BMW sapphire black repaint

[Davidjames37]

Hi everyone. I’m currently in the process of repainting a customers Bmw. The colour is Sapphire Black but he wants it to “pop” a bit more in the sunlight.
I’m not quite sure about the best way to achieve this. If I just add extra pearl & metallic to the base colour will this change the colour? Should I add pearl/ xirallic to intercoat clear, then apply over base colour, then finish with clear coat?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[chopolds_2]

No easy answer to this. It's a matter of trial and error. Since the paint is already a pearl, I believe, it may be translucent enough to add more pearl, or larger mica flakes, to make it pop, and still be seen. Some paints are too opaque and do not let extra metallic or pearl show through enough. Of course you can add more pearl or metallic, on top, but you have to play around with how much you add to the intercoat clear, and how many coats you use. Too little, and you won't see the effect, too much and with pearl, it will get cloudy looking. Metallics, just block the base color, if too much is used. Besides, metallics over black, wind up just looking like dust or dirt in the finish.
Best to mix stuff up and spray out test panels, keeping good track of what was done to the paint, how many coats, spray pressure, etc.
There were projects where I sprayed out over a dozen gallon cans to get the color I liked. I use these becase they are usually hanging around the shop anyway. You can also buy purpose made mini-cars to test paints of, or use sign blanks.

 

[Davidjames37]

No easy answer to this. It's a matter of trial and error. Since the paint is already a pearl, I believe, it may be translucent enough to add more pearl, or larger mica flakes, to make it pop, and still be seen. Some paints are too opaque and do not let extra metallic or pearl show through enough. Of course you can add more pearl or metallic, on top, but you have to play around with how much you add to the intercoat clear, and how many coats you use. Too little, and you won't see the effect, too much and with pearl, it will get cloudy looking. Metallics, just block the base color, if too much is used. Besides, metallics over black, wind up just looking like dust or dirt in the finish.
Best to mix stuff up and spray out test panels, keeping good track of what was done to the paint, how many coats, spray pressure, etc.
There were projects where I sprayed out over a dozen gallon cans to get the color I liked. I use these becase they are usually hanging around the shop anyway. You can also buy purpose made mini-cars to test paints of, or use sign blanks.

Thanks for the advice. The job is now complete & customer’s over the moon with it.
After much trial and error I finished up just adding an extra few grammes of pearl to the base colour.
2 coats of intercoat over the whole car to ‘level’ up.
3 coats of colour.
2 coats of clear.
Wet flat p2000.
2 coats clear.
Wet flat & polish. Job done!
The car still looks black in normal light but really comes to life & sparkles in the sunshine.