Is it possible to select paint by code? How to find out the paint number of your car? Three solutions for finding tone: VIN, special code and computer selection

Nowadays, road accidents have become commonplace. It’s good if the consequences of an accident remain in the form of scratches on the surface of the car. To paint them over, you don’t have to pay for painting the entire car; you just need to find a plate with the VIN code in the car, which will help you choose the color tone.

What is a VIN code?

Vin code (colloquially VIN code) is a protection against thefts, containing a combination of 17 Latin letters and Arabic numerals without spaces, revealing information about the country and date of manufacture of the car, engine number, tire pressure and body paint code.

Each manufacturer chooses where in the car to place the plate with the VIN code:

Under the hood.
In the window on the windshield.
In the fireproof partition of the engine compartment.
In the front door opening.
Under the floor covering near the driver's seat.
On the dashboard on the driver's side.
Under the carpet and floor trim.

Sometimes you have to thoroughly search the car to find the plate with the VIN code. Some manufacturers, in order to further protect the car owner from scammers, duplicate the plate with the VIN code in any hard-to-reach place in the car, for example, on body pillars, cylinder heads, and the like.

Decoding the VIN code.

The VIN code consists of 17 unique symbols; we will reveal each of these symbols in detail:

The 1st character is the code of the country of origin of the car.
2nd character - car manufacturer company.
3rd character - vehicle type - truck, minibus, passenger car. In some cases, it denotes the vehicle manufacturer.
The 4th character is the car make.
The 5th character is the car model.
The 6th character is the car body type.
The 7th character is the engine.
The 8th character is the type of headrest.
The 9th character is a special number that protects against scammers or Additional Information about the car.
The 10th character is the year of manufacture of the car model.
The 11th symbol is the assembly location.
From 12 to 17 characters - the serial number of the car, always indicated in numbers.

To avoid confusion with numbers, the letters O, I, Q are not indicated in the VIN code.

On old domestic cars, the plate with the VIN code was placed under driver's seat or for a spare tire. In modern domestic cars, the plate is placed on the trunk or hood lid with inside.

The plate indicates the exact number or color of the enamel, but does not indicate the composition of the enamel. It’s impossible to guess from 700 options in the standard catalog exact color car, in this case colorists will help you out. They will give you a small amount of paint to check if it matches the color of your car.

Paint code on foreign cars.

Each foreign manufacturer has its own marking system and location of the sign.

Audi. You will find a plate with the VIN code on the back of the trunk lid, in the front wheel well or in the spare tire. On this plate, after the word “paint,” the paint code is placed, separated by a slash from the paint code for plastic.
BMW. On all its models except the 850i, the plate is located on any of the pillars, on the left side of the radiator crossbar or in the driver's door doorway. The paint code is indicated after the word “color” in the form of numbers.
Alfa Romeo. The paint code plate is located on the inside of the trunk lid or in the right wheel well. In the paint code they write the name of the paint and its digital code.
Opel The plate is located on the central pillar of the body under the lock door lock. It first indicates the type of paint: “Z” - metallic, “Y” - plain, then they put a digital paint code, followed by a code that allows you to determine the color and gives information about the car using tables of trim options, which can be seen in this catalog .
Volkswagen. In cars produced in 1985-1986, the paint code plate is located on the trunk lid trim, the spare tire, and the inside of the rear panel. IN modern models The code is located in the doorway on the driver's side. Manufacturers here, like Audi, indicate paint codes for metal and plastic, separated by a slash.
Kia. The plate with the VIN code in cars of this model is located on the rack on the driver's side. The paint code is indicated immediately after the VIN code as the last two digits.
Ford. You will find the plate with the VIN code in the upper transverse bar of the radiator. IN passenger cars on the plate, the paint code comes immediately after the letter “K”, and in minivans - after the letter “L”.
Fiat. The table is placed in one of three places: on the fire partition in engine compartment, on the front wheel arch, on the inside of the trunk lid. The sequence of indicating the paint code on the plate is very similar to the plate Alfa Romeo, where first they put the name of the paint, then the digital code.
Honda. Some cars of this brand have a separate plate with the paint code and it can be found on the pillar on the driver's side.
Mercedes. The plate is located either on the radiator trim or on the pillar on the passenger side. The paint code on the plate is the second digit in the penultimate row.
Renault. The paint code is located in a different location on each model. For example, on the 18i/Sportwagon model - on a support with passenger side, for LeCar - on the fender on the driver's side or on the right side wheel niche, in Fuego - on the front support on the driver's side. The plate indicates the color code and type of paint.
Nissan. Its manufacturers went further than all the manufacturers described above, choosing the largest number of places where the sign was placed: front wheel well, driver's side doorway, firewall in the engine compartment, right or left front support, upper radiator cross bar. The label first contains the body paint code, then the interior paint code.

