Does anyone out there have access to the Glasurit COLOR-LIST 101 publication. My E220 COUPE left the factory on 12th Jan 1996. The paint color is BRILLIANT SILVER color code 744. The Glasurit web site shows the following EIGHT YES EIGHT !!! variant codes apply to Brilliant silver from 1990-2004:- 30,39,4A,50,60,80,90,99. based on the 55,90 series paint lines. Damaged the paint reversing the car out of the garage, careless!! and the paint shop repairing my vehicle have had difficulty in matching the color exactly. any info as to the correct variant of brillant silver for my car most welcome. Thanks
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Grober
Last of the ol 124s"

The color needs to be ADJUSTED by the use of toners, which is dependent on the SKILL of the painter and his ability match color . . . The code numbers are the COMPONENT TONERS which achieve the finished color which needs to be adjusted for fading etc.

Thanks for the response. I did not in anyway wish to imply that the final result of any paint job is not due to the skill and experience of the painter. It is one of the jobs in our increasingly complex and digitally oriented world that deserves the title of craftsman. I simply wanted to give the bodyshop team some clues as to where to start since they seem a little lost. The glasurit web site is extremly detailed in its instructions for any paint code/variant combination, giving details of colour of primer used .toner addition. thinner ratio spraying temperature etc. etc. http://www.glasurit.com/Service/TechnicalInformationSheets/
While I am sure that the guys in the paint shop would get the colour correct eventually thro trial and error and undoubted skill, its a foolish man who ignores any information concerning a problem if its readily available. I sort of knew that the variant codes refer to changes in toner compositions such as:-
50-bluer
60-yellower
80-redder
90-lighter
30-finer
4a-darker/dirtier
but what I needed to know from the color-list 101 which is not on the web-site was which one of these codes applies to my particular vehicle.
Sometimes a solution can stare you in the face,but is not apparent. Given a couple of clues the problem is much easier to solve and I wont get into the problems of retinal colour saturation which can defeat the best of men.

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Grober
Last of the ol 124s"

When a Body/Paint shop takes on a line of paint, they are provided a series of shading cards with the various shades that you speak of. This is what the painter uses to determine which direction to go to get an ACCURATE match . . .

....when I had the roof repainted on the 300SD last week, I watched the craftsman do the paint matching. He used PPG paint. The color is twenty years old, faded manganese brown.

He dials up the microfiche(!) with the MB paint code and it lists six colors (!) which have to be added in various proportions to the base coat. Then, after thoroughly mixing this, he spray paints a small section of scrap metal and compares it to the car's finish in bright sunlight. The factory mix is just the starting point.

After this comparison, the craftsman adds additional tint to match the faded paint exactly. As some indication, the transition at the roof swage line from new to old on the 300SD is invisible. Metallics, like yours, can be exceptionally hard to match.

Go with someone personally recommended by a friend if you can.

I would regard with great scepticism any shop which tells you they use computerized spectrographic analysis (or some such bull) to 'perfectly' match your paint. Look for an older guy with paint under his nails who adopts the above process.

I have had exactly the same experience with house paint. After messing with the fools at Home Depot - almost without exception people who care little about analysis and process, I took a chip of house trim to a local paint specialty store which used the same process I outline above. The match is so good, that I have literally painted a center section of trim and been unable to detect where the new paint is, once dry.