What do I do?

[Faron]

OK When I bought my Buggy Body it had a paint job that was not my taste, and I knew I wanted to change it! I have gone back and forth and changed my mind a bunch of times. I have done a ton of body work, and a bunch of sanding. Please correct me if I am wrong. But I was thinking about painting it in the order bellow. Please let me know if you see something wrong!
Fix all the blemishes
Sand smooth down to a bout 400 grit sand paper.
Prime
Sand down to about 600 grit sandpaper
Base coat it with a Snow white
Paint the main color
Mask off the design I want
Scruff the paint with 1000 grit sand paper
Paint the design I want
Sand everything down to a really fine grit sand paper
I want to have LARGE Metallic flakes, when do I put that on?

[David O']

After you get all of the color on, then expect to put a LOT of clear coats on, those flakes have to be under a lot of clear coat, if you want the finish to be smooth!

[carlos del carpio]

Are the flakes so big they won't fit in a gun? Also, make sure your primer and base coat are different colors... that will help with the sanding, seeing high spots, low spots, etc...

[mkparker]

How to spray 'flake

Tips from KK/AS:

JAKE:
The eternal question,....to flake, or not to flake!?!?!? The only down side I can see you haveing is mill thickness. You see, for the big flake, (Golf-Ball, Bass-Boat,..Pimp-Daddy,....it goes by many names,..heheheh) The flake requires quite a bit of clearcoat to bury. You are correct in how it is applied though, you do add it to clear, but I think if many first time painters actually realized how much clear is required they would often times thing twice. Flake is usually such a drastic graphic in thickness, that it is normally applied early on in a paintjob, so that the natural subsequent layers of graphics, and masking can eventually catch up with the edge. If you already have quite a bit of clear over your initial flame job, you might find yourself putting a lot more on then you would like before you get it leveled out. (Nobody likes graphics that you can cut your finger on!! heheehh) My suggestion in the future is to make the flake the first of your graphics, then by the time you add a few more, along with the final clear you will be working on a single plane. Now there are alternatives to using the humongous flake, and that is either the mini flake, microsequins such as prismatique, or even use ice pearl to give that sparkly flake appearance. All of these are smaller particle flakes that give a very high luster finish with little build, or necessity to layer multiple clears on top to smooth out. If you still have your heart set on flake, fine then, but here are a couple of suggestions to make your life a little easier. I mentioned this in the first installment of Paintime,..but since flake is a big technique lately,...I think it is kewl to review a little. First off: You are gonna want to spray down a nice wet coat of clear without flake on the area. This will act as your glue coat. As soon as it gets tacky, you then mix in your flake, and spray lite even coats of flaked clear over the area. This glue coat will allow the the flake to stick, and not float around. It will also prevent the flake from standing on end, but force it to lay flat. This can save you a number of clearcoats,..not to mention mill thickness in the end graphic. I personally like to use Silver metalflake for all my flake work. As soon as I get the flake and clear leveled, I then will spray whichever kandy I want the flake to be. Works out pretty good, and actually has better depth then colored flake. (Plus urethane kandy does not fade as fast as many anodized mylar flakes out there today. Hope this helps you out.
Keep on Flakin'!
Kal Koncepts/Air Syndicate

Lots of flake supplies here:
http://www.innate.com/home.htm

[Buggy1]

Some flakes can be to big to put into your sprayer, I am going to using the bigest flakes on the F! this fall, Monster flakes.

Neal