Well, I am shooting a tri-stage paint job on a wheel cover. I never shot a pearl before. My question is, how much of the pearl do I lay on top of the white base coat? How many coats and how heavy? Does it all depend on me or is there a rule of thumb? Thanks!

 

If your unfamiliar with the color your best bet is do a let-down panel. It like a test panel but you full coverage base with the bottom coat, spray 1 coat of the top pearl coat, mask that section or spray multiple cards/ panels. Then spray 2 coats, mask, then 3 coats if necessary. Then clear or spray wax / degreaser on the base to give it a shiny look. This way you will be able to see what different number of top pearls coats look like before you apply too much. Apply 3 stage top pearl coats on the lighter side of medium wet, but not too light. Most common for a factory 3 stage is 2 coats of the top base coat/ pearl effect coat.

 

Beautiful. Thats exactly what I needed to know! I am using Cromabase this time by the way. It lays down 100 times better than the Nason and I beleive its better for color matching. Thanks for always looking out Powerflow! You the man!

Another thing, is it normal for the top coat pearl to make the paint kinda cream lookin?

 

3 stage white pearls like some Honda and Cadillac's are more of a cream/ yellow tint off white, especially notable when compared to a more white color. Doing full spray out test cards / let-down will tell if you've got an acceptable match, if you clear and compare to existing adjacent parts or panels.

 

Thanks man!

 

No prob