B
Burton
Guest
Has anyone used this product or any of there products? http://www.xoticcolours.com
O
onelowzuki
Guest
Not yet , i was getting ready to ask these guys about it too.
P
Pigpipes
Guest
I stopped by their booth at a show in Minneapolis a few weeks ago. The crystals are way cool, so I picked up a quart($99) of the stuff on Wednesday. Kind of an inside out process, a little labor intensive but looks worth the effort.
If you want red crystals on a black base, the process is to lay down the red, clear it(catalized), sand with 320, spray on the crystal solution using a windex bottle. When dry, spray a dust coat of the black, then go over it with a sponge & clean water till the pattern emerges, dry, clear, then start in on the graphics. If you don't like the crystal patterns you can take it off with thinner & respray.
I'm gonna play with the stuff on a few test panels next week and will let you know how it works.
FYI, Xotic is owned by Bob Hughes, who worked for HOK for years and didn't want to move to MO when they sold out to Valspar. Nice guy with a good product line but i'm sure they've got their work cut out going toe to toe with HOK.
They also have some pretty neat color shifting dry pearls - about 8 or 9 colors.
If you want red crystals on a black base, the process is to lay down the red, clear it(catalized), sand with 320, spray on the crystal solution using a windex bottle. When dry, spray a dust coat of the black, then go over it with a sponge & clean water till the pattern emerges, dry, clear, then start in on the graphics. If you don't like the crystal patterns you can take it off with thinner & respray.
I'm gonna play with the stuff on a few test panels next week and will let you know how it works.
FYI, Xotic is owned by Bob Hughes, who worked for HOK for years and didn't want to move to MO when they sold out to Valspar. Nice guy with a good product line but i'm sure they've got their work cut out going toe to toe with HOK.
They also have some pretty neat color shifting dry pearls - about 8 or 9 colors.
P
Pigpipes
Guest
I had a Sporty tank handy so I thought I'd try a few different bases with the crystals. Tried a candy red, blue, the stock HD blue on the side of the tank with the logo intact(turned out better than I'd expected), a gold and a silver. Also tried a red & a yellow on the other side - boring!! You need to stick with the candys or pearlescents with this stuff. It took about 4 tries before I got it to work right - best results were achieved by taking the black off the top crystal ridges with 1500 wet very lightly. Temp was about 80. Warmer temp = smaller crystals. Photos are posted here:
http://thevirtualbarandgrill.com/gallery/album04
Neat effect, but if you're going to try it, make sure you play with it on a panel or 2 to get comfortable with it as it has a mind of it's own and requires a lot of patience.
Being a glutton for punishment, I'm trying it on my Road King with a purple pearl base & black & will post the pics if I don't shoot myself halfway through.....
I'm also trying the complete Xotic colours system from primer to clears to see how I like working with it.
The photos seem to have lost some of the quality posting them at yahoo. If somebody knows of a better place/way to do it, let me know & I'll put them there.
http://thevirtualbarandgrill.com/gallery/album04
Neat effect, but if you're going to try it, make sure you play with it on a panel or 2 to get comfortable with it as it has a mind of it's own and requires a lot of patience.
Being a glutton for punishment, I'm trying it on my Road King with a purple pearl base & black & will post the pics if I don't shoot myself halfway through.....
I'm also trying the complete Xotic colours system from primer to clears to see how I like working with it.
The photos seem to have lost some of the quality posting them at yahoo. If somebody knows of a better place/way to do it, let me know & I'll put them there.
B
Burton
Guest
PigPipes,
Thanks for the reply. I was thinking about doing it over a black base to get a black and white crystal effect then coming over the top with a Kandy(Cobalt Blue). Do you think that would work? Can you check your link I can't get to the pics.
Thanks,
Burton
Thanks for the reply. I was thinking about doing it over a black base to get a black and white crystal effect then coming over the top with a Kandy(Cobalt Blue). Do you think that would work? Can you check your link I can't get to the pics.
Thanks,
Burton
P
Pigpipes
Guest
Burton,
I changed the link - should work now.