What to do if there is no paint code on the VIN plate.

It happens that there is no color code on the VIN plate; this most often happens if the car was bought secondhand and not purchased at a showroom. Don’t despair, there is a way out here, just go on the Internet to one of the many resources with which you can determine required code paints . It happens that none of the resources can determine the color of your car, especially if you have rare brand. In this case, for help you should only contact official dealer brand, which necessarily has in its database all the information about all the models of its brand and their colors.

Please remember that the same paint code may have different colors. To avoid this, you need to find out on the manufacturer’s website what colors they produced cars in at the time period you need. Unfortunately, this does not guarantee that the exact color will be obtained, since tinting machines can make mistakes. In this case, only manual test fitting will help to achieve the exact shade.

The modern world of technology is a world of standards and unification. Exists an identification number any car, consisting of seventeen characters. The code contains the most important data about the vehicle manufacturer, its properties and characteristics. This data even includes the date of release from the factory assembly line. The code systematization is based on the ISO 780 and ISO 779 standards from 1983. To apply the code, special plates with numbers are made - nameplates. They are installed on integral parts of the chassis or body.

VIN Code Principles

For VIN codes, it is allowed to use Arabic numerals and almost all letters of the English alphabet. The letters O, Q I are not used as they are similar to the numbers 0 and 1. This is to prevent fraud. The code itself has three parts:

Descriptive part - VDS.
World Manufacturer Index - WMI.
The distinguishing part is VIS.

We can find out the manufacturer's world code, machine characteristics, check digit and the lineup, factory code and serial number motor vehicle. There is a special table, thanks to which you can decipher all the data. For example, the characters RF-RK represent Taiwan. All legal car factories in the world are encrypted in this list. Even a small bus factory from the Ukrainian town of Chasov-Yar is mentioned.

VIN information

From the VIN code we can learn a lot of information about the vehicle and its performance. You can even find out the paint code by the VIN code. There is information about the model, body type, configuration and engine. If this is the USA, then be sure to indicate the total weight and installed safety systems.

In the ninth place of the code is a control character. This is something like a pin code for a bank card. Using this symbol, it is easy to identify the fact of counterfeiting. A fraudster could weld a nameplate from one car into the body of another vehicle. But this symbol is not mandatory in many countries; it is advisory in nature. The control symbol is required for prestigious models - LEXUS, BMW, Mercedes Benz,SAAB.

About paints

The world of modern paints is rich and varied. There are many similar shades and tones that even a specialist cannot distinguish. The paint number will help you accurately determine the choice of material when repairing or repainting your car. Choosing paint correctly and adequately is not an easy task!

Paint code by vin code — This is one of the main features of any car. After all, the brand and paint of the car are always thrown at us first. And every car chase movie starts with color! Marking using the VIN code helps when repairing a car when precise selection of paint is necessary. Suppose a car is involved in an accident. I had to install a new door. How to recognize the paint of a car and paint a new element correctly?

