BASF Glasuirt vs. PPG paint code cross references

[Casa de Mesa]

As some may have seen, I'm planning a respray of my car to Voodoo Blue. Body shops seems to prefer domestic PPG paint to German-made Glasurit. The issue I'm running into is getting the right cross referenced formulation of BMW paint code P7L (Voodoo) to the equivalent formulation in PPG.

To further complicate, there are 3 different lines of Glasurit paint where P7L shows up on their Colors Online tool - Line 22, 55 and 90 - all with what appear to be different formulations. See attached screenshots.

To this layman, it seems like an x-ref would be somewhat readily available. I can see the "trade secret Coca-cola formulation" angle, but are body shops really shoehorned into using a particular brand of paint if a certain car lands in their body shop for repair? I guess that answer could be yes.

Should I request the shop to go outside their comfort zone and use Glasurit paint? But is that sorta like telling the chef what ingredients to use when you walk into their restaurant?

Any guidance is of course appreciated.

[Slideways]

Found this info on another site - http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsc...it-line.html

22 Line is single stage

55 line is solvent basecoat

90 Line is waterborne basecoat

Glasurit 90 is what was recommended by a local shop for paint matching a CSL bootlid to the factory 18 year old paint. They only use PPG unless there is a special request. Unlike the PPG paint, the Glasurit paint out of the can did not need any adjusting and it was a 95-99% match. A pint of the stuff costs $150-200 though, and it was more than 3hr round trip to get it since only one shop in the area carries BASF and can mix it. I elected to not get the Glasuirt clearcoat as it was only sold in larger quantities and way more than required for the bootlid. I'm not sure if it's a compatibility issue between the Glasuirt basecoat and PPG clearcoat, but the PPG clearcoat is much softer than the hard OE clearcoat even after a few years of curing. FWIW, EAG uses Glasurit to restore their cars.

Since you are painting the whole car, it is probably easier and less costly to go with what the shop is familiar with (PPG) and equipped to use. That way they can easily respray something in the future if you need.

[Casa de Mesa]

Thanks Slideways. Appreciate you diggin in and posting that.

The issue I'm having is the shops are telling me, "We see BMW has a paint code P7L/Voodoo Blau, but we can't match the formula to PPG paints." What the shop are telling me is that BMW doesn't release the specs to PPG. Seems odd to me. I guess maybe if they work with a hand full of paint manufacturers, then they'll know color XYZ from the factory for this model year is color XYZ in a respray/repair work.

Side note: Because I'm not color matching, it doesn't really matter how close the paint match is to the existing car (your 95-99% reference, tho I see your point), I just want it to be BMW Voodoo Blue. Hell, I'd even "settle" for Porsche Voodoo Blue (blasphemy) but it's the same deal with Porsche. Apparently the Germans have it out for PPG!

I didn't realize that about EAG and Glasurit. They probably use Glasurit because of my previous paragraph. I dunno...

I'll keep searching.

[Casa de Mesa]

Found this info on another site (http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsc...it-line.html):

PS. For anyone clicking on Slideways link, use this one instead. His had 2 extra char at the end " ) : " which was causing the link to default to the forum home:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsc...urit-line.html

Diving into that thread now.

[Slideways]

Thanks Slideways. Appreciate you diggin in and posting that.

The issue I'm having is the shops are telling me, "We see BMW has a paint code P7L/Voodoo Blau, but we can't match the formula to PPG paints." What the shop are telling me is that BMW doesn't release the specs to PPG. Seems odd to me. I guess maybe if they work with a hand full of paint manufacturers, then they'll know color XYZ from the factory for this model year is color XYZ in a respray/repair work.

Side note: Because I'm not color matching, it doesn't really matter how close the paint match is to the existing car (your 95-99% reference, tho I see your point), I just want it to be BMW Voodoo Blue. Hell, I'd even "settle" for Porsche Voodoo Blue (blasphemy) but it's the same deal with Porsche. Apparently the Germans have it out for PPG!

I didn't realize that about EAG and Glasurit. They probably use Glasurit because of my previous paragraph. I dunno...

I'll keep searching.

Glasurit is a German brand, so it makes sense that they have all the paint formulas for German cars, especially the ones from the early 2000s. PPG is probably fine for most modern cars, but their paint samples are not even close to the factory BMW paint. The body shop would have to fine tune the paint formula to get it to match Porsche or BMW Voodoo Blue by spraying out multiple samples. Sometimes that takes more time than just buying the right paint, like in the case with the CSL bootlid. You have more flexibility as the whole car is being sprayed, just don't forget to write down the formula. It is usually printed out on the paint can, at least it is with Glasuirt.

Found the EAG body shop video (skip to 3:50):

[jet_dogg]

Personally I'd only use glasurit. I'm pretty fortunate because my body shop uses it exclusively I think.

[Casa de Mesa]

Personally I'd only use glasurit. I'm pretty fortunate because my body shop uses it exclusively I think.

Interesting. Curious on the reasons why. Is it quality related or paint match thing?

The more I research this, the more I'm starting to think I need to use Glasurit...