Mixing Color in Clear?

[manicmechanic]

I have heard of painters who claim to mix in color in their clearcoats on a BC/CC paint job. I'm using Dupont Chroma System BC/CC and was wondering if this is possible. If you mix in some color in your clearcoat application does it need to be activated (the Color) and is this even possible. What I am trying to do is shoot a design layout on my hood in a faint black color. If it didn't work out I will apply a vinyl decal over the affected area. Any thoughts?
Thanks.

[Brent Jarvis]

Hi Manicmechanic,
Lots of painters use that trick. Basically you are making a Candy color from scratch. I am not totally familair with the Dupont product line though. We have PPG and House of Color at our shop. But the jist of it is simple. You can mix the color with a Base coat clear or top coat clear. Dupont should have a base coat clear in their line up. All paint companies do. It will be easier to use then doing it in the top coat clear. Which you should be able to do also if you choose. The top coat would be mixed with a small very small amount of color then you reduce and add activator as usual. Talk to your dupont rep about the chemicals to be sure.
Withy PPG we use the 500 base clear to make candies. You can use top coat to but the base is way easier to apply. The house of color brand is all top coat clear with color tint for their candies. Hard to use but if your good its the best out there. Not for amatures for sure. We do a lot of Candy paint jobs at our shop and it depends on what we are doing as to what chemicals I use. I go with house of color for the most brilliant colors.

To make the black transparent it will require a very small amount of black tint in the clear. You may want to over reduce it to help make it flow. You will have to do some test samples first and take notes before detroying your hood! Be carefull with black as it is not a good candy-transparent color. It tends to turn brown and other less desirable colors when used as a candy. Remember Candy-transparent paint shows the color under it and makes a combination of both for your special effect. Red over gold metalflake for example the most famous candy of all. The red looks like deep dark marron-brown in the can. Practice-practice if you have not done this before!!

Another reason some guys do this, myself included is for brilliance. On any metallic or pearl paint job, once the car is covered you can mix color and clear and put on 2 to 4 coats and it really gives that same color a deep brilliance. It suspends the pearl or metalic particles and just looks outstanding. After that comes straight clear.

Good luck with your hood,
Brent Jarvis
CEO
Performance Restorations
Mundelein Il

[importkiller69ss]

on my 70 chevelle that my dad and i did our buddy who painted it did the same thing. the car was a s004 porce color called atric silver..and he mixed in the silver base to the clearcoat ..the car had black stripes and in the sun from the right angle the stripes totally dissapered. but looking at it straight the stripes look gloss black.. looked really sick..

[manicmechanic]

Thanks Guys, Importkiller, any pics of this?

[danbob67]

I would make sure that if you did put basecoat in the clear coat to let that flash a while and then put straight clear over it if not it will dye back and look dull. I would rather do as the guy above said and use a basecoat type clear and not like a high solids clear for a tint coat like it sounds like you are doing.

[justasquid]

I've never used the method of a base mixed in clear. I did however use House of kolor dry pearl mixed in the clear. I painted my wifes R6 with a base coat white, then applied one coat of clear. I then mixed in rossetta red pearl into the clear and clear two more times. Then, cleared again two more times with no additive. It turned out awesome. The depth was amazing, especially for a white color.

The bike looked like a pearl white. But depending on the angle, it would change from pearl white to silver to pink to red...

[lvrpool32]

I have done this on restorations (corvette's) where you are trying to emulate the look of a factory finish (lacquer)
It seems to reduce the "mile deep" look of a clear on top of color effect (which seems to be less on light color cars anyway).
Your only putting in a few drops of tint into your clear, so shouldnt effect gloss level.

[manicmechanic]

Thanks for the replies, I went with a SEM bumper coater black to get the effect I wanted.
Factory Hood and Vinyl graphic:

New Hood with Bumper Coater to emulate factory vinyl graphic.

[Riderz Cycle]

I have mixed the base color in the clear and it does work well. My only caution is if your base is metallic and you have any issues such as a run or a fish eye this will show in you paint job. Tough to fix, if your using straight solids no issues and it looks great…