Automotive Aftermarket
Special Effect Powder Coatings for the Automotive Aftermarket
Customers come to your shop because they want their cars, trucks, motorcycles, bikes, ATV’s, etc to stand out from the crowd. Nobody puts on aftermarket parts to be boring! What you really need to get the creative juices flowing is a little bit of inspiration and a lot of powder coating knowledge.
Show off your creativity with special effect powder coatings. There are a wide variety of types to choose from and they each have their own looks.
Types of Special Effect Powder Coatings
the main categories for special effects in the Automotive Aftermarket are Candy Transparent, Dormant Transparent, and Neon Fluorescent.
Candy Transparent
These products are applied either directly over shiny, reflective substrates such as steel, chrome and brushed aluminum, or when the substrate has a duller finish, use a Brilliant Reflective powder coating* as a basecoat. Candy transparent finishes provide an incredible depth of color.
Dormant Transparent
Deep and dynamic finishes are obtained through the application of a Dormant base coat and a Clear topcoat. The Dormant effect will only evolve after the curing of a clear topcoat, when the Dormant colors are pulled up into the Clear to produce deep, rich colors. A huge number of eye-catching finishes can be achieved by using various clear coats (high gloss, satin, matte) or clear glitters such as TIGER Drylac® Silver 49/00320 or Twilight 49/00390.
Neon Fluorescent
Neon Fluorescent finishes are available as one-coat or two-coat systems. One-coat fluorescent finishes provide limited hiding, so two-coat systems are common. In a two-coat system, the fluorescent powder coating must be applied over a smooth high gloss white such as TIGER Drylac® White Basecoat 49/11000. To achieve a custom look, the fluorescent finish can also be applied over a Brilliant Reflective* finish.
Tip: when curing, the substrate must reach the recommended cure temperature to achieve expected color.
*Brilliant Reflective
Brilliant reflective finishes such as TIGER Drylac® Mirror Silver 49/91260, Chrome OGF 49/91312 and Kromezone 49/95001 are high performance metallic finishes commonly used as basecoats. The extreme brilliance of this type of finish relies on the high flow and smoothness of the base powder coating and the perfect alignment of metallic particles at the surface.
Powder coaters who understand how to use these products will successfully create the exciting points of differentiation customers are looking for. When the final product gets 2nd looks and dropped jaws – everybody wins!
Back to overview