never sprayed candy paint before how do you keep it from being too dark in places?

[turbotim23]

Hi long time painter but never go into custom painting. I got a used car I want to practice on. It's a black nissan ultima, Plan on painting the top surfaces a candy red maybe with silver metalic under it. I have some of the old large silver metal flake but am not sure I want to use it. Not that it would matter on this car. One thing I worry about is getting it the same amount of red all over. I'll have to spray each half of hood, top , trunk etc from each side. I'm thinking about getting light and dark spots epecially where you overlap in the middle. How do you handle this make it thinned down with clear so it builds red slower?

 

[chopolds]

The most important thing about spraying candy, and getting it right, is your spray technique. In short, it has to be perfect! Distance, speed, holding the gun at 90* to the panel, and precise overlap. Of course, having a really good spray gun, with perfect pattern and atomization, goes without saying. It also helps to do the first 3 coats with a 75% overlap, so if you spray 'wet' you probably need to adjust your technique a bit.
Now, the guy who started House of Kolor, Jon Kosmoski, advises to use his Candy straight out of the can in strength. Thinning it more, or mixing it with more clear will make it harder to get it even. As would adding candy concentrate to it, though he does advise this for doing door jambs, and graphics, where film thickness is an issue. But on larger areas, he does not recommend changing the strength.
I would advise against the larger flake as a base, as you probably need to shoot regular clear over it, so the candy does not 'pool' in the valleys between the flakes, and give you dark spots. If you do, put 2-3 coats of clear over the flake, let cure, and then sand smooth with 600 grit, before shooting the Candy over it. Easier, and looks almost as good, to just use the regular Candy base metallic, which is larger than factory type metallics, anyway.

 

[turbotim23]

Hi long time painter but never go into custom painting. I got a used car I want to practice on. It's a black nissan ultima, Plan on painting the top surfaces a candy red maybe with silver metalic under it. I have some of the old large silver metal flake but am not sure I want to use it. Not that it would matter on this car. One thing I worry about is getting it the same amount of red all over. I'll have to spray each half of hood, top , trunk etc from each side. I'm thinking about getting light and dark spots epecially where you overlap in the middle. How do you handle this make it thinned down with clear so it builds red slower?

 

[turbotim23]

The most important thing about spraying candy, and getting it right, is your spray technique. In short, it has to be perfect! Distance, speed, holding the gun at 90* to the panel, and precise overlap. Of course, having a really good spray gun, with perfect pattern and atomization, goes without saying. It also helps to do the first 3 coats with a 75% overlap, so if you spray 'wet' you probably need to adjust your technique a bit.
Now, the guy who started House of Kolor, Jon Kosmoski, advises to use his Candy straight out of the can in strength. Thinning it more, or mixing it with more clear will make it harder to get it even. As would adding candy concentrate to it, though he does advise this for doing door jambs, and graphics, where film thickness is an issue. But on larger areas, he does not recommend changing the strength.
I would advise against the larger flake as a base, as you probably need to shoot regular clear over it, so the candy does not 'pool' in the valleys between the flakes, and give you dark spots. If you do, put 2-3 coats of clear over the flake, let cure, and then sand smooth with 600 grit, before shooting the Candy over it. Easier, and looks almost as good, to just use the regular Candy base metallic, which is larger than factory type metallics, anyway.

Well I'm used to spraying wet coats, mostly enamels, Imron on semi's . So you spray drier coats with candy's? what about using a intercoat clear like dbc6000 over the silver base? I haven't used that before and am not sure you can wet sand it or how much to put on. I guess you would be mixing different systems then. I was thinking of just going to my local paint store and buying a silver flake or a silver paint for under the red. This would be cheaper on a used car but I'm sure it wouldn't look as good and is not a good thing to do. Thanks

 

[chopolds]

You can use intercoat clear over your base, but try to use the same brand. Your local paint dealer should be able to furnish it to you. It's not necessary, with the "usual" candy bases, but I would recommend it over a large flake. You could also use a finish type clear, let it cure, and sand and Candy it later. I exclusively use House of Kolor custom paints, so I never have issues with layering different paints over each other. Or brand incompatibility. All use the same reducer, and the catalyzed paints (Candy and clear) use the same catalyst. They have intercoat clear as well.
Their system uses a basecoat type base, and the Candy and clear are catalyzed. And they do recommend wet on wet, throughout the entire paint job. Of course, if you do graphics, you could stop, clear, and sand and recoat later. Just be careful with the wet-on-wet approach. You do NOT want to shoot so wet you get runs. A run in base is not a problem, let dry, sand, reshoot. But in the Candy coats, it's a game stopper. You can't correct it, you'd have to sand and start over with a base coat again.

