PPG clear coat changed color/reflectance of silver met. paint

I'll actually be drinking mezcal this weekend for Cinco de Drinko to get my mind off this. Appreciate everyone's input so far...
 
One last comment but comment dont matter as at least the sides of car will be painted.
You know i have been involved with 100s of this type situation of the years, mostly shop just doing door or fender and has problem, wetsands and reclears or slams 4 coats of clear next to factory clear.
This looks different, almost like clear was mixed in a used cup used for black.
Again, no disrespect to poster as i believe he is just relaying what he was told.
But friends, there is a lot more to this story than he knows as there are chemical facts and then bs

Proof?
When i get the call door is flopping darker at angles than fender and quarter, i say how many coats, two sometimes and my response is can't help you as can't happen.
Then the truth comes our 3 or 4 coats.
First try so we dont have to repaint.
Take 1000 wet and hand pad, sand
about hand width from floor to roof till all gloss is gone that convert with 1500 and buff.
Works everytime as all we are doing is knocking extra coat of clear off.
Your car does not look like that would even began to work as something is really weird about the look.
 
Take a super close up photo of door & quarter. Wondering if some base was left in cup when he added clear thinking it would blend repair. Should see metallic particles further spaced like glitter. Don't ask how i know.
 
Haven't painted a complete car silver since the mid 80's with enamel. While some vehicles look good to me in silver, most always catch my eye in a bad way, never look perfectly consistent in certain lights, & just look to me like a repaint job no matter the level of workmanship & cost of product used. Always felt silver was better as an accent color, such as racing stripes, rather than an all over.
For all the bitching & whining many people give about the trouble it takes to make a car look good in black, even a part time painter like me can mix certain different brands & mix ss & bc cc without it being easy to detect from panel to panel.
Just a really dumb not the answer you were looking for thought here, how about tape up some silver stripes & paint black around the rest? Or metallic blue. This could be an opportunity here.:rolleyes: Just kidding, but stay away from silver.
20150326_153733 by joe leleux, on Flickr
 
No color was done on the back half. Just clear. And only 2 coats. No reputable shop is going to slop on 4 coats. Now how thick those 2 coats were is unknown. I am just thinking here, as I have no paint experience, that it is too much clear even if one coat was only applied.
 
Anyone ever think maybe the clear wasn't really clear?
Clears can have bad activators, or used in a dirty cup.
Painters in a hurry are known to rinse and paint another right away, who knows
if something else could have gotten it there, It doesn't take much.
Just saying.
 
No color was done on the back half. Just clear. And only 2 coats. No reputable shop is going to slop on 4 coats. Now how thick those 2 coats were is unknown. I am just thinking here, as I have no paint experience, that it is too much clear even if one coat was only applied.

How would you know if you have no paint experience? All you know is what they are telling you which doesn't equate with what we are seeing.
 
Well obviously I am wrong... as I believe only 2 coats of clear was added. They are not going to put 4 coats of clear on. And the problem here then makes no sense as to why it happened as that is protocol on pretty much all repairs these days. And thus my post for some opinions or solutions -- save for a full scuff and repaint.

I have no actual painting experience. But have had many cars repainted over the years and kind of learned some things.

And what you are seeing is lighter in the sun, but darker in the shade only on the back half. The door(and partially into the 1/4) when recleared the same way did not react the same way Almost looks right in the sun as the photo shows. But it is not.

And in the shade it is awful with the camera showing it (and to a lesser degree the eye). But the door did not change when the same process and materials were used.
 
Think of the swimming pool. The deep end always looks different than the shallow because of the depth of the water. Clear coat is the same. Those deep black paint jobs didn't get that way from 2 coats of clear. Did a truck last year in ss enamel. I wanted it to look better so I sanded it down and resprayed all of it. Totally changed the look of it. Most people who do custom paint know that anytime it's resprayed the look could change. I have done exactly what happened here. The extra coats of clear have changed the reflection of the light. I've done it. The Mercedes silver probably highlighted it more than if a different color. Most of the people who have given responses here work in this stuff every day. You have gotten advice from people who know paint chemicals inside and out. Basically the best out there hands down.
 
