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

M

madgoat

Hi everyone. New member here. Was advised you guys might be able to help me.

Check this out... this finished 4 year old paint job car just had the 1/4 panels and back half of the car sanded and re-cleared(only) due to a roof scratch and the silver paint now shows darker when in the shade in low light in this area than the original clear'd paint on the door and rest of car.

Anyone ever have this happen or know what would or could cause this?

But then get this... out in the sun, the re-cleared 1/4 panel and back end shows brighter and lighter, and the the door and front end with the original 4 year old clear appears darker. So odd.

This photo posted captures this disparity best. However in normal light/outside it is not truly as bad as the camera shows. But still not right. And I always say the camera does not lie. Or my eyes.

Then to check if it is a clear coat issue, the door shown was sanded and re-cleared the same way with the same products and methods to see if it would give this darkening effect like it did on the back half--- and it did NOT --- this is the photo posted. Only on the 1/4 and back half of the car that was re-cleared does it look like this being darker in low light.

By the way, whole car previously was down to bare metal when painted.

Can too much clear or the wrong clear do this? Any thoughts? I am no paint expert.

PPG rep said some big syllable words --- metamerism and reflectance. But I just would like to know what is the best way to proceed short or perhaps scuffing the whole car and repainting it.

Thanks in advance.
 

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i personally have never seen that happen. if it was a common thing then no bodyshop would be able to repair anything. every repair would be an overall. did you do this paintwork yourself? it looks to me that it was rebased and no one wants to admit to it.
 
Thanks for the reply. I had the shop that originally painted it do it..same owner and same painter...and another car they painted just took 1st in a show this past weekend. Legit crew.

I would love to think they re-based it. But they didn't.

And you are so correct that if this happened often no car would be repaired right.

Some PPG reps said they might encounter this in 1 out of 100 cars. Maybe more like 1 in a tbousand. Pretty rare. But can't say why.
 
I think something went sideways in the repair process and now the doors have to be included in a redo. If they can't get that right, they should in fact repaint the whole thing. It's their duty to do so, imo.
 
The door was then recleared to match the work to the 1/4 and rear (only place color was added was a small section of roof). And this photo is the after shot. Which looks the same as it did before the door was touched. That is what is driving everyone nuts.
 
Jim and crash hit the nail on the head. Looks like the "blend" got bigger than anticipated. First place at a car show and blending silver are 2 different talents. I have seen color blender darken a panel slightly, but nothing like that. Did they clear the roof and both 1/4's? Do the 1/4's match the trunk?Only way to fix it is blending door to 1/4 panel.
 
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I honestly wish that was the case.... again, it was only cleared. The area blended with color was at the right front of the roof and base was fanned out a couple feet at best. The entire roof, sail panels, trunk and both 1/4s were cleared. The same was then done to the driver door (and at the 1/4) - but it did not change the hue or whatever you want to call it like on the rear. So odd. You would think since new clear changed the rear, it would do the same to the door. But it did not.
 
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I had a PPG rep tell me to spray epoxy over etch primer:eek:. Been painting cars almost every day for almost 40 years, (including PPG for a lot of that), and have never seen a good clear change a panel that much.
 
Both 1/4s re-cleared... in shade it is the same on both sides with it being darker.

20190502_221250.jpg
 
I'm assuming the four year old paint is base/clear. If it were single stage the metallic might have been affected by the sanding. (I'm 99% sure this is not the problem, but thought I'd mention it...) Why it didn't do it on the door, I have no clue.
 
my guess they went too deep sanding the clear and recoated more than they are telling you and that base was just wrong. You get down into a metallic base when sanding and it turns into aluminum foil. The professionals usually are harder to admit mistakes.
 
Could be they used more coats of clear than before. Think of a swimming pool, same water but the deep end is a different shade than shallow end. It's possible the repaired section has 6 or 8 coats of clear and other sections do not. Without being there when it was repaired going to be difficult to know why it happened. They also could have used a more course of sandpaper giving a more flat surface to reclear on. Sort of like flowcoating half of the car.
 
Had that exact same problem on a silver '90s Mazda Miata. It had the original factory paint and was damaged on the left quarter panel under the taillight. A small repair and the paint blend barely wrapped around to the side of the quarter, not even to the rear of the wheel opening. Cleared the whole quarter with DuPont. Outside, the entire quarter was noticeably darker. Absolutely no way did enough color reach the front to completely and evenly change the color from the top to the bottom.

I know this is no help for you, but just to let you know I had the same problem (even though it was about 20 years ago).
 
old soul said:
Had that exact same problem on a silver '90s Mazda Miata. It had the original factory paint and was damaged on the left quarter panel under the taillight. A small repair and the paint blend barely wrapped around to the side of the quarter, not even to the rear of the wheel opening. Cleared the whole quarter with DuPont. Outside, the entire quarter was noticeably darker. Absolutely no way did enough color reach the front to completely and evenly change the color from the top to the bottom.

I know this is no help for you, but just to let you know I had the same problem (even though it was about 20 years ago).
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Hey, at least it's a sanity check!
 
Bring small jar & ask painter to put some mixed clear in it.
Find a spot on car you can sand tiny spot & put it on thick with brush qtip.
Also see how clear it cures in jar. My 2c.
 
re: Elwood --- having more clear than before was considered.... so the driver door was just redone (sanded with 1000 grit and 2 coats of clear like the back half was) but it did not change the perspective/reflectance or whatever of base color as the first photo clearly shows. So now the door has been touched. Almost there to redoing the whole car. Ha. But the 1/4 (and entire back half) is still darker in low light conditions. So re-clearing the whole car is not a fix it seems. That is what has everyone stumped... the clear changed the back half but then not the door when the same process was done. So not wanting to scuff and base coat the whole car since it was done all apart when initially repainted 4 years ago. All for a small stoopid roof scratch.
 
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