Brian18242 Posted November 16, 2020 Share Posted November 16, 2020 Can someone recommend somewhere that would offer a bass refinish at a cost effective price? Looking to get one of my basses finished in silver flake. Please don't recommend doing it myself as it would end up a disaster 😂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hooky_lowdown Posted November 17, 2020 Share Posted November 17, 2020 Any car paint shop will do it. If you do all the prep work, you'll keep costs down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maude Posted November 17, 2020 Share Posted November 17, 2020 (edited) 12 minutes ago, hooky_lowdown said: Any car paint shop will do it. If you do all the prep work, you'll keep costs down. Not necessarily. A standard finish, yes, but sparkle is a different kettle of fish to any standard car finish. Also for this reason a 'cost effective' sparkle finish might be a stretch. Standard poly finish would be primer, couple coats of base colour and a couple of coats of lacquer, all done wet on wet, ie not drying or flatting between coats as it's not necessary, then very minimal polishing, if needed. Sparkle would be primer then base colour, then multiple layers of heavy flake, then multiple layers of lacquer to bury the sparkle flake. It would probably need drying, or at least a very long flash off time between stages due to the amount of material going on. Then a lot of flatting and polishing to lose the contours of the flake to get a flat finish. Much more product is used and it's far more time consuming. There are other techniques to achieve these finishes but the time and material differences are roughly the same. 🙂 Edited November 17, 2020 by Maude 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hooky_lowdown Posted November 17, 2020 Share Posted November 17, 2020 1 hour ago, Maude said: Not necessarily. A standard finish, yes, but sparkle is a different kettle of fish to any standard car finish. Also for this reason a 'cost effective' sparkle finish might be a stretch. I'm not sure if you're joking or not???? The sparkle finish was invented for cars. Candy apple red, blue, green, purple... whatever colour you want. Primer, few coats of sparkle colour and a couple clear coats. Done. 🙄 Modern techiques and paint technology allows the glitter to be in the paint when applied. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maude Posted November 17, 2020 Share Posted November 17, 2020 3 minutes ago, hooky_lowdown said: I'm not sure if you're joking or not???? The sparkle finish was invented for cars. Candy apple red, blue, green, purple... whatever colour you want. Primer, few coats of sparkle colour and a couple clear coats. Done. 🙄 Modern techiques and paint technology allows the glitter to be in the paint when applied. Not joking no. I'm aware of where the custom paints originated but there aren't any 'normal' car manufacturers offering the old school candy colours nowadays. Candy is a metallic base coat (usually gold or silver) with a tinted lacquer built up in several layers over the top, three stage pearl is similar but not the same, and a sparkle finish (metallic is different) is unheard of in current standard car finishes. Candy and sparkle are completely different things. Most bodyshops won't even have a gun set up with a large enough air cap to spray a proper sparkle, the flakes are very big compared to metallic, it'll go through a primer gun but not nicely. The fact is a sparkle finish is more costly to supply and apply than a standard finish. I was just offering my advice as someone who's been in automotive refinishing and custom paintwork for over thirty years, but maybe I shouldn't bother. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hooky_lowdown Posted November 17, 2020 Share Posted November 17, 2020 1 hour ago, Maude said: Not joking no. I'm aware of where the custom paints originated but there aren't any 'normal' car manufacturers offering the old school candy colours nowadays. Candy is a metallic base coat (usually gold or silver) with a tinted lacquer built up in several layers over the top, three stage pearl is similar but not the same, and a sparkle finish (metallic is different) is unheard of in current standard car finishes. Candy and sparkle are completely different things. Most bodyshops won't even have a gun set up with a large enough air cap to spray a proper sparkle, the flakes are very big compared to metallic, it'll go through a primer gun but not nicely. The fact is a sparkle finish is more costly to supply and apply than a standard finish. I was just offering my advice as someone who's been in automotive refinishing and custom paintwork for over thirty years, but maybe I shouldn't bother. I had a body resprayed in candy apple green almost three years ago at a local car body shop, included a couple clear coats and polish. Cost me £80, did the prep myself, excellent finish. I was just offering my advice for actually having a body sprayed at a car body shop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maude Posted November 17, 2020 Share Posted November 17, 2020 That's fine and a decent price, but Candy isn't Sparkle, and a lot of the time Candy Apple Red isn't a true Candy anymore, just a nice deep red pearl. But I'm not going any further, I've given my advice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jakester Posted November 17, 2020 Share Posted November 17, 2020 Candy and sparkle are two different finishes - candy is a colour over a metallic base; sparkle uses much larger flakes. https://manchesterguitartech.co.uk/2019/09/04/creating-a-candy-apple-red-finish/ https://www.sims.guitars/spray-shop/colours/speciality Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulThePlug Posted November 17, 2020 Share Posted November 17, 2020 (edited) https://coolcarz.co.uk/ http://www.metalflake.co.uk/ Suppliers of paint matetials, but they might tell you who they are supplying in your area... Edited November 17, 2020 by PaulThePlug Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikem8634 Posted November 18, 2020 Share Posted November 18, 2020 There are three guys who post a fair bit on the Fretboard - lamf68, rexter and SCRelics. I haven't personally used any of them yet but they get consistently rave reviews. lamf68 - https://www.facebook.com/rendallsrestorations?fref=ts rexter - https://rexterguitars.co.uk/ SCRelics - https://screlics.co.uk/ I don't know if they count as cost effective but you will get a quality finish. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted November 18, 2020 Share Posted November 18, 2020 I also crave a flake finish so am subbing to this thread. I wanted this one, but the £/$ and CITIES said no. https://www.talkbass.com/threads/musicman-bongo-5hh-marty-bell-western-blue-big-sparkle-flake-finish.1265232/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smudge Posted November 24, 2020 Share Posted November 24, 2020 Ended up doing my own finish for the same reason as yourself.... cant get the job done by a pro locally. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smudge Posted November 24, 2020 Share Posted November 24, 2020 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted November 24, 2020 Share Posted November 24, 2020 Lovely job! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smudge Posted November 24, 2020 Share Posted November 24, 2020 I think sometimes you just have to have a go.... It can always be removed and another finish put on if it all goes wrong. The trick to this is burying the "glitter" deep enough under the clear finish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted November 24, 2020 Share Posted November 24, 2020 Be careful, you are going to be getting requests....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunderbird Posted November 25, 2020 Share Posted November 25, 2020 On 17/11/2020 at 15:49, Maude said: That's fine and a decent price, but Candy isn't Sparkle, and a lot of the time Candy Apple Red isn't a true Candy anymore, just a nice deep red pearl. But I'm not going any further, I've given my advice. I thought your advice was spot on imo 👍 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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