At the moment we use Maxmeyer 0200 clearcoat at work which has always performed well, however on silvers and yellows we notice it makes the paint underneath slightly darker. For example we painted a little mx5 recently, full respray in silver, and the customer managed to scratch the rear quarter on the first day they got it back so we had to repaint. Painted the quarter and blended through the door with some left over paint from the same mix, clearcoated with 0200 and where the door meets the front wing obviously only had clear coat over it no new paint but it now looked darker than the front wing.

Can anybody recommend a good quality clearcoat that doesn't do this? If you pour out some 0200 in a plastic cup you can see it has a very slight hint of yellow too it so it obviously will make the panel look very slightly darker.

Just had a look on the shelf and found some old cans to pour out and compare.

Sikkens Superior
Sikkens Classic
Maxmeyer 0300

The Superior and the 0200 are about the same, the 0300 and classic are yellower.

PPG DC3000

DeBeer 1-204



thats the 2 i use most

I wouldn't think at around 4 mil thickness that the eye could see the difference. I have used and I can't remember the brand clear that had a slight yellow tint. but this was slight and your looking into a can that has 10" of clear in it not 4 mil. just my thoughts on this.
Jay D.

badsix has a point. put a few drops on a mirror see if it still looks yellow. i know some cheaper clears do tend to yellow even at a few mils.

All you need to do is look in the can of clear(its silver on the inside) it will show you instantly if the clear is yellow or get a white plastic mixing cup as it will show you the same thing.

Now this is taught at many refinish classes when you are doing collision painting you only put your first coat of clear past your base coat blend,then the second coat on the complete panel.The reason this is suggested is the more clear you add it can make the color look darker(particularly on a light metallic,pearl,or white).This is know as the swimming pool effect.When you look at a swimming pool from above the deep end looks darker blue than the shallow end.Something to think about,try clearing like I suggested on your next silver and it will help you.My 2 cents.

Jayson m wrote:All you need to do is look in the can of clear(its silver on the inside) it will show you instantly if the clear is yellow or get a white plastic mixing cup as it will show you the same thing.

Now this is taught at many refinish classes when you are doing collision painting you only put your first coat of clear past your base coat blend,then the second coat on the complete panel.The reason this is suggested is the more clear you add it can make the color look darker(particularly on a light metallic,pearl,or white).This is know as the swimming pool effect.When you look at a swimming pool from above the deep end looks darker blue than the shallow end.Something to think about,try clearing like I suggested on your next silver and it will help you.My 2 cents.

I also use this method for evaluating clear, as well as limiting the first coat of clear on a blend. That swimming pool effect is related to Snell's Law and the related refraction principles.

I just saw a video on this on youTube a few weeks ago. The channel is diyAutoSchool and the guy is a hoot, "My Friend Pete" he calls himself. He compares a PPG Clear, a Matrix Clear, and a clear by AllKandy(the wet wet). Of the 3 the Matrix was by far the clear that stayed clear and didnt have a yellow tint to it. It was a few weeks ago, so I cant remember all the specifics of the testing he did, but Ill see if I can find it and post it here. He also compared the prices of the 3.