painting with pearl

[76zimmer]

bought some pearl additive to put in the first few coats of clear for bc/cc paintjob.

any body ever tried this?

going to give a test panel some shots to see what we got here:

As we all know, Custom Painting on any surface can seem like a challenge whether one is a seasoned professional or a novice. Creating pearl paint is as easy as doing any other type of paint, with the exception of adding a few steps to the process. When we describe Ghost Pearls on our site, we are speaking of the type of pearlescent pigments that can be used to create ghost flames, entire irridescent pearl paint jobs, or other ghost effects. Our ghost pearls are what custom painters use to create those beautiful pearlescent effects that people see on many custom paint and even factory paint jobs. Newer cars and motorcycles can be seen with ghost pearl effects done in the factory, such as the Lamborghini orange paint with the beautiful gold pearl that we see at the auto shows, or simpler pearlescent white paints that we see on new Cadillacs or Infiniti cars, which can be acheived with a simple silver ghost pearl or gold ghost pearl applied over a white base coat. Turning a two-stage paint job into a three-stage paint job is the basic step in creating a quality pearl paint.
With this thought in mind, anyone can make an ordinary paint job into a pearl paint job. Instead of doing a base-coat clear-coat paint job, we add the pearl paint into the middle of the mix. Base-coat, ghost pearl paint, clear-coat. We always recommend that people make their own mixes and spray a test panel before doing the entire project, and it is always wise to use a base clear, or a binder to mix the pearls with before adding the final clears. The final clear step is only recommended for custom paint, and not for powder coating, gel coating, or faux finish. If you are looking to do a project using these beautiful ghost pearls, we have a few suggestions on which colors look good over which base coats...
White base coat: Use any of the ghost pearls, but keep in mind that the red ghost pearl will give you a irridescent pink look in the sun. Blue, violet, orange, gold and silver are the most popular colors for white base coats.
Black base coat: You also may use any of the ghost pearls, but keep in mind that using too much will make the project take on the color of the pearl and overwhelm the black. To get a cool midnight color change effect, keep the ratio of pearl down to about a teaspoon per quart in the clear base or binder. In powder coating, keep the ratio down to a tablespoon per pound and add onto that as needed.
Red, Burgandy, or Orange base coat: We highly recommend any of our Gold ghost pearls, including the shimmer gold or the satin gold. Also, Blue pearl red pearl, and violet pearls can make for great effects over the darker shades of red.
Blue base coats: For very light blues (like cornflower blue), we have seen excellent results using gold ghost pearl, but for a cool color shift on any shades of blue, a violet ghost pearl will give you a cool purple color shift in the sun. Silver ghost pearl can also give a nice subtle effect to the darker blues. Green can give an awsome pearl effect over most blue bases as well.
Yellow base coat: We highly recommend that you try using green ghost pearl for the lemony yellows, and gold ghost pearl for the darker racing yellows.
Green base coat: Gold ghost pearl looks great on green base coats. We have also seen good results with orange and red ghost pearls.
Pink base coat: Believe it or not, you will find that silver ghost pearl looks awesome over pink, as does the red ghost pearl.
Purple base coat: Try our Red Ghost Pearl, Green Ghost Pearl, or Silver Ghost pearl. ​

http://www.paintwithpearl.com/pearl-paint.htm

 

[ryoken]

I've done just about every conceivable paint layout with pearl... from straight various color pearls in base, to 3 stages such as the 90's Lexus white, etc to pearl in clear, yada, yada..

obviously I don't play much with em any more.. but if I can help, let me know..

 

[76zimmer]

This will be for the fatboy repaint, but spraying technique and blending are what I'm looking for.

The paint and additives used are Mango Tango non pearl basecoat, and two diff types of pearl powder for this color, orange ghost pearl, and gold ghost pearl in a Nason Selectclear base.

Here's my plan for the test panel..


A primered rounded panel of some type (to show the pearl effect), sectioned off into 4 sections, then shoot all 4 with 3-4 coats of MangoTango base color.
Doing one section at a time, the first section would get 2 coats of clear with the orange ghost pearl powder mixed in (after the blending of the activator and filtered into the cup)
The next section would get the gold ghost pearl mixed in.
Then shoot both with standard selectclear final coats.


This is their recommendations for mixing and spraying:

2. “Ghost” Pearl Powders
Depending on usage, ghost pearls usually require
less powder than candy pearls. To add a special
effects look to your paint project, we advise starting
out with 1 tablespoon of our ghost pearls per mixed
quart (or liter) of our product, and increase it as
desired. Remember, ghost pearls will color darker
base coats much easier than light base coats, and
over usage of ghost pearls on dark bases will result
in actual colors, instead of a perhaps more desired
“ghost” effect. It is usually advised to spray 2 wet
coats with a 50% overlap, followed by 2 medium-dry
coats, with a 50% overlap. A “dry” coat is achieved
by a slightly greater spray distance and slightly​

faster motion along your spray surface.



I was thinking for testing purposes I would mix only 8 oz of base color, then mix 8 oz of the clear with the about 1/2 teaspoon of the pearl to see what it looks like with the recommended application.

I've never sprayed pearl paint or used additives to achieve a pearl or anything other than a metallic finish, so treading new ground here.