Label location

Often the owner is faced with the question: “Where is the sign?” There are several standard points that automakers use - under the hood, at the bottom of the front doors, on the pillars. Sometimes manufacturers may send the plate to the trunk, under spare wheel. An example is Volkswagen. To better understand the topic of nameplate location, we will give examples with a number of popular models cars:

Hyundai Solaris paint codes are located under the hood near the engine or at the bottom of the driver's door.
The Ford Focus 2.3 paint code is most often found under the hood of the engine. But the manufacturer has the right to act at his own discretion. Sometimes the code may be located on the left bottom corner driver's door. After all, the car is produced in several factories around the world.
The Nissan Almera paint code is located under the hood on the passenger side, closer to the windshield.
The Chevrolet Lacetti paint code is most often located near the engine in the radiator area. But there is also a location under the hood near the engine, near the windshield.
Mazda 6.3 paint codes are usually located on the pillars, much less often near the engine - under the hood. Sometimes the location is on the front passenger door at the bottom. Code markings in the picture are 18G and 2X.
The Toyota paint code is usually located on the front door pillars or under the hood, near the engine.
The Kia Rio paint code is most often located in the driver's door opening.

But it is important to note that this is only an indicative list. There is no clear location for the location of the nameplate. This is the personal desire of the engineer of each plant. After all, the same brand for different countries can be assembled at various factories in all corners of the Earth.

Methodology

How to determine the specific paint color by code? VIN code consists of seventeen characters. From them we can determine the make, model, production date, vehicle type and body type, serial number, number of doors. Then you need to enter the year of manufacture, brand and manufacturer on a specialized website. The directory will give us the coding of the dye and its name. For example, a 2003 Volkswagen Bora in black has the code L041 / A1.

It is also possible to establish the exact paint color using factory labels. This concerns most of all Russian cars recent years. It is located on the trunk lid. There will be its specific name according to the color catalog, and not an encrypted code. They often resort to the help of global universal catalogs car paints. Examples include the Vikka or Hellios catalogs. But sometimes I also place this label under the hood. You can set the color by VIN code using service data or dealer directories. Often specialized Internet sites and official pages of manufacturers help with this.

A car's paint code not only helps to accurately identify its color, but also checks the car for criminal origin. Although clever scammers can work wonders and falsify this data.

While operating a car, its owner may be interested in the question of how to find out the car’s paint number by VIN code. There can be quite a lot of reasons for this. When using a car, even with strict and strict adherence to all rules of maintenance and operation, a situation may arise when it is necessary to tint its body, it is not necessary that the reason for this is an accident. A blow from a small pebble is enough to cause a chip in the enamel, requiring immediate removal.

How to find out a car's paint number by VIN code will be useful to know for owners who purchase used cars, since new cars usually have a small jar with a supply of original paint, or at least have a designation of the enamel used in a visible place. Determining color by eye, even by a qualified craftsman, does not always guarantee the correct choice. Such a mistake can lead to repainting the body, which means additional costs and time.

What is a VIN code?

Its appearance on all manufactured cars began in 1980, but several years earlier, such a code appeared on cars manufactured in America and Canada. Before this it was accepted international standard, to which the code fully corresponds. It consists of 17 characters, this is the Latin alphabet in large format and Arabic numerals.

The entire code is conditionally divided into three groups, which indicate WMI, VDS, VIS. The first group includes only three symbols, the second already has six, and the last group will have eight of them. Let's take a closer look at these notations.

WMI

The transcript is always from this group. The first two characters inform all interested parties about where, in what geographical area, the car in question was produced. As an example, it can be noted that European manufacturers letters are fixed S to Z. For Africa provided symbols from A to N, for Asia they left the letters from J to R.

The country of origin of the machine is encrypted by the second character of the WMI code. In some cases, it may have two characters for unique identification. Cars from America have numbers from 10 to 19 in the designation, Germany is allocated from W0 to W9, Canada is designated as 2A and up to 2W. National organizations of machine manufacturing countries assign the third character of the WMI code.

