I will be painting my Maxima soon, Super Jet Black. I was curious about special additives, such as glow powder or pearl but I couldn't figuire out what would be nice on black paint. I was hoping for just the one-step acrylic enamel, but if it's worth it I might do a clear coat if it helps bring out the glow or pearl or something. What do you think would look nice, and would I be able to mix it in with the black or do i need a clear coat

 

painting your own car....I hope you have lots of experience

 

first off good luck w/painting your own car. i think a nice blue pearl would be nice w/the super jet black..but...i suggest to get it professionally done. good luck

 

everyone that i have seen paint there own car, it usually comes out looking like ****....get it done perfessionally....but chillinmax said sounds very hot to me!

 

whoa whoa...I never said i'd paint my own car...I said I'm will be getting it painted soon (sorry for the misunderstanding), but I'm going shopping for supplies

 

pearls and black dont mix as well as a pearl and white. sometimes the pearl actually makes the black car look dull or almost like a dyeback condition- depending on the color you add. white pearl over black creates a foggy effect and the car wont look as dark. blue over black is youre best bet, but i think a sunset pearl would be awesome- i have yet to experiment with it yet though.

 

1) Let a professional do it.

2) One step enamel died in the early 80's then came Laquar which sucked, now it's all base coat clear coat.

There other finishes available such as candy and three stage. Pearl is not an additive, it's a three stage paint process. And yes the pearl stage has real crushed pearl in it which is why it's expensive.
You don't put additives in paint, you mix the color and effect you want.

 

pearl is actually not made from pearls, its made from mica coated with titanium oxide and the different coat thicknesses create the different colors. trust me im a doctor.

and it is really not so expensive the material itself, its the technique that costs you. get the car to a good painter.

 

First of all, pearl IS an additive. It comes in a powder form and you mix it with some clear coat to create the mid layer for the paint. It is actually quite cheap, unlike some people think not to mention that my post asked what would look nice on a black car, not specifically about pearls.

Second, after much consideration I have come to a fina decision. My decision is to stay away from the pearl and go with glowing paint for a few reasons:
-It doesn't require a 3 coat process, you just mix it with the clear and paint normally as you would for a bc/cc
-I've never actually seen this done in person because it's quite rare
-Seeing a Maxima glowing at night seems speachless...

Although glow powder is more expensive than pearl, I would rather have the bc/cc process to cut down on the painting labor. The actual glow varies by how much of it you mix (5% - 40% by volume), and you get to choose the color. I'm deciding between blue and green. It is invisible during the day, but once night strikes...14 hours of glow! Any opinions or suggestions are welcome, and once I get it painted I will post pics, but it probably wont be until maybe next month or so.

 

You can do pearls in 2 stages. For the best effect on a bc/cc I would mix the pearl in the clear. Once mixed pearl is like window tint, so it will react differently to the base coat underneath depending upon the amount of light, or color of light shining on it and the angle or point of view. Although this may sound a bit flashy, gold may look good on it as well. Saw it once on a 3rd gen but the painter used it as a stage in a 4 stage Kandy Black paint job. Wasn't really noticeable until certain lights hit it or from certain angles but it gave a nice overall effect to the car.

The only downfall to the glow pearls or kandies is they are prone to fade quickly if the car spends a lot of time in direct sunlight.(as in not parked in a garage or under a cover 80% of the time.) If the car is a daily driver expect to paint it again in a year - year1/2. you could slow that down a bit by painting the car the same color or close to the color of the pearl. It will still fade , but it will be less noticeable to the naked eye.But for best glow effect they need to be painted over white because they react better to highly reflective colors.

If you want to try something just to give it a diffrent effect you could try a kameleon pearl. They act like the color change paint except you see the colors change over the original color of the car. That would probably look good on black with a subtle but flashy effect. Hope all this was helpful and if someone knows something about it I don't please fill me in.

 

All this talk about painting makes me consider it.....how much we talkin for a nice professional paint job?

 

How long is a rope, you ask?

Depends on a number of variables:

Condition of current paint/body
Same color paint or different color paint
Process chosen
Materials
Local market rates

etc., etc., etc.

You could spend anywhere from $300 - $skyisthelimit.