This is a combination of two problems.

1. Every time I add a configuration, I get a note that states “The appearance of this material is different than the existing appearance... This nonsense error shows up in this thread (https://forum.solidworks.com/thread/50062) going back to 2011. There are at least 3 SPRs from back then, in which SW claims to have fixed this bug. They haven’t.
2. The end cap and the housing (tube) in this picture have the same material, the same RGB numbers applied, the same appearance, the same everything. There are no top level overrides. There is one display state in both the part and the assembly. The end cap is white and the housing is grey. There is nothing that I can figure out to do that will make them look the same.

This is really starting to bug me, since it just keeps coming back. It is consuming a lot of my time, but I can’t let it go because it should just work. I shouldn’t have to pass off an assembly that looks like it has a mistake in it every time anybody opens it forever. I “fixed” this the first time by changing the material to copper and then back to titanium. The second and third times, I fixed it, but was not able to understand how I did it, since I just kept changing things over and over and over to try to get it to work. This is the fourth time. The problem came back when I added a configuration that I not referenced in this assembly. I can’t fix it.

What is it that I  doing wrong?