HELP my finish is getting darker by the minute!

[Nareg]

So I sprayed a mix of yellow chroma-chem + white chroma-chem + nitro-alkyde lacquer onto a body today that had been sealed with nitro-alkyde sealer. It started out looking too pale. I thought I would have to spray another coat or something. During sanding, I changed my mind because it seemed to look darker after some time. I thought it was just that the appearance changed because we had sanded away some overspray.

So I was happy with the color and decided to put some clear nitro-alkyde over that and call it a job well done. An hour later I started feeling like maybe it was too dark, I was wondering where my thoughts were coming from earlier when I thought my finish was too pale. It hadn't occured to me that perhaps the color had been changing until I let the thing dry for some two hours and came back again -- I swear it's at least 3 shades DARKER and more ORANGE. Now it's starting to look like one of those guidos fell asleep in a spray booth.

This is what it looks like now. Note I have not done any sanding of the clear coat since the final spray. I'm going to do that and buffing in a couple of days... Ps.. these images actually make it look a little lighter than it is in real life.

Any idea why this thing is growing darker and darker? I was really happy with it this afternoon, but now it's really starting to make me upset .






This is what it looked like a couple minutes after I first sprayed it.

[Nareg]

The only thing I can think of is this. The guy who was helping me spray only had 20 sheen lacquer in his shop (very low gloss) and he knew I wanted a glossy finish. So he said, no problem -- 20 sheen lacquer is actually very glossy when it's not stirred in the can. He put a paint stick into the can and lifted up some goop from the bottom to show me. He said when you stir the paint this stuff blends into the lacquer and removes some of the shine. Then he skimmed the lacquer off of the top without agitating the can / taking care to not mix in the purported matte-ing agent.

I don't know if that's a legit process or if it can possibly cause the lacquer to get really dark while drying??? I need to know why this finish is going from a micawber yellow to a plain butterscotch. Someone please tell me.


This is the method we came up with to hold it for spraying by the way. I think it's better than a handle screwed into the neck pocket....

[R. Stratenstein]

Can't speak to the rest of it, but yes, satin and flat finishes are made so by additives to ordinary glossy finish. His dragging a blob out of the bottom of the can likely introduced some of it to the rest of the finish, but if you stirred your lacquer well before spraying it, I doubt it would have made much difference. It is an odd approach to getting a glossy finish, I don't know if that would be responsible for the darkening. FWIW, I kinda like the butterscotch. I know you're going for a more yellow color, but at least it's not turning blotchy and some crappy gawd-awful color.

[Nareg]

Originally Posted by R. Stratenstein

Can't speak to the rest of it, but yes, satin and flat finishes are made so by additives to ordinary glossy finish. His dragging a blob out of the bottom of the can likely introduced some of it to the rest of the finish, but if you stirred your lacquer well before spraying it, I doubt it would have made much difference. It is an odd approach to getting a glossy finish, I don't know if that would be responsible for the darkening. FWIW, I kinda like the butterscotch. I know you're going for a more yellow color, but at least it's not turning blotchy and some crappy gawd-awful color.

He didnt take the blob out of the can. He just fished it up to the top to let me see it. It didn't really mix into the lacquer. Then we just carefully poured our lacquer out without agitating the solution so that the goop at the bottom would not mix into our container. I just wish the color was where it was earlier today. It was such a nice milky looking butterscotch blonde. Now it just looks like a butterscotch.

[flyingbanana]

I think it looks sexy...for what it's worth.

[oramac7891]

No help here, but I thought I would say that if you hate it, PM me and maybe we can work something out. I think it's beautiful

[backporch guy]

I don't know about that Chroma whatever and nitro alkoyd stuff, but nitro toners seem to darken as they dry. I was doing a trans red tele a couple of years ago. When I had to touch up a spot, I had to be careful and only do a little at a time, or the touched up spot would be darker than the rest of the body.

[Colt W. Knight]

Ive never heard of that type of lacquer before, but id bet that it has an additive or resin that dries amber.

[somemadhope]

For what its worth, the amber butterscotch you ended up with is awesome.... and the initial color was strangely yellow in my subjective opinion.

[robert spencer]

I think the after color is so much better than the lemon looking color was. It looks more like wood. Keep it. Take care. Bob

[steve_robinson]

Originally Posted by robert spencer

I think the after color is so much better than the lemon looking color was. It looks more like wood. Keep it. Take care. Bob

Me too. Big improvement IMO.

[RomanS]

Originally Posted by steve_robinson

Me too. Big improvement IMO.

Another +1.

[dennyman]

I like the new color much better too!

[Vizcaster]

Ok you're probably tired of hearing it but the photo shows a beautiful result. For what it's worth, perhaps the "alkyd" component is an old style resin that imparts a darker color - it might develop over time or just when the finish dries.

And the bit about leaving the flattener in the bottom of the can and decanting the "gloss" sounds okay to me, at least with a solvent based nitro finish where stirring probably isn't essential unless there are pigments involved.

[Jack S]

I personally think the color it has settled into is much nicer than the yellow that it first showed. Good luck with whatever you do to it.

[pasquale]

The final result looks great. My buddy is a piano refinisher going back 50 years and he says the same thing about skimming off the top, says that is the trick to seeing your reflection in a piano.

[conorb]

Looks good to me; I say go with it.

Smooth and clear is always better than something you don't know.

conorb

[thesjkexperienc]

Cool idea for holding the body! I am getting ready to do my first body and I need to get it right!