Ok, I teach the advanced refinish class for the insurance company I work for, so here is reality, and a short education on finishes.
1) Your stock paint code is the first step.
2) The painter then pulls the varient book for that code, and compares it to the car/panel that has to be refinished. Your existing paint from the factory does not match from car to car, thus the need for varients. Toyota mica red has about 9 varients last time I looked, and I'm not sure what the code for your car has, every paint company has a different set of varients. (They need them for many reasons, but flake brusing and other factors change the way your eye percieves the final color.)
3) Now, with the varient your painter thinks is closest, he should shoot a test card, and compare it to your color. If that's close, it's time to paint the panel, and hope it matches. In the booth, you can raise or lower your gun pressure, change the distance or speed of aplication and that will lighten or darken the color. (Flake tends to settle down, and pigment comes up when you apply it wet, and the reverse is true when the paint is dry.) This can cause halo's if you don't know what your doing when applying the paint... Also panel alignment when painted makes a difference, flake is not imune to gravity.
OK, what type of clear you use will also affect the final color, so make sure you painter actually clears the test panel. (Just spraying it with reducer to make it wet WILL NOT WORK. If you do that, your just guessing, and your sure to fail some of the time.)
Personally I prefer Akzo Nobel paints, Sikkens is a brand of theirs.
The guys at HOK can suck my sweaty balls! (They are the famous ones, but it's just a brand that Valspar owns, so your paying alot for paint that is just packaged and named cool... IMNSHO... They also F'd me over some training, so yes, I'm pretty bitter towards them, and they are nothing special..
) They are high quality, but not better than Sikkens or others who are equally high quality, yet more cost effecive.
Most of the paints use pigments and effect flakes/particles from the SAME places... LOL
Try and find a paint company who's clear is high solids, yet crystal clear.. (Like Sikkens..
)
The yelow high solids clear's will change your color as you add more layers, and if you want a show car result, your going to have to color sand and buff it out in the end, so your going to need 6 coats/layers of clear coat, and then sand off a few to get the effect you want. (Unless you want to clear 3 coats, wet sand, clear 3 again, wet sand and then clear 3 more, only to wet sand and buff the final result, but I don't see any Riddler quality Supra's out there at this time.)
Good luck getting a good color match on an old paint job. It's not easy, and most painters screw it up. (Industry standard repairs in my business are not perfect repairs, they are "acceptable" repairs...
)
Just look at any new car's bumpers to the quarters or fenders.. they don't match when they are new, and that's because the paint cures differently on metal v/s urethane, and the bumpers and other plastic trim parts are painted in factories, using different paints etc. They are not painted with the body of the car.. LOL Thus, things like door handles, moldings, mirrors and bumpers don't match.. And never will.
Again, the key to any excellent paint job is painting over a super clean surface that is devoid of flaws to start with. (I see so many great paint jobs over shitty body work, it's pretty sad actually.)
