Im a newb here and also fairly new to the painting world. But i have been looking around the forum and have seen a lot of gifted people so i figured if anyone could help me it would be yall. Here goes I have an 87 pontiac firebird that i am going to paint black as the base coat but i also want to do some flames. I stoped by the local paint supply house and was looking through the HOK book and saw a Ice blue pearl paint chip in the book. Thought it had a really nice shade of blue and thought it would look really cool turned into some flames. The paint chip was a lil decieving i have been reading it is more along the lines of a ghost image so if i did it into flames u would only be able to see them in direct sunlight. Now i want some opinions well this work ok by itself as flames on black paint, Or should i use another color with it. Should i outline it with a pinstripe. Is there maybe another blue like a paint this color that might be easier to work with. I was also thinking maybe painting the car black with silver flames and shooting the blue pearl over the silver. I am not necesairly wanting ghost flames but something to catch peoples eyes at a car show. As for experience i would say i am a novice i have a fair amount of knowledge on preping and doing the paint work but havent done a hole lot of painting (no seat time) Any suggestions

Heres a link to my cardomain so u can see what i am working with www.cardomain/id/f355bird the last pg is the most recent

hi,

ice pearl isn't like a regular pearl where you would get a ghost effect. you'll definately see it all the time but when not in the sun it wont be a very "loud" efffect. in the sun the stuff looks awesome. resembles a very fine metal flake. you can either pinstripe your flames or leave them alone. really depends on the effect you want. if pinstriped they will be more visible...obviously. you have to remember black is the darkest of colors so anything you put on it will show up, it just depends on how loud of an effect you want. here is a link to my gallery. if you scroll down to the auto section there is a pic of a black eclipse there with gold ice pearl over the whole car. the car is at an indoor show and the camera doesn't pick up the pearl very well but if you look closely at the fron bumper and fender area you can see the sparkle in it. in person its a little more visible than the pick shows but you'll get the idea. in my personal opinion i would do the flames in the ice pearl and pinstripe it in a similar color blue.

http://www.xtremekreations.com/gallery.html

When your experimenting with custom paints (read,EXPENSIVE) do some test panels first with your idea with some cheap base's close to your scheme along with your flame layout.In other words,Practice FIRST before making an expensive mistake.Remember, you only have a day or less with most base's to do the graphics before clearing and if you enter it blind or only a partial concept,you can get yourself into trouble quick It's best to lay your base color and clear then do your graphics over it. That way if you don't like your layout you can "erase" it with out screwing the whole job. I'm not very talented in the artist dept. and I have to spend time rendering my graphics first to get the effect I'm looking for. Some painter's are EXTREEEEMLY gifted and can just paint on the fly. As in mrcleanr6's site,Killer airbrush work.
Most paint supplier's will work with you on getting your idea to reality.If they won't,Go find another supplier.I travel several miles for my supplies due to the fact that the supplier is VERY help-full and will answer ANY question I have no matter how stupid.
Good luck with your project and get some pic's up later.

So do yall think it would look better to spray the blue pearl over the black or to paint the flames silver and then spray the pearl on to the silver. I was also wondering how it would look if i did the car black with silver flames and then shot the pearl over the whole car. Does anyone have any pictures of black with silver flames?

hi, if you goto my gallery again, in the auto section is a picture of a black hood with a silver tribal flame design. there are also pics there of the whole truck. again, just my opinion but i wouldn't spray the pearl over the whole car if you are doing the flames in silver. it would sort of look like an after thought. confine one type of effect to one color. basically spray the pearl just on the black or just on the silver. you will want to do as "bee" says and spray a couple test panels to see in person what you like.

Thanks for replies i have a spare hood that i am going to mess around with. Think i have figured out what im going to shoot for. Here it is paint the hole car black then i am going to the flames in silver, then spray the ice pearls onto the silver, then i am going to pinstripe the flames with orange. Anyone have any suggestion on a good silver that will work and also an orange that would work good. As i stated before i am going to use all House Of Kolor products. With shooting the ice blue pearl on to a silver will it change to a blue color when the light reflects off of it that is what i am shooting for.

house of kolor bc-02 orion silver is killer. hok doesn't have any nice orange colors for striping urethane. one shot's orange is real nice. i would go with that. just be sure to put a few drops of clearcoat catalyst in the one shot if you plan to clear over it. the blue ice pearl doesn't really give you a flip flop color change like a regular pearl because its a little too coarse but it will give a real strong blue sparkle/glitter effect in the sun. only way your going to know if its what you want is to mess with that hood.

Thanks for the pointers. I will post up some pics when i get it done.

That would be cool. I'm waiting on a custom S-10 ext cab project to get finished and the owner is asking for about the same paint job. Black/Silver flames. Not sure on the pearl though as he's still deciding.
Just be sure to have your bodywork RIGHT as the black will show any defect. Good Luck with your project.