metalic and pearl paints

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 29, 2019 8:26 pm
What is the difference between metalic paint and pearl paint?

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 29, 2019 11:27 pm
Like the difference between apples and oranges.... seriously....both fruits....and that's where things end on being similar. Metallic paint is like what I would call a "foundation" color made of little twinkling particles you can actually see with the naked eye. These can go from near invisible to the ever popular old "bass boat" size you would see in old gel coats. A metallic color can "stand alone"in a SSU or base/clear. A pearl on the other hand is more like microscopic sized particles which, when added over solid or metallic colors cause a shift or "shimmer" in that underlying paint color. Old first examples in the custom paint world were like Duponts Chromillusion effects. Then you got pearl effects like flip/flops and finally migration of pearls into factory paints giving us the tri-coats which have become quite common in the manufacturing "paint wars" which seems like a constant battle to "one up" each other on special effects....... and that's enough history for today......
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 29, 2019 11:28 pm
The flakes in metallic are tiny pieces of aluminium, hence the name.

In pearls the flakes are (usually, but not always) mica.

There's a degree of crossover and there are lots of variations in flake type, reflectivity, brightness, size and colour, but, in a nutshell, that's it.
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 30, 2019 9:52 am
I would add that metallic paints are usually applied as any other base coat. Pearls on the other hand are usually sprayed over a foundation or color coat hence the phrase tri-stage.

This truck is a Subaru Blue Spruce Pearl. It required a foundation color which was green that looked almost black, followed by the pearl coats and then finally the clear. You will notice that there is a bluish tint that becomes apparent when the camera flash hits it.

Here is stage one:
Base Coat Stage 1.JPG


Here is the hood in stage two:
Hood Base Coat.JPG


Hood with clear applied as sprayed:
Hood Clear as Sprayed 1.JPG


Hood installed:
Hood Installed.JPG


Outside shot:
Front View.JPG
1968 Coronet R/T


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PostPosted: Wed Oct 30, 2019 12:41 pm
That helps a lot. Good explanation and great pics. The pearl is a "stand alone" coat and not part of the top clear coat?

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PostPosted: Wed Oct 30, 2019 1:26 pm
No. 99% of factory pearls have the pearl mixed in with the colour. To allow the pearl to be seen means that the colour needs to be somewhat transparent which, in turn, means that the base under that either needs to be coloured (some, not many) or a particular shade of grey (most).

Factory three layer pearls came out a bit over 15 years ago. With these a solid, coloured base is laid down first and then the pearl, which is carried in a clear, or semi-clear binder, is sprayed on top, followed by clear, of course. In the custom industry this had been done long before, sometimes with the pearl over a layer of clear, which gave added definition and depth, and sometimes just straight over the ground coat.

The next extension was to tint the clear and this essentially makes what is called a 'candy'. Again, in custom work this had been done for a long time but, ex factory, this is a fairly recent innovation.

Interestingly, both the 3 layer and factory candy colours were largely introduced by Mazda, although others were quick to come out with their equivalents. The introduction of these technologies caused great consternation in the refinish industry initially because there were no techniques available to achieve effective repair of these colours. These techniques were fairly quickly developed and, these days, things like tinted to untinted clear blends are commonplace.

One thing, if you're ever considering doing a custom variation on any of these techniques, is that it is extremely important that the formulations and procedures used in doing the colour are well documented, so that any damage to the paint job can be duplicated and repaired.
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 30, 2019 3:37 pm
BFLIT wrote:That helps a lot. Good explanation and great pics. The pearl is a "stand alone" coat and not part of the top clear coat?


In this particular paint, yes.
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 30, 2019 3:57 pm
NFT5 wrote:No. 99% of factory pearls have the pearl mixed in with the colour. To allow the pearl to be seen means that the colour needs to be somewhat transparent which, in turn, means that the base under that either needs to be coloured (some, not many) or a particular shade of grey (most).

Factory three layer pearls came out a bit over 15 years ago. With these a solid, coloured base is laid down first and then the pearl, which is carried in a clear, or semi-clear binder, is sprayed on top, followed by clear, of course. In the custom industry this had been done long before, sometimes with the pearl over a layer of clear, which gave added definition and depth, and sometimes just straight over the ground coat.

The next extension was to tint the clear and this essentially makes what is called a 'candy'. Again, in custom work this had been done for a long time but, ex factory, this is a fairly recent innovation.

Interestingly, both the 3 layer and factory candy colours were largely introduced by Mazda, although others were quick to come out with their equivalents. The introduction of these technologies caused great consternation in the refinish industry initially because there were no techniques available to achieve effective repair of these colours. These techniques were fairly quickly developed and, these days, things like tinted to untinted clear blends are commonplace.

One thing, if you're ever considering doing a custom variation on any of these techniques, is that it is extremely important that the formulations and procedures used in doing the colour are well documented, so that any damage to the paint job can be duplicated and repaired.


When I was searching for the correct color for the '55 I had some jobbers try to mix it as a regular base coat. None of those mixes worked.
On the first attempt the green metallic looked fairly close but under the camera flash there was no blue reflected.
Step Installed Drivers Side - 50%.jpg


The second jobber didn't even get the green metallic shade correct.
Paint Mismatch - 50%.jpg

SAM_0697.JPG


I was struggling with this until Painterdave looked it up for me and said it was a tri-stage. Once I got the right products ordered the match was perfect:
SAM_0698.JPG
1968 Coronet R/T


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PostPosted: Wed Oct 30, 2019 5:29 pm
:happy: Oh, I see what happening. I'm speaking in general terms, you're speaking in specifics.

In that colour, yes, a 3 layer. Although I looked it up in my Cromax system and could only find Subaru 433 Spruce, which is a single layer pearl. Doing it as a 3 layer would make a big difference.
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 03, 2019 9:50 am
Metallics (in the custom paint world) are just sliver, gold, bronze, or other metal colored flakes. Usually very small, and added to paint in the base coat.
Pearls can be: pure color mica flakes, but they can also be transparent mica flakes that reflect a color when light hits them at the right angle. (In the "old daze" they were called "flip-flop" pearls.) There are also 2 color reflecting mica flakes. Originally done in 3 stage paint, as custom paint, though now factory paints add them into the basecoat for 2 stage., or as a 3 step job.
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