Metallic Paints

[ajames]

So i feel, in a way, pretty dumb for not knowing this ... but what exactly does a metallic paint entail? and what does it look like?

when i first got my car ('92 325is) there were whitish marks all over it. More in some places than other, but for the most part ... over the whole car. I thought they would come out after claying the car ... but they did not. The paint is blue (its about 15 letters long, and starts with Maur ... i can never remember it) and metallic, and has a shimmery blue fleck in it ... i always took this to be the "metallic" part

the thought occured to me though, that the tiny "spots" all over the place are part of the metallic nature of the paint? am i way off?

the thing that throws me is that there are some white spots even on the black rubber trim around the windows in a few select places.

can anyone clear this up for me? or even have a close-up picture of their metallic paint? any help greatly appreciated. thanks

alex

[Silver4evr]

Post some close up pics of your paint problem so we can see it. Hard to tell w/o pics.

[roguesniper1]

looks like you have extra wax build up. If not taken care of properly, it can stick permanently with your car and make it look ugly.

[frw73]

could have been a re-paint with overspray?
Shouldn't be whitish flecks like you're describing, but rather shiny flecks under a deep clear coating, on top of a coloured base coat. Like a shiny silver based candy colour.

[ajames]

I'm almost positive its not wax-buildup ... trust me, with the products i use, its not wax. I use some chemical cleaners and abrasive cleaners. If i can buff out scratches and defects left by bird crap, i'm pretty sure its not wax. I mean, if by compounding/polishing, i'm abrading away the top layer of clear coat to get down past the defect or swirl ... any wax residues would also come off. Seem to me wax would be softer than the clear coat and more easily removed?

yeah, for a while i thought it was overspray, but as far as i can tell, nothing has been repainted,and there was never any note of it anywhere. I always thought overspray would be taken care of by claying though? that's also what confuses me

and sorry guys, no digital camera = no pics. I looked through the 35mm shots i have of the car from earler, but none of them are close enough, or detailed enough to show what i'm talking about.

So, the metallic fleck, is it mixed in with the color coat? or is it sprayed on (or however its administered to the paint) after the color coat/before the clear coat?
The car is blue, and the spots i'm talking about look small enough as if they were applied by a toothpick (reference for size). They are somewhere in between just being a flat white and a shiney piece of metal.

how evenly spread should the flake be?

i'm starting to think its just the metallic flake and i can barely feel it because the clear coat is old ... and has been slowly worn down by wear and polishing. When wax is applied, i CANNOT feel these spots. the mystery continues.

alex

[frw73]

As far as I know, the metallic flecks are mixed in with the colour coat, and then the clear coat goes on top to give it depth. Some custom painters will do:
Color
Clear / Metalflake
Translucent color
Clearcoat

or something like that for a really 3-dimensional candy-coat with metalflake.
Should look pretty even, but of course where the metalflakes end up are random.

Let us know if you solve your mystery.

[ajames]

i will, thanks for your help