To beige or not to beige?

[Shortsguy1]

I am in the early stages of planning a re-paint of my w115 220d. It is "light beige" or paint code 181. I don't particularly love the color, although I am only used to the 45 year old, sun faded, chipped, ... version of the paint. Perhaps it was a nicer color when brand new, or perhaps I might not have even loved the color had I bought the car new 45 years ago.

I would like to paint the car myself, because I cannot afford to pay someone else for the paint job that I want to see on the car. Clearly re-painting the same color has a huge advantage in terms of amount of work and also the outcome is likely to be better (less chance of splotchyness). I am also a bit of a traditionalist, so it is hard to say goodbye to a color that has been on the car for so long.

I posted in DD because it is your opinions which I care about the most. Here are my two questions:

1) Do you like the color "light beige"? See a w123 in the same color below. Paint color is what the world sees of my car, so I am curious how you all view that color. No need to sugar coat things. Blunt responses are appreciated.

2) For anyone who has painted their own car, how much extra work is it to "jamb" a car versus just painting the outside? 25% more, 50% more, 100% more? I have access to a paint booth, but I am a busy professional with two small kids, so I need to manage my free time wisely.

Thanks everyone.

[vstech]

Light ivory is a very popular color, and it does look great to some...

I personally think you should contact member, greazzer, and get the paint code from his car.

it's similar to the LI, but has a much deeper color, and looks AWESOME... missed sections would blend in fine, and you'd get a very cool color...

[DieselGuy53]

Originally Posted by vstech

Light ivory is a very popular color, and it does look great to some...

I personally think you should contact member, greazzer, and get the paint code from his car.

it's similar to the LI, but has a much deeper color, and looks AWESOME... missed sections would blend in fine, and you'd get a very cool color...

That color code is 684 = Pastel Biege. Same color as my 1983 W123

[Zacharias]

You want to DIY the paint and you want a superior quality job.

Given those two baselines, I would stick to the factory colour or something very close.

Unless you are really good with a paint gun, I would seriously consider giving the door jambs a pass. I am NOT particularly good with a paint gun, so I suppose I am biased on that one....

[efm-7]

I rolled on Interlux Brightside Bristol Beige and I love it. Especially considering I initially wanted a far more luxurious Toyota "Sunset Bronze Mica" , but I was looking at a $6000 tab for that - not in the budget! Rolling my own was maybe $200-$300



The one thing I left unpainred was anything inside of the door seals.

[Zacharias]

Originally Posted by efm-7

I rolled on Interlux Brightside Bristol Beige and I love it.

Nice job! How long did it take and how many coats?

Did you roll and then sand between coats?

[Guest987]

Unless, you just want to have the acclaim, thay you painted the car. You might consider getting it ready to paint completely. Then having someone shoot it, that is a good painter. I have had it done before for like for a bill. I know that is probably not attainable today, but unless you have all the equipment etc. It takes some experience to be able to do a nice paint job.

[DieselPaul]

My 115 is a color change, they did the jambs, engine bay, etc. Not sure what color is supposed to be, but here is a pic of my car with a decent coat of paint on it. My dad did the hubcaps.

[efm-7]

Originally Posted by Zacharias

Nice job! How long did it take and how many coats?

Did you roll and then sand between coats?

Thanks! when I took that photo I hadn't even given it the final compound/polish yet either.

This is the catch.. Took a LONG time. I was working on this from last August, all the way to late March. All of the removable panels were repaired and painted in my basement.

5 coats, rolling and tipping with a brush, wetsanding in between each coat to remove the inevitable 'dust pimples'.

This is my first project car and first paint job so you can definitely tell which panels were the first ones and which ones were the product of lessons learned

Main reason I didn't spray is because I simply don't have the space.

[Junkman]

I wouldn't do a color change unless 1) I HATED the color 7/or 2) the engine and interior was out and I was willing to do the engine bay, door jambs & trunk.

Once the paint is bright and shiny, all of the other flaws will look worse.