My guess is that you're better off shooting the Candy blue as your basecoat, then putting the black on over the crystals as you're justing a dust coat of the black on from about 14-18" , not looking for real solid coverage. I'm thinking a dust coat of white won't cover like you'd want & if you get enough white on there to cover it, you'll bury the crystal ridges & never get the proper effect.
If you want to candy the whole thing, assuming you're looking for the candy blue over black effect, I'd shoot a white or silver base, clear, sand, crystal, dust the black, sand the tops off, then put down the blue kandy.
Again, just my guess on this one. Call Bob at Xotic for the real skinny. I think this stuff's so new that everybody's still learning it's little ins & outs.
I changed the link - should work now.
My guess is that you're better off shooting the Candy blue as your basecoat, then putting the black on over the crystals as you're justing a dust coat of the black on from about 14-18" , not looking for real solid coverage. I'm thinking a dust coat of white won't cover like you'd want & if you get enough white on there to cover it, you'll bury the crystal ridges & never get the proper effect.
If you want to candy the whole thing, assuming you're looking for the candy blue over black effect, I'd shoot a white or silver base, clear, sand, crystal, dust the black, sand the tops off, then put down the blue kandy.
Again, just my guess on this one. Call Bob at Xotic for the real skinny. I think this stuff's so new that everybody's still learning it's little ins & outs.
P
Pigpipes
Guest
Apparently Yahoo won't let me show the photos so I moved them to VB&G. The new link in the post above will get you to them.
Sorry 'bout that....
Sorry 'bout that....
B
Burton
Guest
Thanks for the updated link the tank looks good!
O
orange peel
Guest
aswered my own question.....thanks for all the great info. (this place is heaven for painters)
O
orange peel
Guest
So excited that I didn't even reconize the name...I have used X-OTIC before...great pearls(real fine)...and the clear reacts just like House o Kolor....now it makes sense because who makes it.....same as HoK...same price too!
M
myfamiliacc
Guest
I finely got to try out the crystals. Yes they do get some getting used to, but after exparementing with them all night, I got to know them pretty well. Doing them step by step as the manufacture recomended didn't work for me, but after playing around with them and trying new things, they turned out pretty good. I almost didn't get to it becouse of other projects in the painting part of the shop, but we rolled the car into another part of the shop and just went for it.
I have a silver metalic base and medcoat clear on my brothers Regal. After sanding smooth the midcoat clear, I taped out some simple patterns were the crystal will go. Though now I wish I would have gone with some not so basic patterns, but still it does look good.
After the crystals had formed. I misted over them with NightHauk blue (Really dark blue). Letting the blue compleaty dry after an hour. I washed off the crystals useing a clean denum rag. Then contenued to clean the entire car with only soap and water.
After it dried I applied 3 coats of 3oz. HOK silver mini-flake, 1oz of PPG red pearl, mixed in 2qrts of clear.
and covering evrything in a gallen of clear.
The car still needs to be cut and buffed. It will also get a new silver vinel top to go with the new finish.
I realy did like the crystal effect, but I think I might stick with marbeliser. I find it easer to work with, and both are very similer.
Here are the crystals forming.
Crystals fully formed
After the night hauk blue
after the flake/peal/clear mix
Broken windshield a result of my brothers anger manegment technique. (grab a baseball bat and break somthing)
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smashpc.gif
I have a silver metalic base and medcoat clear on my brothers Regal. After sanding smooth the midcoat clear, I taped out some simple patterns were the crystal will go. Though now I wish I would have gone with some not so basic patterns, but still it does look good.
After the crystals had formed. I misted over them with NightHauk blue (Really dark blue). Letting the blue compleaty dry after an hour. I washed off the crystals useing a clean denum rag. Then contenued to clean the entire car with only soap and water.
After it dried I applied 3 coats of 3oz. HOK silver mini-flake, 1oz of PPG red pearl, mixed in 2qrts of clear.
and covering evrything in a gallen of clear.
The car still needs to be cut and buffed. It will also get a new silver vinel top to go with the new finish.
I realy did like the crystal effect, but I think I might stick with marbeliser. I find it easer to work with, and both are very similer.
Here are the crystals forming.
Crystals fully formed
After the night hauk blue
after the flake/peal/clear mix
Broken windshield a result of my brothers anger manegment technique. (grab a baseball bat and break somthing)
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smashpc.gif