the paint code for GM'* "off white" as you call it (there creamier white) IS WA8554 the ther whites are WA9753 or WA8867.

white can be a bitch of a color, its possible you don't have enough coats on. :?

but something tells me that can of paint is the issue here.

ok - the car was run into in the rear drivers side bumper.

before:


primer:


after (looks ok in the picture but it is not - much whiter - looks like the primer pic in real life


ask away. I am definately just learning about this stuff. I did not apply a clearcoat because the color coat didnt match. Everything was great till I pulled off the masking and found everything was soo off.

Ok here is a shot that shows the difference: The whiter areas are the repainted portions.

Two cans of paint to be accurate

makes me wonder if some ******* switched the lids on them.

yeah that color looks wrong for sure... Get the right color(or something closer) sane the area again (smothing down the tape edge) when you redo it, DONT tap off that section in the middle there... rule of thumb, NEVER "cut" a mask like where there is no Body line, unless you have too, and if you do, do it in the smallest area possible.

I planned on knocking that down later and retouching before I did clear coat but I have since learned

btw this returns us to the origional question - what is the right color? :?

you know the more i think about it the more I believe that somebody switched the caps on my second can. The third picture in my previous post shows the panel after its first coat. It looks pretty close. I am going to try one more can tomarrow from another store and see if it makes a difference. I'll let you know how it turns out and update my little howto article too.

In your opinion how should this have been done? I can always sand it down and start over.

Ok I exchanged my empty can of paint for another one hoping that the caps just got switched. No luck GM 8554 DOES NOT match my car directly for 2001 year. I asked the dealer for the right paint but they were going to take over a week to ship it and even then it was standard 8554. I went to an auto body supply shop and they looked up the paint color by vin#. According to thier computer there are five variations to that color. I had them mix up a can for my variation and I'll let you know if it matches. Just FYI if your going to repaint a large portian of your car dont be dumb like me and use duplicolor. Go to an autobody supply store and have them do it right. Thanks guys.