Before mounting a Givi E55 box to the rear of my white 2011 DT300i, I decided to have it custom painted to match the body. My local Kymco dealer called Kymco USA and was given a Honda paint code which I then brought to my local Honda autobody shop along with the Givi box and one of my scooter body panels to check the color match.
Unfortunately the code provided was not a very good match (I don't have this color code with me at the moment as I'm out of town) so they scanned the body panel that I brought along using their high-tech paint matching scanner thingy. Their paint scanner said to use Honda paint code NH717P "White Diamond Pearl" which is from a 2012 Honda Odyssey Touring Elite.
The Honda NH717P color code came out to be an exact match. I've held one of the original Downtown body panels up to the Givi box and everyone that I've showed it to all said that they could not imagine it being any more close. This was sprayed using DuPont brand paint.
This is a very difficult paint to apply perfectly as it is a tri-stage paint. The first stage is the base color, the second stage is the pearl/metallic, and the third stage is the clear coat. The second stage (pearl/metallic) is by far the most difficult because the number of passes of pearl/metallic for a match will vary depending on the spray gun being used. The paint shop did 6 test spray stripes and then compared the test strips to my body panel - for their spray gun they needed 2 passes/sprays of the pearl/metallic to match - again this will vary depending on the paint spraying equipment used.
Here are a few comparison shots - the painted Givi panels are on the left and the piece on the right is one of my side panels from the scooter:
Original body panel on bottom, painted piece on top:
Brent