 

[turbotim23]

You can use intercoat clear over your base, but try to use the same brand. Your local paint dealer should be able to furnish it to you. It's not necessary, with the "usual" candy bases, but I would recommend it over a large flake. You could also use a finish type clear, let it cure, and sand and Candy it later. I exclusively use House of Kolor custom paints, so I never have issues with layering different paints over each other. Or brand incompatibility. All use the same reducer, and the catalyzed paints (Candy and clear) use the same catalyst. They have intercoat clear as well.
Their system uses a basecoat type base, and the Candy and clear are catalyzed. And they do recommend wet on wet, throughout the entire paint job. Of course, if you do graphics, you could stop, clear, and sand and recoat later. Just be careful with the wet-on-wet approach. You do NOT want to shoot so wet you get runs. A run in base is not a problem, let dry, sand, reshoot. But in the Candy coats, it's a game stopper. You can't correct it, you'd have to sand and start over with a base coat again.

yes it's a little scary trying this. Sounds like everything has to come out perfect the first time. My place to paint is not perfect, As I'm no longer working in a bodyshop. Now it's a tarp building outside. dust and bugs are possible. my paint guns are not the greatest mostly older Devilbiss guns as I used to spray enamels. I do have one made for spraying clear coats and one high volume/ low pressure gun. I was thinking of using one of these last two guns.

 

[chopolds]

I've been painting for over 40 years, and I still get anxiety over painting a custom job. Yes, from the last basecoat to the first clearcoat, it DOES have to be perfect. That is very stressful. SO much time wasted if you mess up, and now-a-days, the exorbitant price of paint! A screw-up could cost 1000$ and days worth of labor.

 

[turbotim23]

Well I came up with a plan. First I need a better place to paint. City would be on me if I tried to build something but I think I could get away with a small greenhouse, better than what I have now. That would give me wood front doors I could put filters in and a wood back wall for mounting a fan in. next I'm keeping all candy jobs small, stripes small panels etc. My first try is going to be 4x8 sheets of wood. I bought some old rootbeer candy paint at a garage sale a long time ago. I'm going to try a fake wood grain over real wood. It's stupid but it doesn't cost me much and if it turns out I'll put it behind my gas fireplace as a accent piece. I may or may not do the altima in candy it's bigger than I think I should start with. I kind of like the ford lazer red just as well anyway. Is that a tricoat factory paint and almost as hard to spray as candy? thanks for your help.

 

[chopolds]

Factory Tri-coat is more difficult than regular BC/CC, but easier than candy. Or should I say, more forgiving. You basically put red candy on top of red pearl. So if there is a slight mistake in anything, it might not be as noticeable. But you can still tiger stripe or blotch it if you don't use proper technique.

 

[TAZ]

Candy is definitley harder to spray, especially on a car. I've done tons of motorcycles. Not too many candy on cars though.
For a noob, I would suggest just picking out any color red metallic or pearl basecoat type paint, that is close to what the overall look you want.
Then purchase a quart of HOK UK-11 apple red I think is the exact name.
This will make spraying candy MUCH easier versus like a silver or gold base.
In fact, I would say, 1-2 coats of candy should do it.
Like Chopolds said. You have to be very consistent on spraying the candy.

 

[turbotim23]

Candy is definitley harder to spray, especially on a car. I've done tons of motorcycles. Not too many candy on cars though.
For a noob, I would suggest just picking out any color red metallic or pearl basecoat type paint, that is close to what the overall look you want.
Then purchase a quart of HOK UK-11 apple red I think is the exact name.
This will make spraying candy MUCH easier versus like a silver or gold base.
In fact, I would say, 1-2 coats of candy should do it.
Like Chopolds said. You have to be very consistent on spraying the candy.

I liked the ford laser red tri coat color till I found out How much it would cost. If I wanted to go that much I'd go IMRON. The laser red color is something like what you said,. I can't put huge money into this car it's not worth very much. how much for the quart of HOK UK-11 ? I want to do something on this car if not candy[ that's likely high too]

 

[chopolds]

I had a customer who wanted me to do a Cadillac Tri Coat red on his 67 GTO. When I priced it out, I thought the cost was a bit high. SO I priced out getting the materials from HOK, and doing a REAL Candy job (Apple Red over SIlver). Was a few hundred cheaper.
Now this was in 1996 or so, so prices I remember, don't apply today. CHeck HOK prices on TGP's website, or Dad's Customs site. Ford color, try locally.

 

[turbotim23]

Yes you are right , I did a little more searching and HOK was cheaper. I'm not going to give up on it I'm going to do some custom painting on that car.