First off, I’m an amatuer painted so cut me some slack lol…
Well at the end of the summer I painted my 240sx a (what I thought) medium-dark blue with some pearl in it.
After I painted it, I thought it looked great but due to lack of bright lighting, it is accually lighter than I would like. When its dark out it looks great but when natural light hits it, its very flat and looks like I painted it with spary paint.
My question is…
Is there anything I can do to darken the color? Like spray a new clear coat with dark metalic in it?
or I’m I just screwed and would have to repaint it?
Serious answers only, I don’t need another amateur painters opinion.
Thanks
clearcoat only changes the color of the car when the old paint is hazed … just like having the car profesionaly buffed would change the color
bascily all your doing to repairing the small scratches or pits in the paint that are scrambeling the incoming white light and send it back out before it gets to bounce of the color coat
repaint the car if you want it darker, new color coat, new clear coat. shouldnt take much color because blue covers blue quite well (just like red covers red real well, ect)
Sounds like it wasnt prepped properly, maybe the color is down ok, but u definetly didnt use enough clear, and therefore you can’t even try to wet sand and buff it to bring it out.
The way I painted it was fine. I’m an amatuer painter but a friend that helped me went to school for it, so the process was done correctly.
I think that I either just chose too light of paint or that only having PEARL in the clearcoat is making it have the flat look. Because unless direct sunlight is hitting it, the pearl don’t show at all.
I forgot can you get a metalic clear coat additive or does it only come in the base???
I really don’t have the money to mess around with and this isn’t a show car by all means so I’d rather try to get away with doing something the cheapest.
It looks exactly how I want it when its in the dark.
pearlcoat doesnt show unless the cars in the sun, its the nature ofthe material
metallic in the clear will do little, as metalic has the most effect when its mixed with color, sunlight then has to go thru the paint, and therefor the reflected light takes on the color of the paint
What I don’t understand is why it only looks bad when its in light but not direct sunlight.
This is how I feel about the paint…
-In Garage, door shut…Looks great
-In Garage, door open, light outside…looks like ass
-Out in driveway, Light outside…Pearl shows great but base still looks light
What I don’t understand is why it only looks bad when its in light but not direct sunlight.
This is how I feel about the paint…
-In Garage, door shut…Looks great
-In Garage, door open, light outside…looks like ass
-Out in driveway, Light outside…Pearl shows great but base still looks light
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whats the problem then? just drive it at night. :tup:
if u dont care about show quality paint then just buy a one stage paint and re-spray it. make sure u use plenty of coats so that when ur done you can westand the shit out of itand buff it. it will look great
What I don’t understand is why it only looks bad when its in light but not direct sunlight.
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becuase theres differences in the light spectrum in each of those places
door shut = only artificial light
door open = sunlight thats been bounced off things outside, and inside, before hitting the car, which will mean the light isnt pure white, and also has no IR or UV rays
ouside = pure white light w/ IR and UV rays
my old s-10 was a factory color, and looked like shit inside, looked nice in sunlight, but the color nearly glowed at dusk because of the differences in the lighting
it seriously looked like glow in the dark paint at dusk
Sounds like your clearcoat hazed or was laid on “dry”. Probably used the wrong activator. Buff, scuff and re-clear. Out of curiosity, how many coats of clear did you lay after the pearl coat?
The rattle can look is probably because you sprayed to far away or too fast and caused a dry look. As far as darkening it goes, you can scuff the clear and spray more base clear on top or you can try a candy to darken it up and then clear on top of that.
could have had a shitty gun that did not atomize and spray well. the gun may have been improbperly cleaned between base and clear. wrong size tip on the gun. there are many possibilities here. i think were all reading too far into this sitiuation. to the OP, telling us you did it right because your friend went to school for painting ( which im sure was just a boces class) doesnt mean anything. ive got a friend thats a surgeon, yet, im not performing open heart surgery… there are many gun control techniques that need to be mastered along with getting familier with certain products, not to mention spray patterns and that shit…
CLIFFS
the first car anyone ever paints is always going to be at least a 25 footer.