Laying down flake

To anyone who has ever used flake I have a few questions. The stuff is totally awesome and I'd like to give it a shot.
What flake do you use and what size? Does the brand matter on flake? How do you prefer to apply said flake? What do you use as a base coat and what do you like to use to top coat for final color?
I'm going to give a shot to flaking a cheapy 3/4 helmet and see the result I get before I attempt my tank.
The plan is going to go something like this:
White 3/4 helmet. Sand moderately and spray with silver metallic for base. Next get the thing sticky with a coat of clear. Apply a layer of flake and then a layer of clear. Flake and a coat of clear again. See where I'm at with how shiny the helmet is. If its looking good, I would spray a candy color over the top to get the desired color. Then clear like 5 coats. Final wet sand and polish. Impress my friends with my new head mounted bass boat.
That's how I'd assume it would go, but I've never worked with this stuff. Any insight would rock guys!
Thanks

I have no input but head mounted bass boat is hilarious

SONIC. said:

I have no input but head mounted bass boat is hilarious

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I'm laughing with a belly full of soft tacos and Mexican coke and it hurts.

Mexican coke goes in your nose not your belly.

Noob.

bwahahaha! ;D ;D ;D

I don't know why everyone thinks that metal flake and pearls are to be mixed with the clear coat and sprayed, that is not the way to do it, and you'll find out why very quickly if you try to wet sand it. Flakes and pearls need to be mixed with a binder or blending agent, basically a clear un-tinted base coat. Then you spray it out like you would any other color, and THEN clear coat.

For reference, this is 3 coats of black base, 4 coats of black metal flake and 4 coats of clear. Wet sanded to 1000 grit, then the Indian logos painted and then 10 more coats of clear, and wet sanded to 3000 grit and buffed. The 10 final coats of clear is a bit excessive, but I can, so I did.

I did this one with two different colored flakes. I mixed the blue flake in the paint (kind of hard to see in the pic), then a silver flake in the clear. This was the first time I had ever used flake.

I can see how I might have been misunderstood in my post. It was my intention to shoot the flake dry, and then cover it with clear. Like, shoot with a special gun, à la the Flake Buster or something like it. I don't know much about shooting flake dry, but I'm planning on trying and documenting the process (for science?). I actually learned not to sand metallic type things the hard way; by sanding an entire full fairing bike that was shot in metallic blue before clearing and having to start over...

I digress. So it would go like: Base. Clear (for sticky-ness). Dry flake. Clear. Dry flake. Clear. Candy. Clear. Clear. Clear. Ect... Polish.

Is shooting with a binder superior to dry? I really don't know and I appreciate the input.
BTW. That tank looks so slick it could pass for wet 6 months later. Nothing like black-glass-smooth. Nice work.

High On Octane said:

I don't know why everyone thinks that metal flake and pearls are to be mixed with the clear coat and sprayed, that is not the way to do it, and you'll find out why very quickly if you try to wet sand it. Flakes and pearls need to be mixed with a binder or blending agent, basically a clear un-tinted base coat. Then you spray it out like you would any other color, and THEN clear coat.

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Whats the difference in doing that and doing what he initially said?
He is just using the clear coat as the binder or "un tinted base coat"

Found an article on it that talks about the gun I was thinking of using. It explains it pretty well

Article: http://www.rodandcustommagazine.com/techarticles/0604rc_metalflake_paint/

When I used to flake cars we would paint the base down, put the flake in the first coat of clear and spray a dry coat on the car out of a siphon feed gun then lay down about 4 or 5 wet coats of clear . When dry wet sand smooth and buff

Here's the deal with mixing flake and pearls in the clear coat. As soon as you wet sand the clear you will sand right thru whatever flake you mixed in the clear and it will stick out like a lesion on an AIDS patient. But what do I know? Go ahead and spray it how ever you want.

You are missing a step.
After you paint the clear with the flake you let that dry, no sanding, and the. Put 5+ more coats of clear on it with no flake and wet sand that.

Fuck that. Just take a ball peen and put some dents in it and let it rust. Way cooler than metal flake.

Oh. I forgot to mention. Some of you don't realize this, but paint technology has advanced aeons since 1960. You guys make me laugh.

SONIC. said:

You are missing a step.
After you paint the clear with the flake you let that dry, no sanding, and the. Put 5+ more coats of clear on it with no flake and wet sand that.

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yep that's what I said . Just let it tack up after applying the clear and flake then just straight clear

SONIC. said:

Whats the difference in doing that and doing what he initially said?
He is just using the clear coat as the binder or "un tinted base coat"

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I guess I missed this question before. Bottom line is, the clear coat I use is expensive, and sprays on thick. By mixing the flake in a binder/blender, the liquid consistency will be the same as base coat. You can get more flake/pearl coverage in a single coat with binder as you can with 2 or 3 coats of clear. Not to mention it is much easier to control the flow of base coat than it is for clear. It's all about efficiency and performance. Like I said, you guys can spray however you want. I was just trying to inform people of works best.