I know this is a traditional board, but it's kinda like crushed glass right? I'm painting a car light green metallic. Like that minty green on early 60's GM's. The car is going to be like a mid-60's mild custom. I want to add some kick to the paint. Thought about 'flake, but it doesn't come in light green and I don't want to mess with blending silver and emerald. So, I've come across HOK Ice Pearl. I'm wondering if I can use it to get that 'pop' in the paint, without washing out or overwhelming the base color. I'd buy some and play with it, but it's $160 a jar up here. Before I invest, I have two questions: 1. If I mix white ice pearl in a clear or intercoat and spray it over the light green met base, will it wash out the color or is it fairly transparent? How much to use? 2. Can/should it be mixed into the base? Would this kill the effect, or just tone it down? Like I said, I don't want to wash out the already weak color, but I want it to really jump at you in the sun, without looking like I just took the original color and used bigger metallic. Know what I mean? Any advice on methods or alternatives would be appreciated. Thanks, TR
Ive used it on a roof and think its a great effect..but im not much use on its transparancy, as I put it over white...you couldnt really judge its tranparency over that, it was still white i guess...the main colour 'flash' in it seems to be a bluey green colour But i do think a light coat of it would be ok..say two flat teaspoons of powder per pot of clear dont put it in the basecoat, has to go in the clear. if you want ill post you enough to do a test piece. just pm me your adress,as long as your not in a hurry. oh shit that might not be a good idea...could be intercepted as a biological weapon....fukken terrorists even affect hot rodding!
Ha! Thanks but no thanks. Wouldn't want to hurt Canada-Australia relations - Whistler would never recover! Actually I am doing a white roof and would probably throw some in there too. So you used ~2 teaspoons per pot on yours?
yeh about that much, best not to load it too much, you can always add another clear coat with more in it, its easier to keep even in lower quantities.
H Timbob I've played with HOK pearls and flakes and had some fun. I invested the 50 bucks to get the HOK charts and tech booklet and it has helped out immensly. If you are going to be spraying alot I suggest getting it. As for the use of dry products from HOK( flakes and pearls) you can mix them with the paint or with the clears. This allows for lots of diiferent effects. HOK reccomends 2 teaspoons per quart of clear for dark bases and 3-4 for light bases. With any pearl, adding way to much can cause moulting and will also cause the pearl to be to bunched together and wont allow the pearl to reflect well. I say mix the pearl will the paint and spray a test panel. Playing around is the best way to get the look you want. I you make a mistake before you spray the car oh well. Good luck, have fun
just did a bike this week.Green candy,then green ice pearl,with gold pearl mixed in.It looks killer.....But you got to be careful you can hurt the base color with to much..There is no formula ya just gotta mix and shoot till you get the look.A little goes a long way.I paid 70 bucks for ice pearl in jersey,and did that bike and it dosent look like any is even gone out of jar.Probally get 10 more bike jobs out of 2 ounces..
My paint rep gave me a little in a white envelope..blue pearl...looks like drugs as it is white in the powder form....anyway, maybe ask yer paint guy for a sample??
Try bringing that Shit on a plane,especially an international flight. I flew out of Newark NJ with around a dozen 35mm film canisters filled with different color DuPont Pearl powders in my carry-on luggage. Of course this was before 9-11. They were staring at the X-ray machine,trying to figure out what they were looking at.The woman asked me if I had a bunch of Shot Glasses. When I said " No Shot Glasses,how about Film Cannisters ? " , they let me go. Of course,Canadian Customs doesn't care.
Thanks for the suggestions. I was thinking of buying the HOK book. I looked at the book at the paint store, and the ice pearls are shown over black only! Makes them look really big, almost like a mini-flake. That's what got me concerned that it will cover the base too much. From what I've read elsewhere, it looks like most people put it in the clear. I thought that painter on Monster Garage used to add it to the base though. Don't know the reasoning there. I'll hit up the paint store for a 'freebie', but I'm not too hopefull - they're pretty low-volume and only stock one jar of each color on a good day! Thanks again for the input so far, any more would be great.
i used some on my dash with an innercoat over black and then shot candy brandywine over it it came out excellent, when i shot it over the black with the inner coat it just looked like a metallic kind of black.....now as far as i know theres actually a cheaper version of it out there made by Xotic thats the exact same thing....thats what i used...and it saved me some dough...as for mixing it in the color i dont think it would give the effect you'd want.....but ive never tried it and could be wrong ....
Reminds me of the concrete architechtural piece I brought back from mexico, looked like a cannon Pearl, a little goes a long way.
you can put in base,,but its a diffrent look.just tried gold pearl in black basecoat the gold came threw but not as dramatic as it would be in clear.Always do a test panel first.As with any paint you can mix flakes,pearls,candies to your own liking and maybe come up with something cool.You gotta play around,i almost always just mix my own stuff for some really wild effects.And the customer has to come back to you....if he fucks it up.
lots of ways you could do it as mentioned above. here's what i would do from what you say you want. first off get to know your paint supplier well. bullshit him beyond your means a little. i paint on a very limited basis but can sometimes get "samples" to help me along. you may be able to get some help to. alot of the counter guys are willing to help the little folks because they make their real money off collision shops anyhow. now for what you say you want. first i have never used the ice pearl but have wanted to for a while. i've got so old powder pearls that i've had for a long time. most of which i'm about out of so i gotta start playing with some of this other stuff. anyhow for what you want if it's a light green i would say put 1 level spoons of green pearl and 1 level spoon of white pearl per quart in the base. then for the clear i would say 2-3 spoons pearl white and about half a spoon green pearl per quart. stay to the lower ends if you don't use pearls much. it's easy to "cloud" the color with pearls esp white pearls. if i knew the exact color green you were talking i could probably make a few other suggestions. if it's something like a light olive drab or something i would say use a little gold pearl in the clear instead of green but do the base as before. you can make pearls do alot of cool stuff. you can also make them work against each other in a bad way very easy. my buick is a hok perfect pastels sky blue with a little white pearl in the base. just makes it "lighten up" a little in the heavy sun. other wise you can't even tell its there. test panels tell all. remember that...ken....
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