[mavrick77]

Ok guys, I am by far no professional painter, but I have done some painting in the past and will be doing some in the future.

my plans are to get a nice titanium gray metallic basecoat and do about 2 coats of black candy over it...to give it a nice dark gunmetal black type shift in the sun.

now here is my problem..

in the past whenever I used a candy, I mixed it with my clear coat and sprayed it like that. Now alot of people are just saying use a innercoat clear to mix with your candy, and spray it like a base.

Trust me, I would love to spray candy in a paint that went on like a base, because I am by far not the best at clear without lots of wetsanding. LOL.

I guess my main question:

do you still get the depth of the candy if you spray it in a innercoat coat clear (i.e. basecoat clear) as if you spray that candy in your topcoat clear? i would think the topcoat with the candy can just give you that incredible depth and shine. but probably totally wrong.

Anyhelp with that would be appreciated, also here is my plan of attack to get my desired color, tell me if you have any recomendations!!!

1) 3 coats base coat titanium or gunmetal gray
2) 2 coats black candy mixed with intercoat (if quality is as deep)... dont want it too dark.
3) 2-3 coats top coat clear ( what is the highest gloss clear in your opinion?)

to rehash:
1) will innercoat clear mixed with candy, look as good as topcoat mixed with candy?

2) any better ideas to achieve a dark gunmetal look, with slight shift to black?

3) most high gloss top clear you recomend.


I really appreciate any help ahead of time guys, as I have not painted in a few years and most of you have probably forgotten more then I will ever know about it.

Thank you!!!!

[sunsetdart]

just some advice........if you never sprayed candy..BEWARE!!!.....candy is very finnicky and if it is not sprayed in even coats, you will get what they call tiger striping. if you screw it up, call a priest, cause you can't fix it. It has to be totally redone. You may want to just use the paint color and clear it and not take a chance with the candy.

[cyclopsblown34]

This is my take on the intercoat clear used with your kandy. From what I gather, the intercoat has less film build which means as you're laying down the kandy, you can get a more even distribution and a better idea of where to stop for the proper color. Probably less opportunity for tiger striping, especially if you've sprayed kandy successfully previously. My experience with kandy was just mixing it into the clear and then spraying a couple coats of "clean" clear on top of that.

[OneMoreTime]

The intercoat clear is made exactly for that type of paint job..My take would be to use the silver metallic base with the black tint in the intercoat such as the concentrate from HOK or SEM..then clear over that..

When doing candy it is best I have found to shoot a layout on an old fender or hood to see just how the effect will look as candy does not always come out just what you had a vision of ..

Sam

[Rag top bird]

I have done a lot of paint jobs just like you are talking about and I have used a base formula on most all of them and that is the way to go the only thing is you will need more then 2 coats if you apply 2 coats then you may end up with a blotched look just keep applying coats until it look even then clear

[barthmonster]

Online I saw a paintjob done with the 'intercoat' method, it was done with ALSA candy colors and their own intercoat. Looked just like the real thing...

[mavrick77]

Thanks for the replys everyone, they have been helpfull. I have sprayed candy before in the past with a clear coat, so I am not worried about "tiger striping"... but on the other hand, I may just call a buddy in when it comes to doing the clear, because I dont feel like doing alot of wetsanding.

so my understanding is that a intercoat clear, will do just as good with the depth as spraying it with topcoat clear. From what I understand DBC 500 is a good product, any other products you guys recomend for a good intercoat? I am sure there are some out there you have worked with and really like!!!!!
would you recomend a hardner with intercoat clear, or just use a reducer like normal base's.

To one poster who said I may want to spray more then 2 coats of black candy...I totally understand what your saying, but my problem is that I dont want my base coat to get lost in the candy, make sense? the final color I am shooting for is a dark gunmetal color in bright sunlight, that turns black in the shadows. Maybe I should go with a light silver metalic base, instead of a gunmetal base??? any ideas here? could always pay a bodyshop to do a few spray outs for me, before I buy color.

If anyone is in the OHIO area and would like side work...I might be better off letting a pro handle it, so feel free to PM me. Thanks everyone.

[deadbodyman]

Intermix is the only way to go... One tip: walk the whole length of the car when painting, not just as far as you can reach ,overlaps will show.