ILLUSION LIME TIME

There are a few reasons why an illusion color would turn out uneven after the required clear coat is cured. Usually this points to an uneven application thickness or something applied to the substrate prior to applying your illusion base coat. Illusion series powders have dormant pigments that are pulled to the surface during the clear-coat's curing process. Illusion series powders must be applied over bare metal sand-blasted and outgassed (if necessary) substrate (no primer and no dried chemical rinses or phosphate washes).

We recommend applying to parts that are at room temperature. Applying hot or "hot-flocking" is the leading cause of variations in application thickness which will lead to variations in your finish.

If applying at room temperature, too thin of an application of either or both layers will cause a light pigment-pull while a heavier application thickness will achieve the pigment pull you need. This variation will be visible in the finished product. We recommend inspecting the base coat application thickness with a mil gauge at the "flow-out" stage. This will help you determine if you need to add more powder to an area and re-flowing before proceeding with your clear coat.

If attempting to apply your illusion base coat over another powder coating or primer then the "pigment-pull" to the surface clear-coat will not reach it's full potential as those pigments are being pulled the wrong direction towards the primer. This will leave your finish with an uneven blotchy finish after the curing of your clear-coat.

Gun tip selection can have a big impact when coating large panels. Fan tip, for example, will apply more powder to the outside edges of that fan spray with less powder in the center. Keeping this in mind when applying powder so that you can overlap properly. Circular pattern, fog coat from further back and overlapping passes will all help apply a powder evenly over large surfaces. I recommend watching this video to see how to apply a texture over a large flat surface. While this video refers to applying textures the pattern and overlap rules still apply for large panels.

While not required we recommend the use of a fluidized hopper for this type of application in order to achieve a good powder mix.

Any Clear Coat or Top-Coat can be used as an Illusion top-coat. Keep in mind that the end result will be different than the on-line S-panel representation or the sample swatches that are shipped out for reference. These images and swatches have Clear Vision PPS-2974 applied. You can find examples of other top-coats used including tinted transparent top-coats on our website gallery and "creations" section.

Illusion series powders are designed to be applied directly over a metal substrate and then clear coated in order to achieve results shown on our website or swatch sample. Illusion series powders applied over a primer base or another color including an illusion coating with a clear coat can have have abnormal or unexpected results.