ScottB wrote:Check out other professional collision sites for more info and data. I would not solely rely on a hobby site.

with you being in this business for many years , could you provide us with a link or info to one of these "professional sites " I`d be interested in visiting their website

I've been painting a long time and I reckon I've nailed a perfect match, edge to edge, about four times.

You can get close, with colour chips and a spectro, even doing spray-out cards but a 'perfect' match is more a fluke than anything else.

Example. I have a long term project of an E30 BMW which was black. Full respray but I painted the body some time before I did the doors. In the meantime, due to a glitch in the Axalta paint program I lost my personal formulae so chose what I thought was the variant I'd used. Wrong! The doors came out much blacker. Wondered how that could be and then realised that although the same tinter, Jet Black, was the only one in the formula, the ratio of tinter to binder differed, making the colour stronger. Had to respray.

Now if that can happen with just one tinter then the chance of getting it right when there are 7,8, 12 different tinters in the formula is like picking the winning Lotto numbers.

Yet there is this perception out there that a perfect match is easy and something that should be achieved on every job. Again, Wrong! That's why we blend.

These days I'll even blend if it wasn't quoted for, if I think that it will result in a better job, or the repair area turned out bigger than originally envisioned. For the little bit of extra base and maybe 200ml of clear it's usually worth it.

In a case like OP's blending would have avoided a lot of grief and time/effort/cost that might now be required to do it again.

Jay D.