Saw a trick for blending pearl white at a trade show in Detroit

I was at the big show in Detroit last month and watched a guy from a custom shop in California do a demo. He sprayed his mid-coat pearl over a gray sealer instead of white, said it gives you way more control over the final color match. I tried it on a 2021 Camry bumper last week and it cut my blend time down by almost half. Has anyone else used a tinted sealer under tricky three-stage paints?

3 comments

3 Comments

matthewh283mo ago

Gray sealer under pearl is a smart workaround. It reminds me of how the best fix for a problem is often a step back in the process, not a harder push at the end. You see it everywhere, like fixing a wobbly table by leveling the floor instead of just shaving the leg down. Getting the foundation right saves a ton of correction later.

victor2192mo ago

Wait, you actually tried sanding pearl with 120 grit before? That's bananas, man. I can't believe anyone would do that and expect it to look good. You must have been fighting that surface like crazy after that. The scratch marks alone would have shown through the clear coat, wouldn't they? I remember back when I first started painting, I made the mistake of using too coarse a grit on a metallic flake and it looked like a total mess. That gray sealer trick sounds way smarter than trying to work backwards from a bad starting point.

angelac633mo ago

Isn't that just like what @matthewh28 said, where most bad paint jobs start with skipping the primer?