So I'm painting my 86 gt white with a pearl coat and I was wondering what all you guys out there thought! Ok my question is that I was told to mix the pearl in with the clear coat and spray as the first and second coat of clear and then clear over it but I was wondering what would happen if I sprayed the first 2 layers just clear and then a pearl clear and then more regular clear because I want that really deep looking paint that looks really cool like the pearl is suspended in the clear and is really shiny! So have any of you tryed it? Any good pics of cars using a pearl coat? Any ideas or suggestions? Any input would be much appriated! Thanks

If you are using a pearl additive in the clear, it won't make a difference if you put basecoat,clearcoat first, pearl second, and clear over that or you do paint, pearl clear, and then regular clear. I would stick to paint, pearl additive in the next layer, and finally the clearcoat on the top. You will just be wasting paint and adding layers if you do basecoat, then clearcoat, add the pearl coat, and clear over the top of that. Eliminate the middle clearcoat and you will have the same results. Make sure that you keep the clearcoat with the pearl additive agitated while you spray so the pearl is evenly sprayed. In between coats, just swirl the spray gun to keep everything mixed in the gun. Pearl additive has a tendancy to settle to the bottom of the gun if you set it down in between coats.

So you don't think it will make a diffrence? I kinda thought it would give it a deeper look I might try a sample on something to see what it would look like thanks for the quick responce! Hopefuly more people will give there opinions too! I want to get the paint done soon so I can get the car out of my shop!

If you're going to drive the car you should keep the paint thin as possible. Thick paint chips easily, & pearl dosen't touch up very well.
~ Paul
aka "Tha Driver"

First question, are you using the pearl additive you add to paint, or are you using a factory OEM pearl color? That makes a world of difference.

If its the additive like you buy in a jar or can, you do add it to the clear. Put 1 or two coats over your base color, followed by 2 coats of just clear.

If its OEM style factory color, you put on the basecolor, followed by the pearl color (not with clear), followed by your clear coats. Most brands wont allow you to add any color paint to the clear without curdling it. You used to be able to do that with laquer and enamels. Some brands MAY let you, but you wont gain anything as far as depth or shine. I use BASF,RM and Sherwin Williams paints in my shop. Both of those use only a reducer in the color and only a hardener in the clear. You CANT mix uncatylized and catylized paint together or it will clump up like dumplings.

And again, even if your brand does let you, you wont gain anything. And like already said, you dont want any more material than is necessary to do the job. Too thick and your asking for cracks and chips and like Driver said, you cant touch them up to match.

Yes it is a pearl that comes in a jar and you add to the clear coat thanks for the help guys I guess it dosent matter if I put clear under the pearl so I'm just gonna put 2 coats of pearl/clear and then 2 coats of just clear and get my car back on the road haha I mean when everything else is done haha there is lots of work to be done on a fiero with 350,000mi on it! Once again thanks for the help

I should mention: If it's a powdered pearl (or even if it's not) you should paint a test panel to see how it looks/works out. Powdered pearl mixed in clear can sometimes make it look milky. If it's "old skool" pearl, it will look better but be even harder to touch up & impossible to spot in. I have a jar of the original pearl (haven't seen it available for decades). I also have some original flip-flop - if anyone finds any available anywhere please let me know.
~ Paul
aka "Tha Driver"

Its a pearl paste that I got from wessco I used a bit of it to paint a model red with a pearl clear and if you use to much it will cover up the color haha it came out light pink! but with white its not as bad if you use to much it just comes out more silver I got the mixture right today and I will remember to keep the mixture agravated so it sprays even. Also I'm gonna keep the angle of the spray gun the same because I've heard that that can affect it to! I can't wait to get it done oh I just grabed the bottle of pearl its made by color horizons custom finishes and its a paist type pearl that mixes with the clear the bottle calls it a platinum pearl number 35202 when you mix it with the clear it dosent look cloudy it actualy looks really cool! When I did the sample white test panel it looked amazing I can't wait to see how the hole car looks when its done its also geting silver racing stripes I just need to finish my custom made quarter panel scoops and then I can finish the paint I'll be posting pics when its done I'm actualy gonna post a hole build thread and the paint will be the last part of it! Haha I'm trying to come up with a name for the car/build!

Call it the Silver Pearl?
You're going to drive this on the street? It will look fantastic untill you get chips & scrapes in it. You'll be afraid to park it anywhere.
If you're driving it on the street I suggest you look into some 3-stage colors on the new cars. A lot of them have some really pretty pearl whites & silvers, & you can spot them back in when you need to.
~ Paul
aka "Tha Driver"

DO NOT TOUCH THE TREUM!

