GL plastic trim sourcing / color matching (Spoilers: RAL 7024 is Good Enough)

I'm aiming to achieve an insurance-lowering certificate of historical relevance for which, to skip the Italian bureaucracy lesson, my car needs to be in both perfect state and original spec. Unfortunately my right stone guard is broken (they're this fastidious and more) and I need to replace it. Unfortunatelier still, to preserve factory spec I need the replacement to be in the GL trim's faded-plastic-looking grey.

I'm having a hell of a time finding any part in that color for sale (HPC is no help and neither are most of the shops and marketplaces I normally turn to), so I was figuring I could buy a black one and paint it, but since plastics weren't painted I don't have a code of paint to source.

This leads me to ask you all for direction: does anyone have an answer, be it someone selling or making grey ones or a paint color that's a decent match?

Please and thank you

You may be lucky here. On eBay there's a guy selling a Mk2 Golf rear door but also in the picture is a stone guard that you want!!  I don't know if Mk2 will fit a Mk1 though. 


Here's the link, drop him a message you you may be in luck! 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/196349770996?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=gxmh3q1kRGy&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=UNc5abA_RQC&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Dano said

You may be lucky here. On eBay there's a guy selling a Mk2 Golf rear door but also in the picture is a stone guard that you want!!  I don't know if Mk2 will fit a Mk1 though. 

Here's the link, drop him a message you you may be in luck!

Message dropped and fingers crossed - and however it goes, thank you very much for pointing me its way!

I doubt MK1 and Mk2 Golf stone guards are interchangable, unless by modification. The part numbers are different, 171853932A for Mk1 and 191853932A or 191853932B for Mk2

typ_53b said

I doubt MK1 and Mk2 Golf stone guards are interchangable, unless by modification. The part numbers are different, 171853932A for Mk1 and 191853932A or 191853932B for Mk2

Oh yeah, no shot - and really, it wouldn't solve my problem: it needs to, if not be original, look indistinguishable from it. Otherwise, I'd just swap to GTI arches - which I likely will anyway once I get the certificate, but that's a story for another time.

Update!

Given the quiet on the eBay front, I decided to test the paint route on the back of a GTI (style) splitter that'll come at its own time.

And folks, the moment I saw the results I ordered a black stone guard.



Considering I just entered a shop, bought the can whose cap closest matched my part, and sprayed a few coats directly on black, the color match is about as good as I could've hoped for.
Left to right: the painted splitter half, the back of the guard (a fairer comparison since it has the same smooth finish and has never seen the sunlight), and the unpainted splitter half (whose black oddly seems a lot closer to the grey than in real life, so the fade in the painted half really offers a much better before/after).



I'll update you with pictures of the painted guard on the car, but for now, I can vouch for a spray can of RAL 7024 as offering a good enough color match. Maybe it gets better, but I'm pleased with what I found.

Of course, as for durability we can only speculate. (My optimistic self chooses to speculate it will be fine.)