painting with Corvette "Tint Coats"

[Johnny Blaze]

I am looking for a color for my project and have come across the new corvette colors. I got the code and had my paint supply shop mix up a sample in a base coat. After trying it out, it appeared much darker than what I had seen.

I did some research and see these referred to as Tint Coats, with people saying the clear is tinted. There are also a lot of talk about not being able to match and blend the colors on touch up.


My questions,

When I had it mixed, why did it not come up as having a tinted clear?
What is the tint in the clear?

How can I spray this and look similar?

What color base does GM use?

The Paint in question are 2 corvette colors for 2011 and 2015, Laguna Blue ( the one I tried) and Jet Stream Blue.



My thoughts are,

Start with a white base, spray as few coats of the blue as possible and cover with clear.


Any experienced painters have advice for an amateur?

[astroracer]

Getting the base color correct is key to making the translucent coat pop. I would go to a dealership and talk to them. THEY will know as well as any good body shop that does Corvette repair. White may work as well as silver.
Mark

[dhutton]

I thought they were tri base coat systems but I could be wrong. Similar to House of Kolor Kandy Base Coat systems. These require a base, then the color, then the clear. The more coats of the color you apply, the darker it gets. They are tricky to apply and generally require many passes at all angles to avoid tiger striping etc. Google House of Kolor Kandy Base on youtube and you will likely find a video of a guy painting his BMW. It is a lot of work. I used it for my 64 GTO.

Don

[Johnny Blaze]

Yes it is a Tri coat system from the factory. There is a lot of debate on the corvette forums about bodyshops and aftermarket painting of these colors.

Most shops are doing it as a base coat clear coat, which leads to problems matching. These colors are awesome, but I'm afraid they may be too hard to spray for a novice like myself. Of course they are the colors the wife prefers over the factory Mulsanne Blue.

[dhutton]

Yes it is a Tri coat system from the factory. There is a lot of debate on the corvette forums about bodyshops and aftermarket painting of these colors.

Most shops are doing it as a base coat clear coat, which leads to problems matching. These colors are awesome, but I'm afraid they may be too hard to spray for a novice like myself. Of course they are the colors the wife prefers over the factory Mulsanne Blue.

My 64 GTO was my second paint job and I used Brandy Wine HOK Kandy Base. It turned out quite well. HOK black sealer followed by 3 coats of silver base followed by 4 coats of Brandy Wine Kandy Base followed by 3 coats of clear. I did a lot of research and it took me the whole day to paint that car. I think I walked the car a thousand times that day... :>) I also invested in an Iwata LPH400 gun and the special air cap for metallics.

That being said my preference is to use solid colors and to panel paint the car. It is a lot easier for an amateur painting in their home shop.

Don

[Johnny Blaze]

For reference,
This was my first paint job, and yes this is the car that will get repainted. I am about to tear it apart to repair rust.

http://www.eastwood.com/blog/eastwood-chatter/second-time-is-a-charm-painting-a-1971-chevy-camaro/

This is my second paint job, yes I like blue,
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2015/01/f63a0d20de5ddf33032d5bb545aeeee4_zps6e82-1.jpg (http://s23.photobucket.com/user/clownj1988/media/f63a0d20de5ddf33032d5bb545aeeee4_zps6e820cd2.jpg.h tml)

Both are metallic, the 55 having bigger and more metallic. No experience with pearl though.

[Matman3]

To directly answer your questions,

1. After e-Coat, GM uses a dark grey or white as the substrate color. White would be for the Blue you referenced.
2. When purchasing the color you should have recieved two colors for the actual tri-coat. The base coat color and the tint which you add to the clear. Some paint manufactures will make a base/clear varient that is not a true tri-coat.
3.The procedure for painting these two colors is very time intensive. Especially if spraying waterborne.

First play down the substrate color over properly prepped original paint or sealer. Apply the base coat by walking the car and be careful no to zebra stripe the color by speeding, slowing down or improper overlap. Once that color has kicked, spray the tint/clear as directed. Paint manufacture will have proper mixing ratios. Then lay down the actual clear coat.

[Johnny Blaze]

Thanks for the info Mat.

When I got the sample mixed, they did not give me 2 colors. It was mixed in a single can of base coat. The paint guy mentioned that it included 2 different colors of pearl in it, but no mention of a separate tint.


Due to skill level, I'm thinking I may go back to Mulsanne but see if the mixer can add more metallic, or maybe a bigger metallic, just to make it a little different and flashy.

[jlcustomz]

More metallic can easily be added to paint, just need to avoid ending up with the bass boat sized flakes.

Just as a suggestion , have you looked into a paint line , such as House of Kolors to see if they have anything to your liking? Companies like HOK sell a large amount of product to guys like me & you that do our own stuff, so at least they can remove some product confusion.

Pearl colors can give you a look you can't get with single stage color methods, but I think this can be much more difficult to get perfect especially for those of us that don't get to paint very often with the best equipment in the best environment. If you stare at a high end pearl paint job long enough with a painters eye, you will see some variance.
NOT telling you not to try if you're up for it though.

I think you got the first rule of understanding painting down packed;;;; realizing that it's just paint.

[Shootstraight]

If it's a true 3 stage paint then it's not for a novice. Some tri colors might have a 2 stage formula but usually they don't have that true pearl look. Synergy green for instance (think new Camaro) has a two stage formula but it won't match to the 3 stage if your trying to blend it. It won't look bad on an all over but doesn't have that "pop" that looks great.
A three stage paint has a foundation color, mostly white on lighter colors, then a pearlcoat is added on top after the foudnation drys. The amount of pearl coats you add, changes the color. Foundation coats are simple, pearls are not. If you overlap inconsistently and the wrong way then you are adding more pearl in one area and will end up with a patchy mess.
The Vets are specialty colors and as mentioned above, typically have tinted clears, that adds a whole other difficulty factor.