Rex:I need a suggestion.

[Bigdan1928]

Hopefully I will shoot my flams tomorow but got a quick question.Im going with a red pearl flame with the purple candy base.Then Id like a white pearl ghost flame out line around it.To get the effect of just a plain ghost flame but with a pearl interior color upon close inspection.my question Is what order would be best to spray the licks?Im guessing on the pearl base/candy then airbrush the ghost flames.Also, should i spray the pearl separate or with the candy base?if separate,witch one first?Any suggestions from yall'd be nice. Big Dan

 

[rex]

Hey man,I didn't refresh the screen last night and missed some.Scott and EZ are the ones for this but let me see if I got it right.You have a candy base and want to do pearl flames over it with a white pearl edge?If that's right you really can't tape off the flames unless you want the white pearl to have a defined edge too,kind of like pinstriping the flames.If this soft edge is what you're looking for I think the easiest thing to do is airbrush in the red flames to keep the edge soft and then trace it with the white pearl.If a hard edge isn't a problem I'd tape off and spray the white pearl first,then come back and lay a piece of tape over the edge to cover the white,say 1/8" fineline,then spray the red flames.To coat the candy base would depend on the thickness of it.If you're up around 7 to 8 coats of ground coat and candy i'd prefer to put 2 coats of top clear down and sand before the flames to lock it down.If that can be done in about 5 I'd lay a coat of base clear down and continue,but use up the dry time to let the bases gas out as much as possible.Once I get around 8 coats of base I don't like to keep going.Sandwiching alot of base and clear to get to the end result isn't great but I think it's worse to have a serious thickness of base before you clear.Since the bases are soft they move around under the clear,but if you can lock down the bases at a stage somewhere near mid way it'll only help.I'm talking topcoat clear now,an intercoat clear counts as base so you don't want to keep going and end up with 10 or more coats of base to count on a catalized product to hold together,there's just too much movement going on in the base to be reliable.Under controlled environmental conditions it isn't a huge factor,but if this thing will see the heat and sun and then cool down considerably later on the repititions of this cycle will eventually cause a paint failure,most likely crazing or cracking.Let me know if I'm close to what you're asking.

 

[Bigdan1928]

yea your pretty close.To make it more understandable:Imagine that the car is not plain red,but the whole car is red and I just sprayed it with the red pearl. Then i coverd it with the candy.Got it so far?Now I have a pearl red car with the candy effect.Easy so far?Now, I want to spray regular ''ghost flames''in white pearl before I clear it in.My end result would be a red candy/pearl car with regular flames.Now,In reality, my car will stay plain red but what I just explained will happen within the taped off flame aera.I want the flame aera just as I explained but am afraid that when I spray the white pearl last that the colors[pearl and candy]will show through too much and I wont get the ghost flame look.I thought of clearing the pearl/candy base first then sand and shoot the flames but I drive the car too work and have to do this in one shot leavin it for one night only.If scott or ez have any comments feel free to add them.I gotaa get it right the first time.The candy will be VERY light.Just to not have the same red as the rest of the car.I wana break it up a shade or too.Thanks so much for your imput guys. Big Dan

 

[TAZ]

Originally posted by Bigdan1928:
Imagine that the car is not plain red,but the whole car is red and I just sprayed it with the red pearl. Then i covered it with the candy.Got it so far?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I don't understand this part. Sounds like you want to spray the flames in white pearl, then pearl the rest of the parts, then candy and clear it?!?!

Also, it sounds like you only want to pearl and candy the panels that have the flames on it (not the whole car). This will throw the color match of for the adjacent panels. Maybe I mis-understood you on this.

Sounds pretty complicated for a ghost flames job. Since "pearl" flakes are transparent, and it seems you want a real ghost flame job, I would just spray some white pearl for the flames (mixed in with a tad bit of silver), then over-reduce it, airbrush it on, then clear the flamed panels. Sounds like you only planned on putting a coat of two of the candy, if you are using the UK candy, it won't make a much (if any) difference anyway. The red "base" will show through the white pearl mix anyway to give it a nice ghost effect. If you add the silver in with the white pearl, this helps make the flames stand out more when there isn't any light on them.

Hope this helps you out!!

 

[rex]

I pretty much have it now but you want the white pearl for more of an outline than a complete overlay right?Now,do you want a defined pinstripe of the white around the pearl/candy or are you planning on just running the edge of the tape with the white last and then untape it?The first is the easiest to keep the white bright,the last is easy too but it's gonna be harder to get a good white over all the red and pearl.Let me know and I'll be back tonight around 8 or so.

 

[Bigdan1928]

You guys are right.I want a regular ghost flame job,but i dont like how plain it is.So Basicly Id tape off the flames and instead of airbrushing my ghost flames and be done id spray the whole flame aera with the red pearland Then airbrush my ghost flames on like i just taped it off.I decited that Im not going to spray the candy after all.SO,...Ill spray all the flames and whole front end with the red pearl and go in later with some white pearl flames.Sory I confused yall,But you were a big help.Scott,To get the ghost flames right, Can I use a smal H V L P gun?I dont have a good air brush and am afraid that the small hvlp will have too big a pattern?Allso,how many coats of the white pearl will give me a seeable ghost flame.I have no silver pearl, just charcoal.And one more,If you think that the small hvlp wont do it, im going to go with silver metalic flames with a charcoal pinstripe fade to black tips!Sound familiar?I saw it yesterday and loved the contrast!!Awsom work!If you dont mind me robbing the idea?Any help is great. keep up the good posts.Big Dan

 

[TAZ]

Dan,

Since you are doing your flame job on a car, I don't think you will have any problem using a HVLP gun to do the ghost effect. You need to play around with the adjustments to get a smaller patterh. You will probably want to turn the "fan" adjustment so you have a very round pattern, and turn down the "fluid" adjustment quite a bit.

It will probably take a couple passes with the white pearl to get a good effect. This really depends on how reduced the pearl is along with your gun settings.

You probably could get a decent ghost effect with the charcoal that you have. Reduce it quite a bit.

Pull back the paper in a small area on every pass. This will give you an idea of how your ghosting is doing next to your base color.
Good Luck!

 

[TAZ]

You''ll get a kick out of this....

I once did a "cobra" head so that when you closed the spray booth doors, it made the full cobra head. It was about 2 1/2 x 2'

I did this all with a *Binks #7*

I could get it down to about 1/8" pattern.
Yes...this was way back when...

about 2 weeks ago

Seriously though, I did do this. Unfortunately I didn't get any pics. This was in the late '80's

 

[rex]

You're covered now.The only thing I can add is you can increase your pearl strength a little to get better coverage but don't get carried away and just dump it in the clear.