[sleepstar]

no cars in the past 30 years are painted that color, outside of german taxis. i say keep it. it looks really good on cloudy/overcast days too.

[Skippy]

Badly done color changes look terrible. Properly done color changes are a ton of time and/or money. I thought about doing a color change with my '83, but I didn't want to spend the money to do it right and I wasn't willing to do it wrong. I'd only spring for a color change if I was changing from a color I really hated.

[Shortsguy1]

You guys are awesome. I really appreciate all the advice. I think your advice has convinced me that a complete recolor is not within my current capacity. I hadn't actually noticed how many beige's Mercedes had sold on w115s and w123s, so I am going to have to think carefully about perhaps a slight color change to a nicer beige.

Is there a reliable way to see samples of these colors in person? I guess I am asking if there is an equivalent of home depot's paint aisle with hundreds of paint color cards, but for mercedes cars, not house paint. Do you think I could trust Automotive Touch Up Paint from PaintScratch - Order Pro Grade Paint to send me accurate samples of the different beiges. Their website makes it very clear that they don't guarantee accuracy for the older colors. They don't even have my paint (code 181) labelled correctly. It is called "light beige" or "hell beige" in german. Paintscratch.com for whatever reason thinks it is called "grey beige".

I know it would be expensive to buy samples up front, but I would rather spend $100 on those instead of $500 on the wrong color of high quality single stage paint. Any thoughts on ways to see an accurate depiction of the difference between light beige (181), pastel beige (684), and perhaps manila beige or light ivory.

Thanks again.

[charmalu]

You must have a Du Pont or PPG automotive paint suppliers in your area. Ask some auto body shops where they get their paint. Iam sure the paint vendors will know from your paint code how to mix it. They nay even have books with colors.

When I painted the 85 300D, I gave them the code number, and got the exact match.

The end result, will be from how much time and effort you want to put into the project.

Charlie

[Shortsguy1]

Originally Posted by charmalu

You must have a Du Pont or PPG automotive paint suppliers in your area.

I stupidly did a ton of research on single stage paints before going to talk to a few paint shops. I learned all about ppg concept and how great it is. I learned which hardener to use and whether to add clear coat to the final spray and was convinced this was the paint for me. My fall back option was Glasurit Line 22 (their single stage urethane). Unfortunately, ppg concept is no longer sold in CA (at least in any of the 10 paint shops I called across central and southern CA). And it appears that Glasurit line 22 is also not sold. So my original research, while thorough, managed to miss that key detail.

After talking to the primary local auto paint vendor, I learned that locally there are only two single stage paints sold. Nason, (duponts low cost/quality line) and Limco (basf's low cost/quality line). It makes no sense to me to use a low cost paint for this project. It won't be a show car, but I want my 3 y.o. to drive this car someday, so saving a few bucks on a gallon of economy paint isn't a value to me.

So that brought me to fleet paint. It turns out that there are high quality fleet paints (single stage) still sold in my area. PPG Delfleet is the one that has my eye right now. They have two lines, evolution and essential, and I would probably go with evolution simply because it is a longer lasting paint. Apparently, it is a very strong/hard paint which makes sanding it after the fact difficult. But I am not looking for perfection. Just a shiny, somewhat attractive protection from rain, rust, etc.

The PPG Delfleet color matching computer system apparently is different from their automotive paint lines. I would be able to get auto paint in 181 Light Beige, but the PPG Delfleet vendor did not have any record of that code. So I think, if I decide to put fleet paint on my car, I have two options:
1) bring them a piece of the car to scan the color (which I don't like because my car is so sun faded)
or
2) just pick a color from their color wheel and hope it looks good full size on my car (which I don't like because I never find a 2" square of color to be large enough to decide what a car (or bedroom for that matter) should look like.

Anyway, that is why I am asking about finding access to accurate paint chips/samples in these colors. If I had a sample that i knew was accurate, I would be more comfortable getting it scanned at the shop.

Even with a paint code in hand, I manage to make a simple task difficult.