NHRA, what candy is has been described already. You know that it is a tinted clear that is shot over base color. That base color and the amount of coats of the candy will determine what the finished color will look like.
So, no one can tell you what color you are dealing with unless the actual base color is known and the candy along with amount of coats is known.
You could take the base that was used and change it a little by adding more metallic or something and TOTALLY change the finished color. Likewise with the candy, a different "red" (maybe a different manufacture) and or different amount of coats and you will have a completely different color.
This should be "overwhelming" candies are VERY hard to shoot without getting modeling or stripes from the passes of the gun. If you see a single color candy on a car that is even and perfect, give the painter kudos, he is a real painter.
By the way, a candy or pearl cannot be seen worth a darn on the computer screen. If yo think that Camaro of Deejaygees looks good on your monitor it would knock your socks off in person.
djunod, that is an "old husbands tale," they can be blended just like any other color. With a true candy like silver base and a few coats of candy it is much harder but the candy that is on a new car it is not hard at all. Chryslers "Candy Apple Red" for instance is a breeze to blend at least with Sherwin Williams paint. The base is a bluish red color, and you simply paint it over the primer spot blending it out on the panel. Then you spray the tinted clear out over the base you just laid and blend it out the SAME distance. The very first one I did was UNDETECTABLE even knowing where the repair was, I was quite proud of my self
What you do is spray a "let down card." That is where you spray a test card with the base color then mask off the test card (a 6 by 8 inch piece of hard glossy paper provided by paint companies for color matches) leaving a two inch strip exposed. You apply a coat of candy over this strip. Then you unmask it and move up another two inches and spray another coat. This has now gave you two coats on the first strip. You now move it up again and spray another coat. Now you have three on the first strip, two on the second and one on the last. You move up again and spray, now you have four on the first, three on the second, two on the third and one on the last. You can do this as many times as you want. Now you have a "let down" of what the color will look like with many different amounts of coats added. You put the test card up on the car and see how many coats will match the color you have on the car. Then just duplicate that when you spray the repair.
Rsmith1969, I have been in this business for 25 years and have never heard that. I have even met Joe Bailon the "inventor" of the candy apple paint (though he really didn't invent it, because like most custom paint it is simply a controlled mistake) and have talked with other legendary custom painters like Bill Reasoner and he even told me about thinning out enamel paint and spraying it over a base making a candy, so I am not sure if that was just an experiment your source had done or something like that. Custom painting is like racing, a guy will try ANYTHING to get a new effect.
Toby, the biggest reason that the old lacquer candies failed is because there was SO much thinner trapped in the MANY, MANY coats of product on the car. I have sanded old candies off and it is like chewing gum! But you are also correct the UV rays had a lot to do with failures too.
The new modern urethane candies will last just as long as anything else so that shouldn't be a worry now.
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1965 Buick Skylark Gran Sport Convertible
1965 Buick Skylark H/T
1948 Chevy pickup, chopped and sectioned.
"Fan of most anything that moves human beings"