Polishing blue paints

I have a question. I've noticed that my clear-coated blue paints are vivid before polishing (see photo), but turn darker and much less vivid after I've polished out the clear coat (sorry, no photo). I'm guessing this has something to do with light reflecting off the surface, but is there any way to maintain the vividness seen in this photo while polishing at the same time? Thanks!

P.S. This 550 is painted in Cobra Colors TDF Blue with Tamiya clear coat. I've noticed the same thing happen to Tamiya's dark blue metallic.

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x82/BVC500/100_0728.jpg

How are you polishing...?

If you're using Micromesh or similar, that may be your problem. It is nearly impossible to remove the fine scratches that micromesh leaves. It may look like they're gone, but they never really go away and they leave a permanent haze on the clearcoat surface. With light colors (white, yellow, red, etc) it's practically invisible- but it will effect darker colors, making them look less deep/vivid.

This is the same reason you must be more careful washing darker color 1:1 cars than lighter colored ones. You can was a white or silver car with any sponge/mit/rag, but a dark finish requires more care- or you will wind up with a hazy fog on the clearcoat surface.

That could be it, an invisible hazy left over after I've used Micromesh and Tamiya polishing compounds, and the fact that I've never noticed it on other colors. I suppose minimal polishing is ideal, but even on my best paint job there is always some orange peel to needs to be removed. Thanks!

That's one of the reasons why I like Mrr Hobby Top Coat as a clear - In my experience I can give a reasonable final wet coat that gives a nice shine but it hasn't so far produced orange peel for me. Same with 2K.

I think Andy is right about the source of your problem but it is also worth bearing in mind that the cloth you use for the final polish can actually add more scratches than it removes ;) Select the softest, finest cloth you can find IMO (I use eyeglass cleaning cloths)

My solution is to sand each layer of clearcoat as needed, except the final layer. The last coat I spray with lots of reducer and very low pressure, to get it as smooth as possible- and then I never touch it with abrasives. I polish it out with Tamiya coarse compound and then ScratchX using a cotton flannel cloth. (I bought a half yard of this at a sewing store, and threw it in the laundry. Now for each polishing project I cut off a few square inches, and throw that bit away when done.) Rubbing with compound alone works to remove the surface texture from the last spraying of clearcoat, but it does not leave the scratching that Micromesh creates and never quite removes.

Thanks guys. I'll try that with my next blue paint job (and all paint jobs)!

It is probably the micro mesh and dark colour combination already mentioned. I experienced a similar thing on a black Ferrari body where I had used micro mesh, but I've never had it on the lighter colours. I use an automotive micro fibre cloth for the polishing stages, which is good at not scratching or hazing the final clear coat.

That will happen with all dark colors. You need the softest microfiber cloth, and you may need more than Tamiya compounds. I found a combination of Meguiars cleaner/wax that was cut w/some of their liquid quick detailer got the microscopic scratches to disappear. Dark colors require more work/more elbow grease, and a few more tricks/chemicals to get to a mirror-smooth shine. Lighter colors hide most of the stuff that'll drive you crazy w/a dark finish. After all this, Tamiya wax is a great final detailer...apply it with it's own applicator.

here's something else you should try.

give the body a quick dunk/rinse in hot (out of tap) water and dry immediately with ultra-soft/micro-fibre type cloths.
then give it another once over with tamiya finish or other high quality car finishing products.

I find that the hot wash gets rid of any residue that may be left on the body.

I can still see a fine scratch pattern with Meguiars Scratch-X and Tamiya's coarser grades, but not with Tamiya Finish, even with a dark color. But Finish has a very fine abrasive, so it won't "take down" much. It's necessary to use Scratch-X or Tamiya Fine first.

Thanks again for the comments! I will be more careful the next time I polish a dark blue metallic body, and use the tips you guys gave me. Incidentally, the 550 pictured was almost finished, but then I rubbed through on the hood while polishing and stripped it, obviously not happy with the rub-through but also the darkened color from the polishing. I raised the question b/c it's going to get a new paint job soon, again in Cobra Colors Ferrari TDF blue, and i loved the vividness of the blue before it was polished.

It is really easy to cross contaminate the particles from the polishing, you need to change the water/container between wet sand grits, clean the body really well between grits. If the abrasive looks like it got loaded with something - toss it and buy new.
As the other guys mentioned, lighter colors dont matter much, but dark, you have to be meticulous