I painted my grill the same color as my car last night (desert silver), and it turned out more of a dark gold than desert silver. I was wondering if anyone knows how to go back and maybe lighten up the color after it's been clear coated.

 

Reduce your paint by 50% for the blend(the one you just sprayed with). It'll get lighter. That's if you sprayed it with a air gun like SATA, etc. Cans are not always the greatest with color matching.

 

Would less paint and or holding the gun further away from the grill help at all? Also can I sand it and try again or do i have to strip it to the primer

 

Holding the gun further will not make it lighter. The paint will only dry faster because it's further away from the item you are painting. If you reduce the paint, it will get lighter. Thats how some fade like fenders to doors or hoods to make the paint match better.

You don't have to sand all the way down. Just color sand(wet sand)it with 1000-1200 grit and respray it. If your first coat was rough, you can wet sand it with 600 grit. Then you can spray your color on again.

Single stage or two stage?

 

next paint the side markers

 

Ok thanks for the advice, i will sand it and try again.
It's two stage

Is painting the markers illegal?

 

You don't look old enough to drive yet.

 

Hahaha he thinks he is

 

It is not illegal. I just think it looks cleaner without the orange.

 

I think I'm going to do it

 

The grill looks darker also because you are spraying a flat surface which reflects less light than the convex curved surfaces surrounding your grill. Paint match with a metallic is near impossible to match perfectly, depending upon pressure, distance from surface, angle of spray, speed of pass, temperature and humidity for flake layup, etc. The big one here is the first one listed due to light refraction from differing surfaces.

 

Having front/ rear side markers in orange/ red respectively, became a legal requirement of all US autos produced from the 1967 model year and going forward, according to the US DOT. You can use clear front side markers with an orange bulb. Back up lights became a requirement of new autos in 1966.

 

Wow thats some dated knowledge there. Good to know though, i'm about to get smoked tail lights, wonder if i'll get pulled over.

Yeah my grill is about as good as it's going to get for an amatuer like myself. In some lights it looks right on and in others it looks dark gold. Now I'm trying to figure out if I cant get the clearcoat to shine more.

 

So its illegal to have the orange bulb in the side markers changed? I put clear side markers and was planning on changing the bulb as well.. But I guess thats history now..

 

its technically illegal to modify your vehicles lights in any way. So technically those headlights are illegal as well as those sidemarkers. Chances are you wont be cited for it even if you get pulled over. My amber side markers are painted body color and I tucked the bulb behind the bumper and they do not light up whatsoever.