VDS

Next comes the designation, which is the descriptive sections of the identification numbers. He owns the characters in the line from fourth to ninth place. With their help, they will find out which model this code belongs to, its modification according to the design documentation. If less than six such characters are needed, then the right side is filled with zeros.

They determine by the first VDS symbol what type of engine is installed, which is indicated by the second symbol, and the car model is learned from the third symbol. The subsequent letters and numbers indicate the weight of the car, its body, brake system and other data.

VIS

The numbers and letters that are in the row of the identification code from 10th to 17th place belong to the VIS code of the car. The last four characters in mandatory are indicated by numbers only. The year in which the car was produced is indicated by the first character, the plant is assigned a second character, and the remaining characters are intended to indicate serial number manufactured machine.

Where is he located?

International standards do not provide a clear definition of the location where identification code cars. Most manufacturers choose a place for it on the racks on the side driver's door, it is also found under the windshield on the left side of the car. Some manufacturers place it in the engine compartment on the right side in the direction of travel, or the floor in the area of the passenger seat becomes such a place.

There are places where the code is installed that manufacturers do not talk about and are found in the most unexpected places, such as the trunk lid or inner part wing, other places. It may be printed on specially designed plates or certification labels. The ways in which these designations are applied to the plates also differ; embossing can be used, and sometimes a laser is used to burn the code. There is a rule according to which the number is written in one row, but there can be two, but without a break in the characters.

How to determine the paint number?

This issue is most easily resolved when purchasing a new car in dealership, since the paint number can be found on the car itself. A tag with the enamel number can be found on the trunk lid, on the inside, or on the driver's door. Paint color is indicated in technical passport on the car, but her license plate is not there.

Owners of cars who did not purchase them new find themselves in a difficult situation. The manufacturer's plates with paint data are usually gone and they don't know what to do. Most of these owners, if it is necessary to carry out painting work, remove the gas tank cap and go with it in search of the required material. In most car stores where you can purchase enamel, the selection is made using a catalog of shades.

The seller, together with the client, carefully examines the gas tank cap and the pictures in the catalog to select the desired shade. This method works, but not always. It is well suited when complete painting is carried out. If you need to put enamel on some part, problems often arise.

Some cars have plates with a VIN code that has a line COLOR, which indicates the paint number used to paint this body. This line is written. If such inscriptions are not visible on the plates, there is only one method left, this is to search for the paint number through a special program. There are quite a lot of such programs on the World Wide Web. They can be downloaded from official companies, and there are also “hacked” ones, but quite functional.

As a disadvantage of these programs, they note the fact that they do not have information about all brands of manufactured cars. Therefore, if the information is not found using such programs, try to contact the dealers of your car manufacturer. Doesn't exist today special problems to contact such representatives. Tell them the VIN code of your car, and in return you will receive the paint number.

Any car owner doesn’t really want his “favorite” to fall into the hands of car painters, but no one is immune from such a case. You now know how to find out the paint number of a car by VIN code, and we hope that after reading this article you will not have any problems finding the right material.

Tags:Car paint catalogCar paint

Question: “How to find out the paint number of a car by VIN code?” interests many motorists. You need to select the code according to the following reasons:

clouding, fading or abrasion of the coating is observed;
new car enamel is required after an accident;
the driver wants to select enamel to change the design of the vehicle.

Paint number by VIN code

They are especially interested in how to determine a number by VIN colors car paint, owners of used vehicles. If a new car comes with a can of auto enamel in its “native” shade, then you just have to guess how to find out the color number for old cars by the number.

If you select the paint code according to the VIN code “by eye”, you run the risk of choosing the wrong color, which will cause unnecessary waste of money and time on repainting.

Before you understand how to find out the paint number of a car and calculate the color from the VIN and calculate it, you should know what the VIN classification is. Compositions with a VIN code began to be produced 30 years ago, and today it is an international standard for auto enamels, including 17 characters. The components of the code are divided into 3 groups, in which there are 3, 6 and 8 characters, respectively.

