What’s a paint code?
When your vehicle was manufactured, it was coated with an extremely precise paint color from the carmaker. From one vehicle that rolls off the assembly line to another, and even one model year to another, the color remains consistent. That color is represented by a paint code, identifying it as the right hue to match your car.
If you use any other color than one with the same paint code, it’s almost a guarantee that it will be noticeable. Even among black cars, there are dozens of variations including metal flake content and underlying tones. Always use a paint code for touch up paint or your results won’t be quite what you expect.
How to find your car’s paint code
When you need paint to repair a small area on your vehicle, purchase it according to the paint code. You’ll find paint codes for cars in a couple of locations on your car, and there are ways to find it otherwise too.
Driver’s door label
When you open the driver’s door, a rectangular label is affixed either to the door edge or the B pillar. Along with the VIN and important information like GVWR, it often has the vehicle paint code printed on it. Look for an abbreviation like ‘EXT PNT’ or an identifier like ‘BODY COLOR CODE’, although sometimes the paint code isn’t so clearly identified. It can be between two and five digits.
Underhood label
For some cars, a label under the hood may contain paint code information too. This label could either be a sticker or riveted placard, and the details vary by make. Again, the color code might be clearly identified or it might have an abbreviation like ‘CC’, but in other cases, the code is simply stamped or printed with no other marks to indicate what it is.
This label can be difficult to read on some older cars since age and heat can deteriorate the printing on it. Or, grease and paint might be covering it.
Window sticker
If you’ve purchased your vehicle new, the Monroney sticker, or window sticker, might’ve been saved and stored with your owner’s manual. This sticker has your vehicle build information on it, and the paint code is often part of that info, but most often it has the paint color description instead.
Additional Automotive Paint Resources
How to match your car’s paint
If you can’t find the paint code on your car, you can also get the paint code by VIN. Either use the manufacturer’s website or call your selling dealer to retrieve the paint code using the VIN. Once you have the paint code, you can find the right match for your vehicle at AutoZone with ease.
Or, if you know the color description rather than the paint code, you can search that way. While it leaves room for error, there’s a good chance you’ll come across the correct variation.
What to do when you can’t find the right touch up paint
Some colors, especially on classic and vintage cars, are no longer manufactured in off-the-shelf touch-up paint pens. If that’s true for your vehicle, you aren’t out of luck – it just takes an extra step. You might need to take a part off of your car and bring it to an automotive paint supplier for them to color match it, just like you’d do with paint for your home. Some discontinued paint codes might actually match a color another manufacturer uses, or it might have been assigned a different, more current code.
But if your code of car touch up paint doesn’t exist, it can be custom mixed by an automotive paint supplier too. It might be costly, and the results often aren’t guaranteed.
Or, if an exact match isn’t important to you and you’re more interested in making sure the metal doesn’t rust underneath, choose a universal touch up paint color and get the job done.
Looking for touch up paint to match your car? Shop at AutoZone. Our associates can help you find the correct match in-store, or shop online with your paint code to get the right color for your touch-ups.
