two tone fade how to

S

Steves69LS3

hey guys i have a small job coming in painting a harley gas tank and fenders.
they want a two tone fade using a dark purple and dark blue.
can anyone give me some direction on how to do a fade/ as i have never done one before and would really like to learn
thank you!!
 
hmmm well atleast your going to and from 2 dark and similar colors i guess. the real key to a nice job is to get the blend area to be smooth and not have that sprayed or blotchy look. to do that you will need to reduce the strength of the color by adding clear binder to your fade color. if the colors are similar like you have then you can also intermix the two as well in a few different strengths to get you to blend from one color to the other. a combination of those two techniques with get you there. the rest is all just messing around with it. i would suggest test panels.
 
Tilt the gun, if we call the bottom of your pattern the "heel" and the top of the pattern is the "toe", just lean back on the heal and rake the toe up. The toe of the fan pattern is your fade.

If your overlay color doesn't hide well, it will be tough to get a nice fade transition, it can get mottled on you.

Honestly I had better luck fading 2k single stage rather than base coats. I had my best luck wet on wet, 2k single stage metallics.

Get the underlying color on, full coverage. Then hook up to the overlay product, lean back on the heal of the pattern at your part or panels edge and try to get it done with 2 passes over and back 100% overlapping your first pass at the fade transition.

You will probably just have to practice it on some empty paint cans, a fender, an old car hood or what ever you have laying around.

But I had good luck wet on wet 2k single stage because it flowed into itself at the transition which I feel really helped the uniformity of the fade.

How ever you get it done, good luck, post pics.
 
the one time I did a fade was 45 years ago with lacquer. I kept adding clear to the color with each coat. I think this is similiar to how Jim said to do it. He is a master at the custom paint, I do not think you can go wrong with his techniques. SOF,
 
have you ever tried the pearl powders mixed in intercoat clear? its like using a candy over the fade line to transition the two base colors.
 
Ive never faded period lol but it turns out the owner doesnt want the fade now. Just a base then airbrush work candy then clear
 
Now if you can talk him out of the purple he'll really have something. :)

lol!
 
Nice!

One I did for my daughter was borderline purple-ish.

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northerndave;n80178 said:
Nice!

One I did for my daughter was borderline purple-ish.
Click to expand...


That looks great! And I'm glad to see a younger person enjoying a classic car!
 
Thanks, it was super cool right up until she slammed it into the back of a triple axle farm harvest truck doing about 60. Truck had very dirty tail lights, either they didn't light up for his braking or they were too dirty, she was planning a pass (night time), speeding up and looking around the truck... suddenly the truck was stopped to make a right turn.

Luckily, the shoulder belt upgrade I put in the car did it's part.

The mustang is gone but my daughter is fine.
 
i did hundreds of fades in the van business. i would paint the top and bottom . mix the colors 50/50 and shoot the middle then fade the orig colors up and down .
 
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