Location of paint code on OPEL

Decoding

In the color catalog of automobile paints, the shade code is selected based on the following components of the VIN code:

WMI. The first two letters indicate the geographic area where the vehicle was manufactured (for example, for Europe, letters S-Z). The third character of the code is a number that indicates the manufacturer.
VDS. The following is the designation of car identification symbols. It indicates the model, modification, body type, weight, brake system vehicle.
VIS. 10-17 places in the row of enamel code symbols are reserved for the year of manufacture and serial number of the machine.

Read also: How to fix chips on a car with your own hands

How to determine the VIN code

To understand how to determine the VIN number for a VAZ car, you need to know where it is located. Even international standards do not require the placement of a VIN code. You can usually find the enamel code for a car in the following ways:

finding it on the body. Most the right way how to find out the color code - look for its presence on the pillars near the driver’s seat, in the windshield area, in the engine compartment, under the trunk;
"approximately". Least exact way how to determine the shade of the body, which is unlikely to be suitable for partial repainting of the car;
using specialized sites. There you can search for the composition by code, or, if you don’t know where to look for the color by VIN code, a special field is presented. There you enter the year of manufacture of the car and its model, and the search helps determine the composition code;

Selection of paint by VIN code on special websites

by contacting the manufacturer's official dealer. Before you find out the VIN code of a shade, contact a representative of the manufacturer by phone. He will be able to provide the correct cipher;
in the technical passport. The passport indicates only the color of the composition, but not the code.

Once you understand the principle of determining body color, use the knowledge to obtain exactly the same shade of enamel. After all, incorrectly selected enamel for components will worsen appearance vehicle. The rules for how to find car enamel colors are identical for each model.

OKuzove.ru

How to determine a car's color code

Perhaps many car enthusiasts are familiar with the feeling of disappointment when a scratch or chip is suddenly discovered on a brand new car. Moreover, no matter the size of the damage, the appearance of the car seems hopelessly damaged to a particularly picky owner. Fortunately, today there are many ways to recover original form paint coating (LPC) of the car body, among which local and general painting of the damaged element are very popular.

Suppose such a misfortune affected the body of your " iron horse" You shouldn’t despair, but first of all, you should find a suitable car painting company. Depending on the degree of damage to the paintwork, the specialist will suggest local (that is, locally) or complete painting of the element. The author himself has repeatedly encountered such problems, and from the experience of communicating with car painters, I will say that they prefer to completely paint an element (for example, a door), convincing that local painting is not always suitable due to the fact that it is possible to simply miss the color. And on a large surface this supposedly happens better. I note that this statement is not always true and in many cases the painter persuades the painter to paint the element completely simply because this procedure costs more than local repair LCP. Almost the most important point This operation involves the correct selection of paint color. It is no secret that many, especially foreign automobile manufacturers They paint their models with paints that are rarely found in a car workshop in Russia. In addition, age and condition should be taken into account car paintwork– the paint loses its original color over time. This is why it is so important to “get” into the general color scheme car. Therefore, the quality of the repair depends on the painter’s ability to mix paints.

Car painting

Let's say you agreed with the painter on the type of repair, but the cost Supplies, same paint, seems overpriced. You can negotiate with the painter and purchase the paint yourself, but, as a rule, the painting company does not take the liberty of guaranteeing a 100% positive result of such repairs. Car painters explain their position simply: the paint was not purchased from them, its quality is questionable for them. Therefore, the car owner must decide whether it is worth saving on paint and purchasing it “outsourced”. If you decide to buy paint yourself, then first of all you need to find out the color code of the car.

To do this, you need to find out where the plate with the VIN code is located on your car. This is a kind of car passport, in a combination of letters and numbers which encrypts information about the date and country of manufacture of the car, as well as (but not always) the paint code used to paint the body. Most often, such signs are located in engine compartment or in the opening of the front doors – when it’s the driver’s door, and when it’s the passenger door.