Most reputable shops will "slop" on at least 4 coats of clear on a custom paint job. Two coats is not enough to buff aggressively and still have enough mils for longevity. You have been given feedback from people with tons of experience and they all seem to agree something is not adding up. At this point it really is pointless to discuss anymore and just know it will take a complete respray to correct. Sometimes in this business strange, unexplainable, things happen even when you've done everything correctly. You just have to fix it and move on.
 
Last edited:
All great info. Pool- i always thought my steps & seat was lighter color till I drained it elwood.

Madgoat- take photos of quarter & door 1" away or close as u can. Lets see it. Sun or shade or both.
Close as u can.
 
Most reputable shops will "slop" on at least 4 coats of clear on a custom paint job. Two coats is not enough to buff aggressively and still have enough mils for longevity. You have been given feedback from people with tons of experience and they all seem to agree something is not adding up. At this point it really is pointless to discuss anymore and just know it will take a complete respray to correct. Sometimes in this business strange, unexplainable, things happen even when you've done everything correctly. You just have to fix it and move on.

Two coats are for used cars and collision repair. Something like what you have Madgoat, unless you put at least 3 coats you will not have enough clear on the car if it is cut and buffed. That's why really nice paint jobs are done 3 coats then sand with 400-800 wet then 3 more coats, then cut and buff. Clear needs a certain minimum amount of millage to last. When you apply clear it's not like house paint or something you apply with a brush. Most experienced painters regardless of their technique will have very close to the same amount of millage per coat. Something in the neighborhood of 1.0-1.3 mils per coat.
 
The car was done uniformly with at least 2-3 coats of clear if not more when repainted from bare metal 4 years ago.

Now, all that was done on the back half (and then part of the drive door as a test) was a 1000 grit scuff/light sand and re-clear with 2 coats.
 
No color was done on the back half. Just clear. And only 2 coats. No reputable shop is going to slop on 4 coats. Now how thick those 2 coats were is unknown. I am just thinking here, as I have no paint experience, that it is too much clear even if one coat was only applied.

Really!
Why you even asking questions as you have been given all the answers from every angle that could have happen from the professionals on here and none makes any sense to you.
Bottom line no shop as good as you say this one is, is going to let a job like this out the door, so drink a beer and let the shop handle the problem as the do know why, just not telling you.

A favorite saying for years:
When hiring a painter for best results stay away and don't try and tell him how to do it or better off to paint it yourself if you can't keep nose out of it.
 
I am beginning to think he IS the bodyshop in question........... why are you so adamant about finding the solution?Are they washing their hands of this and calling it good? I would make the shop I am paying figure out what they did wrong and fix it.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the comments. I am not the shop.

It is a 3 person shop in business for 30 years. I posted this because even they have never seen this happen with clear; and it is my car and I care. I want to hear opinions and appreciate all the thoughts on this so I can make sense for my own sanity (and perhaps give them some ideas) why the car got ruined with what is an everyday procedure in the collision repair world. Like I said even PPG and local paint store reps are at a loss as to why. Figured why not ask the smartest paint guys on the internet in this forum and bounce ideas around.

And of course would love for someone to say "certain PPG clears do this lately or whatever".

Shop is standing behind their work and are going to work to correct this short of having to repaint the whole car - which is not desired since the car was painted all apart like a proper restoration 4 years ago. Bummed that this back half (and now door) had to be done, but such was the case.

We discussed that perhaps being that only a roof repair was needed, the clear could have been blended into the sail panels and not all the way to both 1/4's - but too late now for that. Doh.

Yes, the car is ruined right now. Trying to save the front end from being touched as just too much is involved to repaint that all properly.
 
Back
Top