Sourcing dupli-color paint for painting stock alloys

by **Jubaeg** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 4:08 pm

Greetings

I've decided to paint my stock alloy rims (MY04 GT), and have decided upon the Dupli-color Bronze HPW105.

This is partly inspired by the US LegacyGT forums and the look of this car.

After some fairly fruitless googling of Australian websites, I've come to the conclusion that this paint isn't stocked/imported into Australia. Supercheap do list some colours by Dupli-color but not this specific colour, and I have read in a few forums that Supercheap only stock what you see on the shelf and don't do special orders.

So before I spend a reasonable amount on shipping from the US (probably $100 total including paints and primer/clear) I thought I'd ask if anyone is aware of any Australian suppliers where I could source this paint?

As my rims are all 7 years old then they are all showing a bit of wear and tear and so I'll be doing a fair bit of sanding and priming to smooth out the blemishes.

I'm also aware that the prevailing opinion is to go gunmetal but I like the look of the bronze and may be a single coat of black first just to keep it dark.

This will probably be a couple of weekends project as I have fairly limited spare time on my hands so will do the spare first and then see how it looks.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

by **cruisn** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 4:36 pm

Id suggest getting a color made up at an auto paint supplier in a spray pack. If you can find the color code of something you like (maybe the dupli-color code will work) just take it into them and get them to mix it up for you. Its about $35 a can.

by **Jubaeg** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 6:41 pm

Thanks for the suggestion Mark. Yes I did that with getting some touchup paint from Auto Barn, however I want this particular product and it is only USD$9 per can and about another USD$20 for shipping - I'll probably get about 4 cans of this colour plus clear and primer - all up about $100.

by **cruisn** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 6:53 pm

At that price for primer, color and clear, you'd be insane to buy it locally.

by **Jubaeg** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 7:08 pm

Yes although there is nothing like being able to walk into a shop talk to someone and hold onto the item and then take it home with you so I always try to go local first.

The exchange rate with the USD is nice and healthy at the moment and we're just slightly over parity. I normally buy through an agent PriceUSA so there are other costs on top as you pay for shipping twice - once to US agent, then from US agent to AUS and then they tack on 5% on top, however for most things I've found that I easily save 50% over AUS RRP - as long as it is under $!K value anyway.

by **cruisn** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 7:14 pm

I buy a lot of shit from the US and Japan.

Just cutting out the middleman markup.

by **Jubaeg** » Wed Feb 15, 2012 3:42 pm

A slight hitch in my 'cunning plan' is that you can't import aerosols into Australia! One Amazon supplier didn't say that I couldn't do it (whereas a few others said they couldn't based on the delivery address) so we'll see but I don't have much hope.

So I think I'll have to resort to colour matching as per Mark's suggestion, and I'll also actually physically go into a store and ask.

Very annoying!

by **Jubaeg** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 6:43 pm

After being gazumped by the fact that you can't send aerosol from the US, and visiting Supercheap Auto and Bunnings and Auto-Barn with no luck, I finally had success today at a full-sized Repco store.

Repco have a large range of the Holts Dupli-color spray paints and they're about $20(ish) a can.

Unfortunately the store only has 1 can of bronze so they're ordering some for me.

So there you go - if you are interested in getting some of the Dupli-color paints then Repco are the place to go.

I'm also getting one of the Dupli-color caliper kits too in black as its a bit embarrassing seeing the 7.5 year old stock calipers looking dull grey and slightly rusted.

Once I have the wheel paint and have painted the spare will post an update so you can see what it looks like.

by **Jubaeg** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 10:22 am

Just an update if anyone is interested - the Repco store that I'm dealing with at Blacktown were able to source the Bronze wheel paint (WP105) very quickly which leads me to believe that it must have been at some kind of Sydney depot.

As I'm ordering the special Duplicolor clear (WP103) and buying a Duplicolor black caliper kit (BCP402), they don't appear to stock these within easy reach and so they are charging $15 shipping fee so I guess these are either being imported or aren't stored within Sydney.

So I now have the bronze paint and sandpaper and have cleaned and sanded back the spare wheel but after reading the instructions for the bronze you're supposed to paint the clear an hour after painting the bronze so I now have a nice and clean spare!

by **Mr Cali** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 4:08 pm

Why do you need 4 cans of colour? Less is more when painting. 1 can does 3 coats for me, why you would need 4 times this baffles me.

by **Jubaeg** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 6:25 pm

Thanks for the feedback - becuase I don't know what I'm doing, because I'm doing 5 rims and I am a bit of a hoarder and like to have spares for 'next time'...