Mercedes-Benz VIN plate

The fact is that there is no strictly regulated location for the plate with the VIN code, so the manufacturer puts it where it is convenient for him.

The diagram shows the places where the VIN code may be located

By car domestic production information about the paint that covered the car body was placed on a special piece of paper, which was attached to the inside of the trunk or hood.

Lada Kalina color code information

Let's say you found a plate with a VIN code and found numbers on it whose meaning you do not know. A hint that this is the color code of the car can be given by the inscription Color. If it is not there, then it is difficult to understand the meaning of the numbers. You can rewrite them and bring them to colorists who will select paint for repairs - they can identify the paint from various catalogs (Duxon, Mobihell, Spies Hecker and others). But it’s even better to contact the official dealer from whom you bought the car, he will definitely tell you the color code of your car.

If the car was not purchased at a dealership, but on the plate with the VIN code in the car there is no information about the color code for some reason, you should not despair. There are special resources on the Internet where you can determine the desired paint code using the VIN code. The most accurate and popular are www.autocoms.ru/help/58, www.paintscratch.com, but their drawback is that not all brands of cars existing today are indicated. Therefore, again, you will have to contact an official dealer of the brand: even if you did not buy the car, and it was purchased several years ago, the dealer’s database has information about it, and he will definitely be able to tell you the color code of your vehicle.

Once the color code of the car is determined, all that remains is to purchase this paint. There are several ways to do this. The most common ones are official representatives the brand to which your car belongs, or through independent sites, for example, exist.ru. Having paid and received the paint, you need to bring it to the specialists of the paint shop where you are going to repair paintwork, so that they carry out a test fit - a procedure for selecting the optimal mixture in terms of color, composition and weight ratio of pigments that will be used for coloring. Do not hesitate to ask to be present during this procedure - this is your legal right. Having selected the optimal shade, specialists will restore the paintwork of your car.

avtoexperts.ru

What color is your car - determine the paint number

When a motorist chooses a color future car, he probably doesn’t think about how much the painting service costs. But in fact, this is important. Often, repainting a car is equivalent to paying half of its cost again. To save money, car painting specialists offer to restore a separate part of the car that has been worn out. Due to the large number of colors and shades that are currently used in the automotive industry, a standard number palette has been created. In most cases, the paint number for a car can be found here.

It is worth considering that each brand of car has its own palette. Very often colors and shades domestic cars do not match Western standards. Therefore, if you decide to paint over a scratch on your car yourself, you must first learn to determine the number of the paint with which it was painted.

Believe me, this knowledge will not harm you, even if your car currently has no problems with the coating. No one ever knows where he might scratch his car, dent it, or catch some “crushed stone.” There are many reasons why the top layer can be damaged, and they all depend only on chance.

How to determine the color number
How to find out the VIN number

How to determine the color number

There are several in various ways definitions of paint by numbers:

When purchasing a new car from an authorized dealer in a serious car dealership, you will find the paint number on the car itself. Most often, a tag with its name and corresponding number is attached to the inside of the trunk or to the inside of the door. Check that the warranty card and this color was also recorded on the registration certificate. If the data differs, then this method of determining the paint number is not suitable for you.
Most car manufacturers indicate on their websites a palette of shades that a car can be painted in at a certain time of production. Thus, having found the month and year of manufacture of your car, you can find out its shade number by comparing it with the standard samples presented on the official website. Besides this, usually large companies They care about their customers and post a full range of colors on their interactive page. It is standard for almost everyone. The exception is companies such as, for example, Chevrolet. Here they use codes that include three Latin letters. Their correspondence to the color palette is also published on the company’s official website.
Despite all of the above, you doubt the correctness of your choice, justifying your doubts by the possibility of inaccurate color reproduction by the monitor. Then you should contact a car service. Professionals will be able to determine the paint number of almost any car. To do this, they will need to bring the gas tank hatch. Large car repair shops usually have a special catalog in which hundreds of different shades are numbered.

