As far as the flakes go, I was thinking to use a matching color of flake for each color, thinking it would stand out and be more rich with the colored flakes. (sort of thinking outloud here so bear with me ) The galaxy grey base has flake in it already, so would I lay down a coat of intercoat with the colored flake, then the Kandy? As far as where to start, with regard to the flames or main color, I was thinking it sort of makes sense to start in the front with the flames, ovbiously after the basecoat over the whole body. In either case, I will have to mask off the flames twice...that's not that big a deal to me...I'm just wishy washy over where to start...lol As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I would redo the basecoat in either the galaxy grey or orion silver, depending on how dark it comes out, then put the tangerine over that coat of base, just so it covers a fresh base coat and not another shade of kandy. I do understand your statement about wasting the rootbeer and at this point if I can save a quart of paint for $60 I'd do it...lol and I guess that's my impetus for doing the flames first.
another thought here... with the flake being so prominent in this paint scheme, will I get a lot of roughness with the flake that will have to be sanded down if it doesn't level out? Or does the intercoat float the flake enough to make it lay down good enough?
At the risk of sounding negative , and with your limited painting history , IMO you should re-think using any candy colors. I would use the HOK Shimrin pearl colors . They have a lot of great colors and are fairly user friendly, and much easier to repair and spot in than candies. If you want some metalflake accent , I'd suggest painting a base simular to the flake color you want and spraying a colored flake over it . Here's a shot of a dragster that I did a few years ago using this process. The white is Snow white pearl , and the red and blue were solid colors with red and blue flake sprayed over the base . not that hard to do and very repairable . Being in the business , I always have to be able to do repairs on whatever I do , and candies are a pain in the butt to repair . Good luck in the completion of your project .
I've got a lot of "educated" opinions, a lot are the same as others have posted. But I've done a LOT of custom paint over the past 30-something years, including a bunch of nice Kandy jobs. Get rid of the lacquer primer. Rethink Tangerine over the Galaxy Grey base. It will be too dark. Definately do a test panel first! You can do the flames first, or second, first, as mentioned, will save some materials and paint thickness. Personally I would shoot the first step, either the body or flames, all the way through, and put on a coat or 2 of your final clear to seal it up. Wait a day or 2 then sand lightly with 600 and do the other part. This way, if there is any paint intrusion from one onto the other, you can easily remove it by sanding, and not affecting the color. You will also get less "tape effects" over a real clear, it's harder than intercoat. You really can't intercoat anyway, as you will probably be using "real" candy for your paint, and that shouldn't be intercoat cleared over. no sanding in between basecoats necessary. Unless you want a really huge flake look, you can skip a step, and some possible problems, and just add a tiny bit of flake to your first coat or 2 of candy. Believe me, it will look great! Again, try a test panel to see if this fits your idea of what you want. If you're a beginner, I would also rethink your using Kandy Root Beer. first of all, real Kandy is very difficult to spray correctly. No matter what you hear. Second, Kandy Green, Teal and Root Beer seem to be the most difficult ones to get right, no striping or blotching. It helps a bit that you are using a darker basecoat, but it still might be a tough shoot. You might consider using KBC, or Kandy basecoat, which duplicates the color of the Root Beer, but doesn't quite have the depth. You can try putting a coat or 2 of real Kandy over the KBC, to get some depth of finish, and a real candy look, this works well if you want a dark color. Good Luck!
Chopolds has some good advice there, ya need to listen to him! He's right about adding a bit of flake to the first couple coats of candy, it will give the effect I think you want without an extra step (and layer of paint) FWIW we use to never use colored flake under candys, mostly silver, sometimes gold depending on the color of the base. The silver or gold will enhance the candy flake, colored flake will go darker as it already has some color added, like extra coats of candy. If that makes sense.
you got plenty of good tech advice but here's a thought: fergetabout all those different colors. unless you really know what you're doing, it's going to take you forever and probably won't look as nice as a simple enamel paint job.
I going to rethink the colored flakes, but I'm going to start taking the truck down to bare metal here soon. Just have to get the temp up a bit more than 45 degrees...
Go here and download the technical manual. It should help with some of your questions. http://www.houseofkolor.com/news/HOKDownloads.jsp
I had many of the same questions when I painted last year and considered taking the easy way out as several here have suggested, but I say stick to your guns and spray the candy root beer if that is what you like. All of your sequence questions will be answered once you spray your test panels. I gathered up metal objects from the garage, like my old Lincoln welder, weld hood, and a trash can to spray. I was then able to make my decision based on my spray conditions (the driveway), and I am very happy with my outcome. Check out my post, I hope it helps. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=539437
To me, the best look with flake is....Pick a silver base that has big flake, I bought a big bag of chrome or silver flake cheep of e-gay. and i shoot it over the silver base.now shoot inter coat clear over the flake(a must)now shoot your kandy ,eather with inter coat clear or top clear...then top clear. If u decide to top coat clear in between any of these stages and re-sand will make your job look deeper. and if u dont try to lay the flake down .but use clear to cover it it will also refract better. Imo.
I will be doing some test panels. I want to try the process with basecoat, flake and then the candy, as well as trying it with a candy basecoat, then flake and clear...see what the difference looks like. The candy basecoat will obviously be an easier process, but I'm not sure how it will look with flake over it. The test panels should reveal some interesting results.
Make a test panel like a grid, using 2" tape. For example, tape off and paint vertical stripes of all the base colors you can muster; white, yellow, orange, a couple shades of gold metallic, and a couple shades of silver metallic, and anything else you want to try for a base coat. If you want to try an intermediate flake layer, you can paint half vertically of each of the base coats stripes with your flake. For the Kandy layer run your stripes horizontally across you base coats, one stripe for each coat. IE. remove a strip of tape, blow on one kandy coat. Remove the next tape strip, blow on another kandy coat over that stripe and the one next to it you already did, remove the next tape strip, blow on another coat over the 3 stripes, etc. working your way up the panel. This gives you stripes with 1 coat, 2 coats, 3 coats, 4 coats, 5 coats, 6 coats. You can do 6 stripes of Root Beer, then repeat the process for 6 stripes of Tangerine. When you are done take it out in the sun and admire your handywork. That's your color palette to work with for reference. Oh, another tip. A short cut for your flames would be to use the Pagan Gold as the base coat for the Tangerine flames. If you wanted Pagan Gold tips, just don't blow any Tangerine over the tips.
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