I have decided to add metal flake to my next paint job. I know what quantitys to add to the paint, but have heard of some people adding it to the clear and not the base coat Is this right, as I thought you would sand some out? I assumed it would add to the base coat only.

Anyone in the know?

Thanks

In the latest Street Machine Magazine (December) they have a article about that sort of thing in there. They describe it as putting down the colour paint you want first, followed by a clear coat with the metal flake in it, followed by another coat of just plain clear.

I've never done it before but it makes more sense to me to put a (or multiple) clear coats over the top of the metal flake coat.

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"In two years time your car will be like a lady's clothes, out of date, my car will still be in fashion when I am dead" - Sir Alec speaking to Pininfarina

I did this on my XJ6 Soveriegn. Had the normal burgundy paint coat, then just got some "Hologram Salmon" glitter from Spotlight, mixed it in with the clear coat. It was different, certainly doesn't look like a metallic paint. But it doesn't look bad either. I'll see if I can find some pics for ya.

Peace.

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-Wasabi
1972 Clubman - Daily Driver
1962 850 - EW1 Powered

Definatly dont do this unless you clear over again with no flakes, otherwise the exposed metal flakes will begin to oxidise and rust.. Thats right rusty paint. I dont like the effect myself as I have experimented with it a few times at work... Looks great in the sun when the flakes are reflecting the light but in the shade it just looks like dirt in the paint and it really looks crap.

Mike

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If it cant be fixed with a hammer it cant be FIXED!!

you can put the metal flake in either the paint or the clear. each one will give a different affect to each other. but like what Mini Mike said don't sand over it as it will damage the flakes

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Cheers Dan

FIRST COMES THE MONEY, THEN COMES THE POWER, THEN COMES THE WOMEN.!!

put it in thre base coat as a few others have said, its not that easy to do it wikll rub thruogh.

also ive been told u need a special type of spray gun to mix the paint as u do it.

cheers

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-jamie-
1963morris 850
1965 solid side van
1994 rover racecar

yeah you need a sucktion feed gun.. A gravity feed gun all the flake will fall to the bottom of the cup so as you spray you get less and less flak as you go.... Only really neede if you are going to mix the flake with the clear though. With base coat any gun will do fine.

If you have any questions you can pm me Im a painter panel beater so I can answer all the questions you have..

Mike

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If it cant be fixed with a hammer it cant be FIXED!!

Todays metalflake aren't actual metal but solvent resistant polyester.

I paint my Torana in green and gold metalflake over a metallic green base around 3years ago , when photobucket.com gets back online I will post a pic.

They're available in different size flakes, I used coarse SEM brand flakes and mixed them in the first coat of clear, then followed it with 3 more coats of 2K clear. It still looked like sandpaper. So I blocked the clear flat with 1200grit and flowcoated again with two more coats of 2K clear.

We also just painted a Mirage with gold microflake at work a couple of weeks ago but this time mixed the flakes in a basecoat mixing clear and due to their small size and the fact that they weren't "floating" in 2 pack clear meant that 2 coats of 2 pack clear was sufficient for a perfect final finish.

I'd honestly never paint a car of mine again with flake, it looks great for a month or two but after a while you look at it and think "what was I thinking??" and you'll will be wishing you painted it a standard colour or at least something timeless.

Pics to come when photobucket finishes their maintenance or I can email some if you like[/img]

Here's a pic of my LX torana painted with Green and also Gold metalflake over a metallic/pearl green base.



It's a hell of a lot of work and you will use a lot of materials, it all depends how much you like the effect, personally next time I'll leave it for the speedboats and mardigras floats

My sisters 850 was sprayed with a mix of acrylic red & the glitter primary school kids use

Couple of coats of clear over the top, and it looked quite cute.
Wouldn't do it myself though.

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Too many cars, and too little time.