That's the great thing about modern paint formulation. Now that computers can do exact tint and shade and tone matching vs the old Mk.1 Vulcan squinty and a chip, if you have a small piece or part you can hand over to the counter person you can get any amount from a shotglass full to a swimming pool full and it will be exactly identical batch after batch (and if the paint is from a sun or UV protected area like a door jamb then the computer will give you that exact 65 year old color, a great help if you are trying to reproduce the sun faded metallic paint on a late 50's car). Look @ the photos of the areas when just painted and are wet against a few days later after the paint has gassed out and dried the color and intensity shift is very dramatic, the painted wing tip is a very good example.
Up until recently when the environmental laws got tougher in Washington State and the chemicals changed to comply, (Boeing treats around 1 million gallons of waste water per day, 60,000+ gallons of it to wash, rinse,and water break to do a 747 paint job) polished skin aircraft built by Boeing like AMERICAN AIRLINES and other bare metal finished aircraft got a treatment coating of ALODINE 1000 which is clear not tinted, and application soak time is very short, like in some cases 30 seconds. The entire exterior was ALODINED to keep it shining like the proverbial diamond under a goats tail (actually a bit more specific, but I don't want to upset anyone over semantics
) as a friend used to say. Another chemical is used now but does the same thing as ALODINE 1000.
