Dodge assembly line painting procedure question

[notstock71]

I am starting to think about a new daily driver and the Scat Pack 392 Challenger has my attention. My question is about painting on the assembly line.

Is it that big of a deal to do a special order paint color if staying in the Fiat/Chrysler family? Obviously Dodge denied my inquiry. Is it because of a time/ delay issue to get everything ready? How are cars painted now? Are they painted in batches of the same color, system cleaned out then next color sprayed? I could see where a special order color would be a problem then. I'm willing to pay a reasonable upcharge though, say $1000ish.

I was also denied the Shaker on the widebody option. Definitely disappointing to get denied on 2 of the 3 things I wanted.

I appreciate any insight on the whole painting scenerio. Now if someone has back doors to make this happen.....let's do some dealing.

[Mr70]

What's the 3rd thing you want?

[notstock71]

I want it in 2019 Jeep Bikini Pearl paint, code PPT. I know it was wishful thinking, I haven't heard of special paint from any manufacturers. I hoped being in the same family it would be possible.

I want the shaker hood with a widebody.

Final was the drag pack

[notstock71]

This is to all manufacturers, not everybody wants a black interior. Give us some color. I would take a white/black combo in a heartbeat.

[danachevroletfor1967]

Unfortunately I think these days the factories are only interested in one thing: making as much money as possible as quickly as possible. They don't care about the customers like in the good old days, say circa 1950's to early 1970's. I can't speak from personal experience but just based on what I have read and heard from other car buffs dealerships in the know or who wanted to go that extra step for a hopefully life long customer were willing to at least try to convince the factory to do special orders.
I am with you on the lack of interior colors. I would love to see interiors in white, bright red, bright blue, and gold.

[Billohio]

I think the local BMW dealer told me they had a few special colors you could order, already selected, and they were 5 to 6,000

[southernfriedcj]

I have seen threads on the Cummins forum that the special order colors(fleet colors) like Hills Green, New Holland Blue, Omaha Orange, ect can only be done when they have a batch of trucks ready to paint that color.

I searched and found this. It's Ram, but it may help:
https://www.cumminsforum.com/forum/2013-2018-general-discussion/2494361-just-ordered-robin-egg-blue-3500-questions.html

[notstock71]

Thank you

[72heavychevy]

Another reason is with all the small plastic parts on cars today (think mirror covers, bumpers, spoilers, fender flares, etc) a lot of them come into the production line pre-painted from the supplier. Having a custom paint or special order color would be very difficult to manage. I'm currently working at an OEM as an engineer and was trying to do the same thing for a car I plan to order.

[notstock71]

Another reason is with all the small plastic parts on cars today (think mirror covers, bumpers, spoilers, fender flares, etc) a lot of them come into the production line pre-painted from the supplier. Having a custom paint or special order color would be very difficult to manage. I'm currently working at an OEM as an engineer and was trying to do the same thing for a car I plan to order.

I assume you were unsuccessful also?

[72heavychevy]

I assume you were unsuccessful also?

Sadly I didn't have any luck.

[njsteve]

Back in the day (1992) when the Viper first came out and I worked as a tech editor for Mopar Muscle magazine, we were working with Dodge to create a Viper project car for the magazine. I fronted the $$$ and Dodge gave my dealer an allotment for my car at cost. We wanted it painted the show car Viper blue but at the time red was the only available color.

As you probably know, all the parts for the Viper came in prepainted from the vendor so it was not like there was a paint booth for them to do any custom work. I off-handedly asked the guys at Team Viper for the paint code of the show car "Bonzai Blue" as they called it, fully expecting to get an answer of whatever the code was.

Their response was strange. They said "We can't give you the paint code as it is a corporate secret. What is your shipping address?"

I gave them my shipping address. Within two days, a pallet arrived at our shipping dock. It contained multiple gallon cans of the show car blue paint, the pearl white stripe paint, the clear coat, and boxes of blue logos and enameled emblems that were a unique, non production shade of royal blue. I cant even imagine what the cost of that material was.

Anyway, it turns out Team Viper were big fans of our project idea and really enjoyed spreading the joy around.

So it is possible if you find the right people at Dodge.