Here's how to 'legally' change your car paint in Malaysia

If you’ve had your car for a few years, you might be thinking of giving it a new look with a fresh coat of paint. Painting your car isn’t that big a deal, but if you didn’t already know this, there’s a little legal process involved. Thankfully, it’s pretty straightfoward.

While this article is on how to legally change your car colour, you can use it as a guide for other car modifications as well. And that’s because the process is pretty much the same.

Also, this guide is for those who want to paint their car a new colour altogether. If you’re repainting your car with its original colour, you don’t need to go through this process.

There’s a form you need to fill

Before we tell you about this form, the first thing to know is that this whole process works only after you paint your car. So, you don’t need to get permission from JPJ before starting the paint job. You’re allowed to paint your car any colour(s) you like, but you just need to inform them after that. This also applies for ‘car-wrapping’, which is very different from painting your car the traditional way. The point is, once you change your car colour, JPJ needs to be notified.

So after you’ve gone to the bengkel and got your car painted, you need to head to your nearest JPJ branch.

Once you’re there, ask for the Borang K8. This is the form that is used for all car modifications, and it helps JPJ keep track of all the changes made to a car. We found a sample form here, but you have to get a physical copy from JPJ itself—just in case there have been any changes made to it.

You’ll need to bring the original car grant for this process to prove that the car really belongs to you, as well as your MyKad for identification purposes.

Once you’ve filled in the form, hand it back to the pegawai and they will enter all the information in the MySikap system, which is JPJ’s online portal for all registered vehicles in the country. When filling in your new paint colour, you might be confused as to what exact shade your car is. You can ask the office for clarification on what to fill in. If you have two or more colours and not just one, write down the dominant colour (the one that makes up 60% or more of the car).

And voila, you’re all done. It’s really as simple as that. 

Not informing JPJ is an offence

You might think that it’s not a big deal to give your car a new look. But actually, you have a legal obligation to inform JPJ every time you make changes to your car. As you might have guessed, this rule exists so that:

• no one can change the look of a car that’s been used for illegal activities
• no one can steal a car and change how it looks on the outside, making it untraceable

You get the gist: it’s to make sure the car is not unrecognizable, misused or stolen. And this is why it’s a MUST for you to inform JPJ of your car’s new colour.

Section 12 of the Road Transport Act 1987 says:

In essence, it means that you need to let JPJ know if you’ve changed anything that would conflict with how your car is described in JPJ’s registry. So if your car is now black but it used to be red, it’s time to update the form.

Section 119 goes on to say that anyone who fails to do this can be fined up to RM2,000 or be jailed for 6 months if it’s their first offence, and be fined up to RM4,000 or be jailed for up to a year, or both for subsequent offences.

Some car modifications aren’t allowed

Like we said earlier, besides paint jobs, there are other car modifications you can do and each time, you’ll need to fill in the same Borang K8. However, there are some car mods that are totally not allowed. We’ve written a detailed article on this which you can read below:

[READ MORE: What private car modifications are illegal in Malaysia?]

If you still go ahead and do them, you can get saman-ed for it or even be made to undo those modifications (those who only use modified high-beam lights, we’re looking at you). It can be difficult to know exactly what is and isn’t allowed sometimes. But the rule of the thumb is to not make modifications that can make it unsafe for yourself and others to be on the road. And if you’re still not sure about the specifics, for example, how dark your window tint can be, contact JPJ to find out. You can drop by one of their branches, or you can contact them through the following channels:

Number: +60 3 8000 8000

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