade altogether.
To get matched paint you need to take the car to a paint shop that can perform a paint match. There isn't likely to be an auto body shop that will do that without doing the body work and the painting. If they do they may grumble a bit and charge you extra.
But if you find one, the process is to order the paint according to your paint code, and it looks like you haven't got that yet, its located on the Code plate, a 3 digit number with a letter that indicates the manufacturer of the original paint used on your car. PPG and DuPont makes great paints to MB paint codes. Its not the quality of the paint you are worried about here its the prep and the color matching. To match well you apply some (unmolested) paint to a piece of metal and let it dry, using a hot air gun in some cases, or overnight. Then its compared to your fender or hood to see if the shade appears lighter or darker IN THE SUN. Then you skillfully blend some other colors to change the shade until they match the paint as closely as they can by eye. What to add is based on training and experience. Computer matching stuff is great for a start but the final analysis is best done by eye.

I plan on repainting my burgundy '85 300TD someday, using a slightly new color that MB came up with since then on 201 and 124 and 126 chassis. A light metallic appearance I believe its code 567 metallic called new Burgundy Rot, not 573 Dark Burgundy Rot or 513 Burgundy Rot.
My experience with Body Shops lately has been awful. I recently wrote the episodes of a 2 month stay in the body shop for a simple hood replacement. Kids jumped up on the hood to steal the hood star and in the process caused my insurance to pay over $2000 for repairs. The paint was not the problem, it was the fact nothing worked right afterwards. The hood was way out of alignment, a hood hinge broke, the hood would hardly close, cowling clips weren;t fitted correctly and they left the paper labels on the vent covers (on the UNDerside!) spray nozzles weren't aimed and they even broke the radiator in the process (proof positive that resting ones body on a delicate Behr radiator neck will break it!) and to add insult they plugged the drain holes and this caused the car to get wet floor boards when the car sat out in a rain storm. I never will deal with that particular shop again!

The sides of cars generally don't fade as much. I would be most concerned with paint touch-up on the hood (speaking of which, the PO used the wrong color on a few spots that I have to re-touchup)