[cosmotion]

Hi,
I am new to this forum. I am an artist, trying to use automotive finishes on my pieces (I have a show in March in San Fran). I just had a bunch of end tables painted with a white base coat, and a clear coat with Ice Crystal Pearl from TCPGlobal's Kustom Shop. It looks really great when the light hits it at just the right angle, and ONLY that angle. So the top looks sparkly, but the sides look just boring white. If I shine a light from below, it looks great, but that is impractical.

Is there a way to make it more sparkly? It seems to me the problem is that the flakes are laying flat, so they make a mirror surface that only reflects a specific angle of incident light. Seems the flakes need to be suspended in random orientations.

I talked to TCPGlobal (Tom was very helpful), suggested putting the flake in an "intercoat", that it will suspend the particles, and i will get the effect i want. Is this correct? He recommended UBC825. I also saw the HOK SG150 which looks like it may be designed for this.

Much thanks!

[red65mustang]

the white color itself and the flat surfaces are killing the metalflake "pop"

on a white metal flake car (like G Barris "Ala Carte") only the convex/curved panels do pop as your eye's see it at different light angles as you walk by...

to get it to pop on pearl white paint, he did use very large metalflake particles,,, to increase the sparkle,,, and buried it under way way to much/to thick clear to be practical for a table....

[cosmotion]

Thanks Red65Mustang

Before i did the white, i made tests (I use old CDs , on black and grey. It's true the sparkle is brighter on black, but the angle problem is the same thing. If I hold the sample vertically, below eye-level, no sparkle.

Do you have any experience with intercoat? I thought it was supposed to be thick, to "encapsulate" the flake, some sites says, and some sites say it is thin! Maybe the "flake carrier", like the SG150 is thick?

[red65mustang]

it sounds like you are trying to duplicate the "glitter" look of a bass boat or electric guitar???

that's done by suspending the big flakes in clear fiberglass gel coat and then burying the flake with more gel...
(gel coat can be a much much thicker total thickness finish)
ex: restaurant table with pennies buried under gobs of clear gel?

yes, you normally put down the base coat,,,,then apply the flake suspended in clear,,,then apply the top (candy usually) translucent-clear coats to bury the flake....

"if" the total paint thickness is to much it will likely fail and almost anything will mar the finish....

here's a brief article to explain further:

http://www.carcraft.com/howto/ccrp_0...int/index.html

what are the tables made out of?

[OneMoreTime]

Intercoat is thin and can be thinned to be very thin..it is that way because we do not want to get too much build with the issues that comes with too thick a coating..I use the SPI intercoat..The HOK product is the same sort of thing..What you are seeing is what we call "flop" in that the car would look different from various angles and in various lighting situations..

Sam

[Bee4Me]

Exceptional flake jobs are built in layers with each layer regressing in flake with color sanding between coats.
You load up your clear or inter coat,spray it on and call it "good",You get exactly what you have or the bass boat job.
By multilayering and regressing the flake,you have multiple layers with flake going in many different directions and concentrations.
Would this be "appropriate" for furnature? Possiably,but your looking a a lot of work and coats.
Your also using a pearl which is not flake. The more pearl you add,the "flatter" it will go. Pearl's are tiny compaired to flake and only reflect accordingly.
You want "sparkle",you have to use a product with some "area" to reflect off of and apply it in different layers.
An old skool painter taught me this and it's the shizz when done properly but it takes paitence,technique and a LOT of work but once it's "pulled off".
You get a crystal ball type of depth and reflections for most any angle.

[baddbob]

Mike, I bet the proper way of layering up the flake would involve some amount of shrink time between applications for a durable job? I've never done a flake job like that but I can picture the bass boat carnival ride mile deep effect.

[Bee4Me]

Yes it does,Like I said,it takes time and paitence and a lot of sanding.
Especally using clear as the medium.
Doc Cyber over at KKL gave a how to in one of his infrequent "sharing" post's which I copied and kept for future refrence.He really knows some cool stuff but is fairly "secretive" about "how" it's done.
The "idea" is not to hammer it on in one coat like most do but to build depth while stepping down on the flake as you go.