I'm not really woried about chips and scratches because its not a dd I have 3 other cars so it stays in the shop most of the time and I already have the paint I also like doing prep work so if it gets messed up I'll just paint it again in a diffrent color! Haha I change my mind a lot lol when I started I had painted half the car with 2stage black paint and clear and then I talked to a guy with a white fiero gt and I talked to him about it and decided to change it! So I re did the whole car!

When I did my white Corvette, I added a light dust coat of pearl before I cleared it. It dont take much to really pop out. The finish with just a tiny bit of pearl looked like the inside of a seashell. I used GMs 3rd stage pearl used on Cadillacs over the OEM Corvette plain #8454 white.

That sounds really cool! Ya it dosent take much pearl to really look good and to much and it dosent look right! You wouldent happen to have pics of your vett do you? And maybe a close up of the paint?

One thing to keep in mind is that if you put to much clear on at one time you can get solvent popping. Most clear companies reccomend only 3 coats at a time. if you want a real deep looking clear then you need to get a High solids clear, Dupnt makes a great clear their supierior appeance clear flows great and looks real deep, down side is that it is expensive, but it is a top of the line cleat that will last the longest. You can get it a wesco that's who i deal with, they also have their european clear that is pretty good but harder to spray and get it to flow out real well and will require wet sanding and buffing. the dupont one should flow out no problems i painted my 51 chevy pickup with it and i came out great.

My 2 cents
Ant

This is the best I have that shows the paint. Ignore Danelle, lol. look on the fender hilight. That was regular bla white, with just one light dust coat of Caddilac pearl. Pearls are real hard to catch in a photo.

quote Originally posted by rogergarrison: This is the best I have that shows the paint. Ignore Danelle, lol. look on the fender hilight. That was regular bla white, with just one light dust coat of Caddilac pearl. Pearls are real hard to catch in a photo.

I think the hood ornament would make anything go from bla to glam

So is that plain white, one Cadillac Pearl and the X number of clear? How many coats of clear? How hard is that to touch up?

edit: clarifying post.

[This message has been edited by JPW (edited 03-16-2009).]

Yes the original GM plain white. Cadillac pearl white is 3 stage...base color, pearl coat and clearcoat. Brand I use reduces color coats 1 to 1 with reducer. I put on one coat of just the pearl coat after repainting the factory white. I put on 3 coats of clear, sanded one off and buffed. If you dont sand and buff, I just put 2 coats on. It was painted 3 years with no cracking or chipping on front or rear bumpers. Like said, pearl colors will never touch up perfectly. If you do any respray touch up, its also very hard to get the exact same shade again.

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[This message has been edited by rogergarrison (edited 03-17-2009).]

I was planning on mixing extra clear with pearl in it so if I need to respray anything later I will already have the right mixture is there a shelf life on clear coat that has pearl mixed in to it?

I dont know for sure. Prob varies with brands. If you keep it at room temp, I would guess clear with pearl in it should last a couple of years if sealed tight. Its not only the mix that makes it hard to match, its also air pressure, humidity, gun used, temp. Thats why you always want to paint pearl and candies with the vehicle together as much as possible. You can paint a hood and door next to each other on sawhorses at the same time and still get a missmatch just from the angle of the gun or your stroke direction.

I wouldn't pre-mix it. Just write down the mix so that you can do again at any time. Usually paint is mixed by the gram. See if your local paint store will let you use their scale, if not just find a good way to measure it that you can scale down at any time you need it in the future.
~ Paul
aka "Tha Driver"

Thanks that's not a bad idea I have a very acurite small scale that I can mesure out the pearl with so I can mix more later if I need to and I will be painting the whole car all at once so the humidity and temp are all the same and as for the spray angle I'll do my best to keep my lines stright! Haha wish me luck! It might take a while as I have a lot more mechanical work to be done before I can get it back to the paint booth and nobody seams to want to help with the auto shift kit in my other post! Haha but I'm trying to stay patient tho oh well I'll figure it out thanks again for all of the paint help and if you have any more sugustions I'll looking on this post everyday

A simple way I have to mix up special colors is to use the old style 35mm film canisters. They are 1 oz. Just figure out how much you want to use for say a pint of mixed clear and write it down. I use a labelmaker and put it on the car somewhere, like inside the glovebox door, along with all the codes of the colors, etc. Id say 1 or 2 oz per pint of clear would be good.