Help with Black

[outlaw17]

I'm painting a 99 Ford truck tomorrow and it could be considered a normal every day job except this customer wants something a little different . The truck is black and what I would like to know is what I can do to make it look a little better with pearls and such. The guy does not want flames so this is not really a flame post but most of you guys have messed with pearls a stuff so I though I would ask all the pro's that frequent here . Standox has a paint called 'Monte Carlo Magic' that would be perfect because it is a multitone that looks black but changes to different colors when looked at different angles , the only problem is that it's $500.00 a quart up here in Canada and it would take 2 weeks to get so its out of the question .

We use Sherwin Williams Ultra 7000 BC/CC at our shop and we have a mixing station so I do have access to pearls . What do you think I can do to make black a liitle more 'cool' looking ?

I did another truck for someone else a couple months back and it was also black and the guy that owned it just started mixing pearls and stuff and I did'nt like the final result , so I dont want that to happen here . What we did was use a GM metallic black , added some blue and green powder sprayed it on and then in the first coat of clear added some red powder sprayed that and then just straight clear in the final coat , it looked good when you stuck your face right at the panel but from a distance it kinda looked a brownish sort of red .

Anything from you guys would be great !

 

[rex]

Yeah you gotta be careful with reds over black or you get that mud look.I like blues so a light coat of blue pearl owuld look nice,or even a few pearls mixed together but put don't make it a concentrated mix in the clear.

 

[outlaw17]

What I was thinking Rex was painting the truck black and then taking clear base and putting in some pearl , say blue , and then giving it a coat of that and then clearing it , what do you think that would turn out like ? Or what color of pearl would you suggest ?

Another question I have is can I just spray clear base , I have never tried so I dont know what it will look like , my guess is once it flashes you shouldn't be able to tell . If I do that with a small amout of pearl in it , once it flashes , will it still look black until I clear it ?

 

[ezrider]

Outlaw, like Rex i like the blues, but purple looks real kool over black. yes you can add the pearl to the clear base, thats how i do mine. just remember pearls come on very strong on black you can turn it purple or blue very easily, a little goes a very long way.

 

[outlaw17]

Thanks a bunch guys , this thing has a bunch of fibreglass accessories , so I think I'll test a mixture on some of these and see what I can make happen . If it doen't look good I can re-do them instead of the whole truck . Again , thanks for you input .

 

[rmt1and1]

Just another thought guys. I know that adding some purple pearl or blue to the basecoat in very small amounts enhances the black... and I mean small amounts. Also I've found that adding some black base in one or two coats of clear, then 1 pure coat of clear, really makes the black jump out. It gives it a really deep rich, distinctive hue. Jussst a thought.

 

[TWISTED]

Does it have to be a pearl job? I like candy black cherry over black. Very subtle but it doesn't look like a plain black truck.

 

[Duleyman]

I just sprayed a tank with black basecoat sherwin williams and added hok burble kandy concetrate to the clear along with Sherwins dry copper pearl added, then recleared, wow. very neat.

 

[William dean]

Hey guys, I just painted a 93 notch back Mustang with a Valspar black with red pearl in it with duponts (Blasberry) tribal flames and it came out awesome...so red pearl added right turns out ok...

 

[outlaw17]

Thanks a bunch for even more options , as it turned out I did not paint the truck today , we decided to do some experimenting to see what will look best , the customer owns a business across the street from us and he is in no real hurry , so I'm going to play for a few days and see what I can come up with . Any more input is welcome . Thanks .

P.S. I gotta talk him into some flames though .

 

[rex]

Definately play on test panels.GM used to have a black cherry and black saphire that was nothing more than pearl thrown in black,red and blue respectively.The black cherry always looked brown.Done right it looks good but you can't beat a pearl overlay,it makes the pearl stand out more or if mixed a little more on the reserved side you wont see it until the light hits it,which is my preference.If you trust your overlap and walking the whole side evenly I like to do it in one coat to cut down on the base buildup,but black is usually covered in 2coats and 2 coats of pearl isn't getting out of hand.It's a pain doing test panels but it saves alot of grief in the long run.

 

[outlaw17]

Well I painted it and I will psot pictures as soon as I can remember to take my darn camera to take some pics. I based the truck black and then I mixed up my pearl coat , 400grams of clear , 10 grams of blue mica , 5 grams of lilac pearl , 1 gram of blue pearl , was not sure of how much to do and was told by the owner to use lots of pearl so thats what the final potion was . I sprayed 1 coat and WOW , the truck was now purple ! I felt that if I sprayed a 2nd coat it would get even more purple so I left it and clear coated it . It looks O.K. I guess but a little blotchy and also darker at overlap areas but was a learning experience .
Now I had the chance to do a 2001 Mustang GT the same , it was black and the guy wanted something different , soooo..... I put some black base on then I mixed up a pearl mixture with waaaay less , 400 grams of clear and 1 gram of lilac pearl , I now know that you sure dont need much . I sprayed 1 medium coat and then dusted a 2nd one then cleared it and it sure turned out nice , still looks black but also has fairly dark purple highlights , pretty neat . I will take pictures of this one too and post them .
Thanks for all the input !