Painting car with bike paint?
Discussion
I'm just about to paint a car i've just restored and the only colours of red metallic/pearl i seem to end up picking from the paint store's colour chips are all motorbike colours?The car metallic reds just weren't doing it for me,the bike ones just seem to stand out a lot more and are the bright red look i was after,trouble is the paint store is putting me off using bike paints as they say it will be difficult to paint a car properly(for a first time full respray of a car)with this paint,it uses a lot of paint and is difficult to match in later if i have to repaint a wing or something,anyone got any opinions or advice?
I am not aware of any paint mixing system that differentiates in the contents between bike and car paints.
It will make absolutely no difference whether the combination of pigment, pearl, metallic, binder and reducer you're spraying was formulated to match a red suzuki motorbike OEM colour, or a red volvo.
If you keep a record of the manufacturer, paint code and batch number that the paint you choose was formulated for, and if possible the mixing scheme used to provide your paint, then you'll have no difficulty obtaining further paint for touch-in or local area repairs.
Your paint supplier is most likely feeding you hogwash.
Tol
edit PS - are you sure they're just not trying to warn you off using ANY metallic red for your first paint job? Reds (and metallics particularly) are among the worst hiding colours, leading to primer being a very important step, and yes, a lot of product required for colour coverage. And if you've no experience spraying you need to know that spraying effect finishes (pearl or metallic) requires a vastly higher skill level than applying a flat colour...
It will make absolutely no difference whether the combination of pigment, pearl, metallic, binder and reducer you're spraying was formulated to match a red suzuki motorbike OEM colour, or a red volvo.
If you keep a record of the manufacturer, paint code and batch number that the paint you choose was formulated for, and if possible the mixing scheme used to provide your paint, then you'll have no difficulty obtaining further paint for touch-in or local area repairs.
Your paint supplier is most likely feeding you hogwash.
Tol
edit PS - are you sure they're just not trying to warn you off using ANY metallic red for your first paint job? Reds (and metallics particularly) are among the worst hiding colours, leading to primer being a very important step, and yes, a lot of product required for colour coverage. And if you've no experience spraying you need to know that spraying effect finishes (pearl or metallic) requires a vastly higher skill level than applying a flat colour...
Edited by Anatol on Thursday 24th August 15:24
The main reason they were putting me off the bike colour was you had to overlap the previous pass with the gun by 75% all the time which he made out would be difficult for me as this was the first time i was going to do a whole car,he thought i would get striping effects where i hadn't overlapped correctly.As far as matching panels if i damage one in the future they said to paint the whole of the damaged side again,as the way the paint was 'applied' would be hard to do twice,rather than what you said about remembering to note batch number of the paint to get a good match with older panels.I haven't any particular fear of metallics as i done my mates Scirocco with Honda Vivid blue pearl,and i have to say it looked fantastic,and that was just with the really good spray tins you get now.(i've got the bin liners full of empty tins to prove it lol),i'm a bit of a perfectionist and thoroughly careful by nature so i should do alrightI think its just a case of being maticulous about the steady,even coverage of the metallic paint on the car before the lacquer.
Think a lot of the bike colours are candies rather than metallics.
Candies are basically a tinted translucent paint applied over a metallic (silver or gold) base coat. Notoriously difficult to get an even coverage over a large area and impossible to touch up properly.
Maybe that's what your paint man was talking about.
Candies are basically a tinted translucent paint applied over a metallic (silver or gold) base coat. Notoriously difficult to get an even coverage over a large area and impossible to touch up properly.
Maybe that's what your paint man was talking about.
Anatol said:
I am not aware of any paint mixing system that differentiates in the contents between bike and car paints.
It will make absolutely no difference whether the combination of pigment, pearl, metallic, binder and reducer you're spraying was formulated to match a red suzuki motorbike OEM colour, or a red volvo.
It will make absolutely no difference whether the combination of pigment, pearl, metallic, binder and reducer you're spraying was formulated to match a red suzuki motorbike OEM colour, or a red volvo.
sorry but thats poop.
Bike paints can get away with larger metallic flakes due to non comformity,smaller panels.
With large flat panels trying to get a large flake to sit properly is hard,even for a skilled painter with years of experience,thats why it isnt done.....
Humidity,heat,magnetic field (very important),pressure,distance,thinners,gun,speed,angle,overspray,compound paste,grade of paper..the list is long to get right in spraying large panels with a big metallic.
dugless said:
sorry but thats poop.
Bike paints can get away with larger metallic flakes due to non comformity,smaller panels.
If that were the case it wouldn't be possible to mix accurate (metamerism aside) matching paints for both car and bike refinishing from the same tinter set.
And it is.
Coarse flake is used in plenty of car factory finishes.
Some very coarse flake is used (to my knowledge) only in custom paintjobs, but still not limited to bikes. I'm fully aware of the factors involved in spraying effect finishes, but many of the ones you list are more relevant when trying to match an existing finish - the original poster was looking to complete an all-over respray, so wouldn't have to worry about matching - and would be likely to be able to arrange same shop/gun conditions for a repair if it was home-sprayed anyway.
Tol
The paint shop is probably trying to steer you away from a metallic because its likely that you'll get streaks from the overlap of patterns.
By the way, the toughest colors to shoot aren't metallic, it white, because of the snow blind effect.
If you get in trouble, the solution is to wet the panel and do a final fog coat to even out the metallic on each panel, but with a red color, you may end up with a lighter rose tint.
Trying to match an amateurs metallic paint can sometimes be difficult, if not impossible, due to an improper initial spraying technique.
However, if you were happy with your dubbies paint job using spray bombs, then go for it!
By the way, the toughest colors to shoot aren't metallic, it white, because of the snow blind effect.
If you get in trouble, the solution is to wet the panel and do a final fog coat to even out the metallic on each panel, but with a red color, you may end up with a lighter rose tint.
Trying to match an amateurs metallic paint can sometimes be difficult, if not impossible, due to an improper initial spraying technique.
However, if you were happy with your dubbies paint job using spray bombs, then go for it!
Gassing Station | Bodywork & Detailing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff