Showing posts with label Pearl Paint. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pearl Paint. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

2000 Pontiac Firebird Color Change!

Almost Everything's Car of the Day is a 2000 Pontiac Firebird. This car came to us badly in need of paint! It had been sanded and unfinished by one of its owners and was becoming very hard to look at. The car's owner didn't want to spend $5000+ on a paint job and decided they wanted to go with one of our very economical Single Stage Paints! We cleaned up the car, then masked all of the windows, lights, and trim. Once we finished our prep the Firebird was painted a vivid Electric Pearl Blue that its owners picked out from our color book!

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Sunday, February 2, 2014

3-Stage, Candy or Tri-Coat Paint

Camaro with 3-Stage Pearl paint in process at Almost Everything Auto Body

What is Three Stage Paint?
Three stage paint jobs have the most depth and sometimes appear to change color as a car drives by. The most common three stage paint is pearl white. Intense "Candy Apple Red" and similar paint jobs are also 3-stage. They achieve effects that regular one- and two-stage paints can't. The trick is a middle stage of paint that is translucent (partially transparent.) The middle layers can have a second color and/or pearl dust, mica and metallic flakes in it that allows light to reflect off of the base coat and the various elements differently than if the same elements were simply mixed together in regular paint. The middle stage changes the color of the base stage. It also adds the sparkle or color shifting effect of the pearl, metal or mica flake. In addition, by varying the thickness of the mid-coat layers, you can create increasing variations in the way the paint reacts with light. So at one angle you see one color and level of sparkle and irridescense then at another angle it may look dramatically more light, dark, irridescent or even a different color entirely.

Cost
Three stage paints require a vehicle to be painted three times, as opposed to one or two times with a normal paint job. So there is more labor and materials involved. Additionally, the additives for the middle stage, like pearl dust, are often expensive materials (pearl dust can really be ground-up pearls and mother of pearl.) And last, 3-stage paint jobs take a tremendous amount of skill. So the people who do them well get paid well. A three-stage paint job is not one to pick on a tight budget.

Maintenance
In everyday use, three stage paints should be treated just like any other paint. If possible, park in a garage to minimize fading from the sun. Wash off contaminants as soon as possible. Common paint killers are bug splatter, bird droppings and chemicals that fall on the car as dust or mist. And finally, protect the paint with a good, quality wax. Good waxes are typically the type that you put on, let dry, then work like the dickens to polish to a high luster. If you have a sore arm after applying wax to one fender, it is probably a decent wax. We suggest finding a good detailer and paying him/her to wax your car once or twice a year.

Three stage paints can be difficult or impossible to duplicate if you ever have an accident and need to repair a portion of the paint job. A slight variation in one of the three different paint processes can result in a dramatically different appearance from the rest of the car. Repairs on a vehicle with a manufacturer standard 3-stage paint require a larger repaint area than other paint jobs. For example, a dent on one door may require blending paint across the entire side of the vehicle. For custom or non-standard finishes, you will probably need to repaint the entire vehicle to avoid strange variations in colors and intensities.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

1999 Mercedes Benz E320 Color Change!

Almost Everything's Car of the Day is a 1999 Mercedes Benz E320. This mid-sized luxury sedan came to our shop as an invisible, boring, bland and fading white car. The owners had a paintjob in mind for their car but didnt want to keep the lifeless white color and decided to repaint their Mercedes with our "Two Stage Base Coat / Clear Coat" Paint, in a vibrant blue pearl color that is sure to turn heads, which was selected right out of our very own color book!

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Thursday, April 14, 2011

2011 Lexus Rx450h with dent repair

Today's Car of the Day is a 2011 Lexus Rx450h that came in with a dent on the tailgate. Almost Everything Autobody repaired the dent on the tailgate, painted to match the pearl white three-stage paint, color sand and buff for a seamless match to factory paint, and installed new emblems that were broken. Now the Rx450h looks like nothing ever happend.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Metallic & Pearl Colors

3-Stage Pearl White Paint has an extra shimmer.

Metallic & pearl colored paints use flakes of aluminum metal, mica (a shiny mineral) or "pearl" (iridescent particles often from ground sea shells) to create sparkle, luminosity and more light and color complexity than is found in solid colored paints.

Metallic and pearl colors are available in single-stage, 2-stage & 3-stage paint process technologies but they are not created equal.

The process and materials used in 2-stage paints result in a more uniform layer of color that causes the flakes to lie more flat, reflect more light and create beautiful finishes. The single-stage process is not capable of achieving the same results and certain colors--especially golds, silvers, champagnes and bronzes--can look dull and grey in single-stage when compared to 2-stage and 3-stage paints. When color is important, choose 2-stage paint to achieve the right hue & brilliance.

For certain colors and special effects in finishes like "candies" and pearls--especially pearl white--it may be necessary to go another step into 3-stage paint to achieve the desired result. The Nissan Altima in the photo has a 3-stage pearl white paint job that gives the white a luminosity and brilliance that single- and two-stage paints cannot come close to.



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