House of Kolor formula question:

[false_aesthetic]

We were trying to get a color as close as possible to IKB (Yves Klein Blue) for a friend's bike. None of the standard Going by the chips and samples we chose HOK 0437-00 Savage Sapphire

1st mix I did by volume 3:1 (Blue to FX Magenta) and then reduced that 2:1. Resulted in a very, very, very royal purple. It cooled down a bit with a clear but still unacceptable.

2nd mix was done by weight. HOK suggests a ratio of 381.36 : 139.18g (2.74 : 1). Seeing how purple the first mix was I reduced the magenta and ended up with a ratio of 3.8 : 1 by weight. Reduced it. Cleared it. Less purple, more better but still very purple.

3rd time I mixed it up by eye and kept track of things on my scale. The result was a ratio of 4.8 : 1. It's close enough. My bud will be happy but it's still a good 10-15% off of the anticipated color. If this were a paying customer I'd have to re-spray this.

My guess is that a 5 : 1 ratio by weight would've gotten me there. That's far from the original 2.74 : 1.

This is my first time working with HoK products. Usually we're having a color mixed to match a Pantone chip. It's always been super close.

I'd love some insights from more experienced painters.

[Doug Fattic]

I’ve used H of K paint since the 80’s when I 1st learned about it. Their products have changed over time. You didn’t mention what color primer and sealer you used under your top coat color. They have quite an impact on the final color result – more than you might expect. I suggest cutting up a bunch of tubing to spray as color tests.

For starters I like to mix their paint primer colors that actually come in the basic colors (meaning red, blue and yellow + white and black) to be similar to the top coat color. This has the advantage of chips not looking so obvious if the likely separation is between the primer and top coat. Their primer/sealer can be reduced to then spray as a sealer. This provides an even base color and helps adhesion if you stay within the spray time window. Anyway play around with using different color combinations to make a sealer as the base before applying your various top coat color options. If you haven’t tried this you will probably be surprised at how it effects the results.

You might want to start by tinting a white sealer. Of course I have now suggested a hundred more color combinations to try out.

Doug Fattic
Niles, Michigan

[false_aesthetic]

Hey Doug,

Thanks for that insight.

We used SEM primer/sealer (gray) and then laid down a coat of Pantone Cool Grey 1C (neutral gray, lighter than primer, darker than white). Then hit it with 3 coats of the blue. With each coat it seemed to get a little more purple.

I'm really digging the learning process and I really have so much more respect for the folks that paint bikes/cars/helmets/etc professionally.

Next time we do a HoK application we're definitely making our own paint tubes.
At least I can be happy with the way this came out.

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