Anyone painted the original pearl white?

[dylansword]

Hello, I will be reprinting my engine bay here soon while I have the engine out. My car is the original pearl white color. I am wondering if anyone on here has painted the oe color? I have researched painting white pearl but can't quite Find what I am lookin for. All I can find is to use a white base coat and the clear it with pearl mixe. In the clear. My question is, it is just a plain white base or is it a tinted white with pearl over top?

 

[hvyman]

You can take the paint code to a paint shop and get the right paint and pearl.

Best to do it in 3 stages. White base then pearl then clear.

 

[Scott 88-1JZ]

You can take the paint code to a paint shop and get the right paint and pearl.

Best to do it in 3 stages. White base then pearl then clear.

I have done it on my car. Only bad part is that the paint place didn't mix my base coat correctly. It didn't have enough reducer(if any) and ended up being too white and it sprayed on very thick. The 3 stage is more difficult as you need to place enough pearl down to match the exterior of the car and the pearl comes on very thin and watery so there is a bigger chance of runs in the paint. Process is base, pearl, clear. Here are a few pictures I took when I did my engine bay. I get so many comments on how clean it is. If you take your time it can come out real nice. This was my first time painting as well but had some help from a friend that has painted a few cars. Here are some photos of mine.





With this close up you can see how the paint doesn't quite match. I didn't have the best lighting(which is very important) and you can see the two different shades between the fender and bay.

 

[dylansword]

That looks pretty good. What brand did you use? Ppg, house of kolor, sikkens, etc? And how much pains did you need?

 

[Scott 88-1JZ]

That looks pretty good. What brand did you use? Ppg, house of kolor, sikkens, etc? And how much pains did you need?

I would have to look again at the brand when I get home. It wasn't any of those you listed, it was whatever brand that the local paint supply store had. I know I would have bought PPG if I could find it locally. If you go to a paint shop they can ball park the amount for you. If I recall it was like 1 - 1.5 qt paint and 1/2 qt pearl and 1/2 qt clear. I think I did 3 base coats, 1 or 2 pearl and 2 clear, but YMMV. I would suggest getting extra reducer in case you may need it to thin out your mixtures. Also, using a smaller gun would help get into the back of the engine bay. I found that the clunky gun we used made it difficult to spray back there.

 

[hvyman]

When i was painting with a buddy the paint guy told us to get reducer. Pretty sure the paint it self never comes with reducer and you have to mix that yourself.

 

[dylansword]

Reducer is just laquer thinner

 

[Scott 88-1JZ]

When i was painting with a buddy the paint guy told us to get reducer. Pretty sure the paint it self never comes with reducer and you have to mix that yourself.

The place I went to stated that if they sold paint to the public and not auto body shops they would sell it pre-mixed. Apparently they don't trust non-pros to mix it themselves. As far as Laquer thinner you are perhaps right. I don't know for sure so I just went with the reducer from the same brand to be sure. Perhaps it may be different in CA as well since we have the worst laws anywhere.

 

[pogoism9]

I know I priced the Pearl White at my local paint shop. The Dupont paint/pearl/clear setup and all of the other stuff (reducer etc) came out to almost $700 total. I love the color but the $$$ ain't there for me. Going to go with super white to match my celica I reckon...

 

[GetBoost]

Yes, I did it a while back. The bodyshop pulled the codes and mixed everything. Only thing we did different was add extra pearl. It was a long time ago, but I believe we did 3 base coats and 5 pearl coats. It turned out really good. I can find pictures when I get home if you would like. I'm out of town right now.

 

[IJ.]

When i was painting with a buddy the paint guy told us to get reducer. Pretty sure the paint it self never comes with reducer and you have to mix that yourself.

x 100

 

[dylansword]

Yes, I did it a while back. The bodyshop pulled the codes and mixed everything. Only thing we did different was add extra pearl. It was a long time ago, but I believe we did 3 base coats and 5 pearl coats. It turned out really good. I can find pictures when I get home if you would like. I'm out of town right now.

yes, post up some
Some pics!

 

[dylansword]

After getting my engine bay cleaned. I'm positive it is not pearl, seemes to be the same base coat, with no pearl on top.

 

[Doat]

I am interested in this as well because in the future I'd like to repaint my MK3 the original pearl white and add more pearl to it