I do love this site and all the help guys. I have done some nice cars and motorcycles over the last three years. I am doing base clear that I get from US auto color and they also give me advice. I painted a bike recently that was a burgundy base that had micro fine silver flake mixed in at the time I bought the base. I painted the same way I would have painted without flake and it turned out perfect. I am painting a 240z now for my wife and I asked for an orange that is the same as original but with the micro fine flake mixed in. there were different guys behind the counter than before and they acted like I was making a mistake. saying it would be like throwing a rock in a mud puddle and you would not see the flake. they also did not know how much flake to add so I bought a 6oz jar and did some testing. it was real interesting because when you spray the base only you don't see the flake just little bumps but as soon as it flashed I was on it with the clear and bang the flake came through the way we wanted it. you don't see much of the flake in artificial light or low light but when the car is in the sun it is awesome.

Paint is crazy stuff, right? When I first got into higher level furniture refinishing instructors told us to never look at "liquid" colors in the can/bottle as they had nothing to do with how the stuff looked laid out on a surface. Modern flakes and pearls can be so ultra fine you don't even see them in that liquid state..... Any pic.s of that 240z. I used to have a custom painted 280z years ago.

Just for my information... are you talking a real metal flake or a metallic?

I have used what they call micro flake mixed in a semitransparent base. Flake was very close in color to the base, came out very nice. I have also done Blue Ice Pearl in a blue base that was more opaque, but it still pops nicely.

Just some thoughts on the subject...

The positive side of mixing the flake into the base is you get the pop of the flake with a standard base clear job, and it's more forgiving than a tri-stage, harder to get stripes or blotches. The down side is that you end up using a ton of flake, depending on the sparkle intensity you want might need a second session of clear to bury the flake, and the pop is more subtle, you can't get to that super seventies glitter.

I have moved to using the flake or pearl in a tri-stage system. Spray base, mix flake in your first coat of clear, then 2 more coats of clear. Up side is it takes less material for the same effect, you can get more effect than you can with the base/flake mix, and it seems to be less work. Down side is it is less forgiving, harder to get flake coverage even.

DarrelK wrote:Paint is crazy stuff, right? When I first got into higher level furniture refinishing instructors told us to never look at "liquid" colors in the can/bottle as they had nothing to do with how the stuff looked laid out on a surface. Modern flakes and pearls can be so ultra fine you don't even see them in that liquid state..... Any pic.s of that 240z. I used to have a custom painted 280z years ago.

no pics yet the wife does all the pics and I am still working on it maybe in a few weeks.

BeoBob wrote:Just for my information... are you talking a real metal flake or a metallic?

I have used what they call micro flake mixed in a semitransparent base. Flake was very close in color to the base, came out very nice. I have also done Blue Ice Pearl in a blue base that was more opaque, but it still pops nicely.

Just some thoughts on the subject...

The positive side of mixing the flake into the base is you get the pop of the flake with a standard base clear job, and it's more forgiving than a tri-stage, harder to get stripes or blotches. The down side is that you end up using a ton of flake, depending on the sparkle intensity you want might need a second session of clear to bury the flake, and the pop is more subtle, you can't get to that super seventies glitter.

I have moved to using the flake or pearl in a tri-stage system. Spray base, mix flake in your first coat of clear, then 2 more coats of clear. Up side is it takes less material for the same effect, you can get more effect than you can with the base/flake mix, and it seems to be less work. Down side is it is less forgiving, harder to get flake coverage even.

.004 flake is what the jar says. there was 6oz of powdered flake and I ended up using the whole jar in one gallon of orange base. the wife wanted the flake to take on some of the orange color instead of standing out as a different color. the last few cars I have done were my cars and color choices so this time she is picking. I have tried some pearl spray outs testing colors and have not done a car or bike yet with pearl.

http://i642.photobucket.com/albums/uu14 ... xvs4uw.jpg http://i642.photobucket.com/albums/uu14 ... ydrivd.jpg http://i642.photobucket.com/albums/uu14 ... cfpfxp.jpg this one has the .004 flake in the base and you don't see it in my pics but in the sunlight it is nice.