Remember that if the car was left in the open sun for a long time, it could change the color, or rather its saturation. Sometimes experts recommend painting over not only the scratch itself, but also the entire damaged part (door, trunk, fender). There are also cases when the paint color number is determined correctly, but the painted part is still very different from the color of the entire car. Unfortunately, in this case it is necessary to repaint the entire car.

In the video - how to find out the color of a car:

How to find out the VIN number

Another way to find out the color of a car is the VIN number. The VIN code is a seventeen-digit identification number that encrypts a large amount of information about the car. Each number in it has its own meaning, for example: body type, engine, place of assembly, model number.

This code is indicated on a sticker that is located under the hood of the car near the engine. Sometimes it is also placed at the bottom of the door pillar. This number must be written down and taken to the auto repair shop. The paint is determined by the VIN code by a special program on a computer into which the vehicle identification code is entered.

In addition, you can determine the shade by the VIN code from an official dealer of cars of this brand. By providing your number, after a while you will receive all necessary information regarding your car and its color. Dealers can be contacted by phone, email or in person by visiting the auto center office. The tone specified by the manufacturer can be safely passed on to the car service technicians.

As you can see, when repairing a car with further painting, you will definitely need to know the shade and paint number. Determining the color by eye means dooming your car to repainting in advance. This, firstly, will hit your wallet, and, secondly, repairs will take additional time.

365cars.ru

How to find out the color of a car by VIN code

A VIN code is affixed to the body of any car - a kind of protection against car thieves. But in addition to this data, the device may also have an information plate that contains other technical information:

Engine number.
Date of issue.
Tire pressure.
Car paint code and more.

But each automaker has its own labeling system, and therefore there may not be information about colors. And what should you do if the plate has not been preserved or has become unreadable as a result of the use of the car or its repair?

Car paint color information

Car enamel is made from various pigments, which are taken in a specific ratio. In a car manufacturing plant, there are usually several basic colors used. However, over time, their shades can be changed or adjusted by designers.

How to distinguish changes in enamel? This can be determined in the following ways:

The name of the paint or its color.
Paint number according to the manufacturer's classification.
Ratio of base pigments.
A table containing the car paint code.

Now about the location of the sign. It is placed depending on the marking adopted by the manufacturer. Standard - the code is under the hood. In other cases - in the doorway. If there are no signs in these places, information can be obtained on the manufacturer’s official website.

Two more options for choosing paint:

By VIN number, which is on every car. It is not removed during repairs, and the code is tied to a specific vehicle. We conclude that the exact color and composition of the original paint can be determined using the manufacturer’s databases.
The exact color of the car can be obtained from an authorized dealer.

Paint number for VAZ and GAZ cars

In older models of VAZ and GAZ cars, the sheet with the paint code could often be located under the spare tire or under the seat. In modern models, the leaf can be found under the trunk or hood lid.

The designation indicated does not make it possible to determine the exact composition of the enamel. But it contains the correct color - the name or number that is used in the classification of the manufacturer. And pick up required type enamels and color ratios can already be done with the help of colorists.

How to choose paint color for a foreign car by VIN code

Concerning foreign cars, then the location of the data plate depends on the specific model. Let's look at them:

Alfa Romeo: The label can be found on the inside of the trunk lid or on the front passenger side, in the wheel well.
Audi: cover on the inside or spare tire niche (enamel codes for the main part and plastic are written separated by a slash).
BMW: you should look for the plate on the supports or rail, or under the hood.
Fiat: wheel well on the front right, inside of the trunk lid, partition under the hood that serves as fire protection for the interior.
Ford: front radiator trim, space under the hood (to determine the color, you need to look at the numbers in the line with the designation “K”).
Honda: pillar on the driver's side, in the space that is closed by the door.
KIA: driver's side pillar (enamel color number is the last two digits).
Mercedes: passenger side pillar, radiator trim under the hood (2nd digit in the penultimate row will be the paint color code).
Renault: the plate can be located in the space under the hood on two supports.
Volkswagen: pillar on the passenger side on the left, as well as a transverse radiator strip in front of the hood.

