At least the rust is gone, right?

[waters17]

I noticed a rust spot last year and ignored it through the winter. This year it was much worse and really needed attention. Weekend paintjob!!! -more like a week due to humidity.





It looked like there had been some work done here in the past.


There was! A lot of pitting too.


The black stuff is the rust neutralizer. I left it in all the pits.


Looking good.


Now to blast it with some prep spray!


Oh no! I didn't read the can. The part where it says not to spray on paint that is less than 6 months old.


Fixed! 2k clear is on!


Oh, come on! Apparently, when you keep building layers of metallic paints, the color gradually gets darker.


It's so ridiculous, it's kinda funny.. And here I was worried about orange peel. Oh well. It's staying on the car until next year.

[tptrsn]

That's crazy!

[amancuso]

???? That's nuts.


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[tmaxx445]

Good work, that was just the wrong color paint.

[waters17]

It was the correct color, but I applied way too much while trying to blend the lighter colored primer. I used the same paint last year on another repair and it was a perfect match. The difference was mostly the primer. The primer I used last time was a closer match to the base color, so I didn't need to use as much. I read that when you build metallic paint, it becomes darker. Unfortunately I masked off all my color reference points and had poor lighting. I imagine I would have caught it under ideal conditions.

[Ed CT]

Wow. That's incredible. What is the original color?

Now you're gonna have to paint the other side to match!!

[waters17]

Hahaha!

Sterling Grey Metallic.

I'm curious to see what it looks like when it's put back together. I'll post pics.

[agentrnge]

I dig the new color. How long to do the rest of the car

[JaxPlanet]

I just repainted the trim over my rear license plate and the instructions on the paint I used (www.automotivetouchup.com) were very specific about metallic paints. They said that, if you don't use multiple light coats and allow each coat to dry to the touch, the paint will go on too dark and the metallic flake won't look right. Based on my experience, they were absolutely right.

[Ed CT]

I just repainted the trim over my rear license plate and the instructions on the paint I used (www.automotivetouchup.com) were very specific about metallic paints. They said that, if you don't use multiple light coats and allow each coat to dry to the touch, the paint will go on too dark and the metallic flake won't look right. Based on my experience, they were absolutely right.

Thanks for this, JaxP - good to know. I plan to do some touch up work. Not sure whether my code 339 Aspen Silver is a metallic (I don't see any flakes in it), but, I've always heard that multiple light coats are better than a big thick one.

I wonder if Waters17 can, after the darker paint dries, apply a couple of light coats and get the color back to near normal...

[amancuso]

Thanks for this, JaxP - good to know. I plan to do some touch up work. Not sure whether my code 339 Aspen Silver is a metallic (I don't see any flakes in it), but, I've always heard that multiple light coats are better than a big thick one.

I wonder if Waters17 can, after the darker paint dries, apply a couple of light coats and get the color back to near normal...

It is metallic.

[waters17]

I dig the new color. How long to do the rest of the car

Haha! It'll be a while. I'm still begging the e39 to let me save money so we can continue saving for a house. Once I have my own garage, I'll invest in proper painting supplies and spray the whole car. I really like the idea of a darker color. Sterling grey looks better out west.

They said that, if you don't use multiple light coats and allow each coat to dry to the touch, the paint will go on too dark and the metallic flake won't look right. Based on my experience, they were absolutely right.

I concur.

Thanks for this, JaxP - good to know. I plan to do some touch up work. Not sure whether my code 339 Aspen Silver is a metallic (I don't see any flakes in it), but, I've always heard that multiple light coats are better than a big thick one.

I suggest making sure your primer or base coat is as close to silver as possible. It'll be a lot easier to not go crazy with the spray. I found that I got so focused on laying an even coat that I didn't consider how much I was putting down. I also found that I started to get incredibly impatient.

I wonder if Waters17 can, after the darker paint dries, apply a couple of light coats and get the color back to near normal...

I could probably make it right, but I really don't want to right now. The rust was my main concern, this was just a.... minor setback.

After I put everything back together, it doesn't look too bad. ಠ_ಠ It almost looks like the quarter panel is wet and the rest of the car is dry. I haven't seen it in full daylight yet though. I'll upload some pics tomorrow.

[geargrinder]

Just go pick some other colors and do this:



Srsly didn't realize that about the metallics. I imagine its something about thin coats and full drying letting the flake settle out flat and reflective as opposed to being suspended at random angles or something.

[waters17]

LOL! I can't believe those were actually factory colors.

[amancuso]

Harlequin Golf! so much fun.

[dannyzabolotny]

The Harlequin Golfs are quite rare at this point, a lot of people didn't really appreciate them when they were newer, so a lot of them have either gotten repainted or scrapped at this point. One guy who owns a VW shop in PA flew out to California to rescue a Harlequin from a junkyard, and it was quite an interesting adventure.

[waters17]

I believe there's a reason they're rare.

Here's a daylight pic.
20170926_120215_resized.jpg

[Mach540]

Thick coat, Schmick coat! I can't believe that that is the right color.

[douglawrence42]

Whats going to be interesting is peoples reaction because the quality of the paint looks very good. Usually, you see something like that and it is clearly painted by a brain dead gerbil on meth. But yours is clearly a quality job, leading people to wonder why an otherwise competent seeming individual with an otherwise nice looking car did that. You should tell them its a thing now.

[agentrnge]

"oh yeah.. its factory. Yet another design cue that started on the e39 and was adopted by other manufacturers"
Audi-R8-AMS-Alpha-10-2.jpg

[XAlt]

Do it on the other quarter.

Looks fresh af

[waters17]

Thick coat, Schmick coat! I can't believe that that is the right color.

Here are some pics of a repair I did on the other side of the car using the same paint. The flat area at bottom of the fuel filler area had been previously filled with bondo and starting to bleed rust through. You can clearly see the cutoff line between the old paint and the new paint. You can also see where I got impatient right under the filler door. If you look, you can see an extra layer of paint that I left on there. I really need to work on my patience.
paint1.jpg

Here, the entire inner corner had started to bubble in a similar way to the pic at the beginning of the post. Same paint.
paint2.jpg

Whats going to be interesting is peoples reaction because the quality of the paint looks very good. Usually, you see something like that and it is clearly painted by a brain dead gerbil on meth. But yours is clearly a quality job, leading people to wonder why an otherwise competent seeming individual with an otherwise nice looking car did that. You should tell them its a thing now.

Thanks. I wish I had a polisher.

Do it on the other quarter.

Looks fresh af

Hahaha! Probably won't happen.

[waters17]

Silly update to the thread.

I was screwing around in the garage last night, you know.. thinking bout stuff.. After I posted this thread, I wanted to just forget about the paint.

I've learned some things in the last few years.
1. check things before using them.
2. see item 1...

I had originally purchased a can of paint online and I fixed the things in the above post. A while later I bought another can so I could fix my quarter panel. All the results are above.

Back to screwing around in the garage...

I still have the 2 cans, so I decided to do a comparison.

1st can (used for the filler door and the rear door) Looks pretty Sterling Grey to me.
PAINT - LIGHT.jpg

Second can (used on the quarter panel)
PAINT - DARK.jpg

So yeah, they sent me the wrong paint.

Why do I insist on learning things the hard way???

[Mike WW]

Why do I insist on learning things the hard way???

Trust me, you're not the only one.

[Ed CT]

Thick coat, Schmick coat! I can't believe that that is the right color.

Occam's Razor proves true again. Maybe just a couple of light coats will do the trick.