I picked out a color I liked at the paint shop and the guy selling it was looking at the sample and said it has some Perl in it. I'm trying not to look totaly stupid, so I looked at it and said "oh yeah". Now what the heck is Perl???

Pearl is some lumniscent stuff that really sparkles in the sunlight. Closest comparision is to metallic, but without the little specks. Done in the right amount, it looks awesome. Done to excess it looks ridiculous.

Well, that sounds like what I'd call metalflake, or is that atotaly diferant animal. I know the paint has a glitter effect when you take it out in the sun and move it around. (which I thought was metalfake)Oh by the way this is basecoat clearcoat, PPG Chromabase BC.

Pearl is not metalflake. It is a slightly opaque additive that acts like a prism and will show a certain band of color with light refraction. "Normally" added in the clear coat, although now people are adding it to the basecoat as well. Any auto paint supply has sample panels with different colors of pearl applied.

I put it over the base coat and then cleared.
Adds a certain amount of depth and glow to the paint.

Ok, Metallic paint...To get the sparklyness little chunks of metal flake are added in. On the single flakes the edges are sheered(very sharp edges, lots of different angles) this is what gives you that sparkly look.

Pearl also has a flake in it. Not a flake though, they are very small rounded pieces of metal. This is what gives you the smooth look.

Its all about how the metal his the flake, sharp jaged edges gives you major bling but a nice rounded sphere gives you a smooth look.

-Matt

Ok, I am here to add to the confusion, or maybe I will actually clear up some things. smile.gif

"Pearl" has been known for years as an additive that you put in clear to add an iridescent, fine sparkly, color changing, kind of look. It usually got another coat of clear without pearl in it over the top. It was most commonly used over white and commonly called "pearl white". It was not "pearl white" at all in actuality, it was "pearl red, (or blue or what ever the pearl color was)over a white base". It can be very nice or it can be very gaudy.

OK, so that is what "pearl" has been for many years and to many people that hear the work "pearl" will STILL see it that way.

Now, let's move up to the nineties. The same basic "Pearls" became a common "toner" in colors produced for factory cars, why?, because they did "Jazz" up colors and made for a new "look" for the new cars to have. The aftermarket manufactures of course had to add pearls toners to their mixing machines so they could match the factory colors. SO, no there were "pearls" (I forget the exact make up of the pearl in a toner, but it is NOT a metallic which is polished metal)in the mixing banks of DuPont, PPG, S-W and all most the others.

Then came, more pearls, and then "Dry" pearls, and next thing you know there are only a few "metallic" toners and the rest are pearls. A typical mixing bank has about a 100 toners today with about 30 of them or more being pearls!

Soooooooo, to say that a color has "pearl" in it today means noooothing in the way of difficulty of use, or anything else. In the modern paint mixing bank today, they are basically replacments for the out dated metallics, that is all there is to it.


HOWEVER, getting back to the pearl tinted clear from the old days. SOME pearls are used in todays cars as a "mid coat" tinted clear just as they were years ago. These colors are usually whites on luxury cars. I personally don't like them at all, they are not sparkly red or something. They always use a gold thinking it looks "rich". I think they look like dirty white paint to me, but that is only my opinion.

SOOOO, it you see it refered to as a "three stage" pearl, or "mid coat" pearl, only these would be an "extra cost" or more work would be needed. If it is simply a "pearl" name stuck on it, it is just a Two stage and not at all anything to worry about. It is basically just a marketing name for the "sparkly colors" smile.gif

LOL, after I read this about 5 times I'l get a better understanding. Thanks for the replies.

BadRad,

To clear up the confusion, pearl is short for pearlescent. Very simply it is mica ( a natural mineral dug out of the ground) ground up to a fine particle size. Mica is a laminate structure of many thin layers. The light passing through the many layers gets refracted, and causes a rainbow effect. Therefore, when pearlescent pigments are added to a paint or plastic, they give off an irridescent glow. Hope this helps.

Kevin

so all summed up its the shiny depth sparkles in a car! graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Pearl is almost a clear mix by itself, they make several different pearls. You can get a basecoat clearcoat, or a Tri-Stage. (3 steps) These are very diffcult,and the amount of coats change the color.

The name Pearl came from a west coast painter who ground up REAL PEARLS. It was the original way to get the Pearl paint job. Later less expensive items were used to achive the same effect.
Next we will discuss how Billard balls created the plastics industry. :D

Is the base coat with pearl toners added/mixed in more difficult to spray than straight color?

Is it like spraying metallics, where gun pressure and technique will greatly affect the way the metallic particles lie in the paint?

Originally posted by 1966_L78:
Is the base coat with pearl toners added/mixed in more difficult to spray than straight color?

Is it like spraying metallics, where gun pressure and technique will greatly affect the way the metallic particles lie in the paint? It is bascially the same as spraying a metallic.