Hey, all sorry if this is a stupid question but, How do I tell if my 95 X300 has a pearl or metallic paint?
To give a quick overview I've had some minor damage repaired to my rear bar, I've had to take it back once already as I wasn't happy with the repair and am still not impressed with the paint match between the bar and the rest of the car.
The paint code under the bonnet states Colour CFH, after googling and searching I've found Varies results of Flamenco red, Flamenco red mica and Flamenco red pearl.
Can anyone tell me how I can verify wich I have or if it should be painfully obvious to me without the evidence?

 

Metallic: Gives the car a shine that does not change color when looked at from a different angle. The hue of the paint stays the same no matter how you look at it.
Pearl: The shade of the color of the car will appear to change when you look at it from different perspectives. This gives an illusion of shaded and illuminated areas depending on the amount of light it gets.

Metallic: Usually uses very small flakes of aluminum to give the car an obvious sparkle. These aluminum flakes are relatively uniform in size and are evenly mixed with the paint itself.
Pearl: This paint type uses small flakes of mica, a synthetic material that resembles the sheen of a natural pearl. The mica particles are also the same in size and mixed with the base paint.

765 CFH Flamenco Red Mica(pearl)

 

You can always contact Jaguar with your VIN number and they should be able to tell exactly what the colour. Some colour codes have differing shades for the same code.

 

I don't believe that there were any factory pearl finishes at the time of the X300 range.

 

The only code I can find for yours is Flamenco Pearl.

 

Jaguar had in 1995 nine Pearl(Mica) colors and 14 metallic colors.

 

The wrinkle seems to be that Jaguar marketed their paint option as "metallic/micatallic". There were no "pearl" finishes as such, although I acknowledge that pearl finishes have mica in them, rather than the aluminium found in metallic paints.

 

Thank you for the responses, taking Jimbo's advice and have emailed Jaguar with the VIN. I really need something concrete to take to the Insurence Assessor as I have already had it assessed once after the Repairer stared me in the face and told me "that's just how it is and the best we can do" in regards to badly aligned chrome moulding. Moulding that came back perfect after the second visit.

 

Let us know how you get on Mikey.

 

Jaguar is amazing, It took them less than a day to come back with the information I needed. I even went back a forward a little with emails and them offering further advice.
Maggie, the helpful Jaguar representative I was communicating with confirmed that the colour of my Jag is Flamenco M 765. Wich, as you guys stated includes Mica to give a pearl-like effect. A point that may be a lot harder to convince the insurance company of.

 

Good news Mikey, thanks for the update.