The manufacturer's classification may be different and have its own codes and names. For this reason, to determine the required combination of paint pigments, it is better to seek help from a specialist. Also for correct selection paints there are special programs.

Perhaps many car enthusiasts are familiar with the feeling of disappointment when a scratch or chip is suddenly discovered on a brand new car. Moreover, no matter the size of the damage, the appearance of the car seems hopelessly damaged to a particularly picky owner. Fortunately, today there are many ways to restore the original appearance of the paintwork of a car body, among which local and general painting of the damaged element is very popular.

Suppose such a misfortune affected the body of your “iron horse”. You shouldn’t despair, but first of all, you should find a suitable car painting company. Depending on the degree of damage to the paintwork, the specialist will suggest local (that is, locally) or complete painting of the element. The author himself has repeatedly encountered such problems, and from the experience of communicating with car painters, I will say that they prefer to completely paint an element (for example, a door), convincing that local painting is not always suitable due to the fact that it is possible to simply miss the color. And on a large surface this supposedly happens better. I would like to note that this statement is not always true and in many cases the painter is persuaded to paint the element completely simply because this procedure costs more than local paintwork repairs. Perhaps the most important point in this operation is the correct selection of paint color. It is no secret that many, especially foreign car manufacturers, paint their models with paints that can rarely be found in a car workshop in Russia. In addition, you should take into account the age and condition of the car's paintwork - the paint loses its original color over time. This is why it is so important to “get into” the overall color scheme of the car. Therefore, the quality of the repair depends on the painter’s ability to mix paints.

Suppose you have agreed with the painter on the type of repair, but the cost of consumables, such as paint, seems too high. You can negotiate with the painter and purchase the paint yourself, but, as a rule, the painting company does not take the liberty of guaranteeing a 100% positive result of such repairs. Car painters explain their position simply: the paint was not purchased from them, its quality is questionable for them. Therefore, the car owner must decide whether it is worth saving on paint and purchasing it “outsourced”. If you decide to buy paint yourself, then first of all you need to find out the color code of the car .

To do this, you need to find out where the plate with the VIN code is located on your car. This is a kind of car passport, in a combination of letters and numbers which encrypts information about the date and country of manufacture of the car, as well as (but not always) the paint code used to paint the body. Most often, such signs are located in the engine compartment or in the opening of the front doors - sometimes the driver's door, sometimes the passenger door.

The fact is that there is no strictly regulated location for the plate with the VIN code, so the manufacturer puts it where it is convenient for him.

On domestically produced cars, information about the paint that covered the car body was placed on a special piece of paper, which was attached to the inside of the trunk or hood.

If the car was not purchased at a dealership, but on the plate with the VIN code in the car there is no information about the color code for some reason, you should not despair. There are special resources on the Internet where you can determine the desired paint code using the VIN code. The most accurate and popular are www.autocoms.ru/help/58, www.paint scratch.com, but their drawback is that not all brands of cars existing today are indicated. Therefore, again, you will have to contact an official dealer of the brand: even if you did not buy the car, and it was purchased several years ago, the dealer’s database has information about it, and he will definitely be able to tell you the color code of your vehicle.

Once the color code of the car is determined, all that remains is to purchase this paint. There are several ways to do this. The most common ones are from official representatives of the brand to which your car belongs, or through independent sites, for example, exist.ru. Having paid and received the paint, you need to bring it to the specialists of the paint shop where you are going to repair the paintwork, so that they can carry out a test fit - a procedure for selecting the optimal mixture in terms of color, composition and weight ratio of pigments that will be used for painting. Do not hesitate to ask to be present during this procedure - this is your legal right. Having selected the optimal shade, specialists will restore the paintwork of your car.