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pearl paint questions

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Old Apr 4, 2006 | 01:05 AM
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ok so im looking at some body work soon and wanting a nice pearl white

correct me if i am wrong but they can use my factory color for a basecoat and end up saving me SOME money in the end


am i right?

what are the drawbacks to pearls?
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Old Apr 4, 2006 | 11:29 PM
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Depends if the pearl is in the paint or the clear. Most pearl whites have the pearl in the paint itself. You can buy pearls and mix them either with the paint or the clear. I had heard if you mix the pearl with the paint it's easier to touch up. I put 2 ounces of purple haze pearl and 2 ounces of sky blue pearl into a gallon of emerald green paint for my Sonoma. The emerald green was the factory color. I was hoping for a bit of a color change green/blue/purple effect. Instead it turned into a funky teal green color. When the paint is wet you can really see the blue/purple pearl. It was an experiment and didn't come out as planned. You'll get a better effect if you mix the pearl with the clear and spray it that way. I should have done that on mine.
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Old Apr 5, 2006 | 01:18 AM
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so i could basicly make it straight as is (one small dent) and i can just reclear it over the factory arctic white and get the effect im going for


sorry im a body newb and dont wanna start getting the wrong materials
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Old Apr 5, 2006 | 04:11 AM
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Get the body where you need it and use your white base coat that you have on your car now and just mix in some pearl into your clear and spray that on top. Depending on what color of pearl and how apparent you want to make it will determine how much you mix into the clear and how many coats you will put on. Just make sure whoever is doing the work they remember to spray a couple coats of clear without the pearl....believe it or not I have seen a shop forget to do this before.
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Old Apr 5, 2006 | 05:34 AM
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so would that same concept of using the existing paint and shooting a pearl clear on it work with metallic colors and look good.....for example NBM?
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Old Apr 5, 2006 | 12:07 PM
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Originally Posted by oodahss
so would that same concept of using the existing paint and shooting a pearl clear on it work with metallic colors and look good.....for example NBM?
Potentially. Just depends on how it's done.

My buddy and I wanted to paint his refridgerator with a cool scheme before moving it into the dorm last semester, so we sanded it down, filled any imperfections, primed it, etc. We then sprayed down some gloss black, put on metallic blue and red flames and some other stuff, and then finished with a pearl clearcoat that had mixed in with a pearl silver and a hint of dark red pearl. Sprayed it on in the paint booth in a couple layers and it turned out amazing. The original metallic blues and reds still have their metallic shine, but it is amplified by the pearl over top of it, which also took on some of the dominant characteristics of the colors themselves (ex. The dark red pearl clear helps bring out the metallic red underneath and the silver pearl clear helps bring out the metallic blue underneath).

It's all somewhat of an experiment, but generally looks kickass no matter how it turns out.
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Old Apr 5, 2006 | 03:14 PM
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Most of the factory pearl colors (like the new caddy's) are a three part paint system. The pearl coat being the mid coat. I priced the new cadillac pearl white and it was high...$3?? for a gal of base, same for midcoat, $2?? gal clear.
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