Candy colors are translucent powders, usually red, blue, green or purple, laid over a chrome-look, silver or polished base. The finish depends entirely on even film build, because thicker areas look darker. Candy work is a two-coat process common on custom wheels, motorcycle frames and hot-rod parts, and it fades faster outdoors than solid colors.
Customer wants candy red on the wheels, so it's chrome base, partial cure, then the red and watch the build.
Thin spots and heavy spots show as light and dark patches in a candy, so the same gun distance on every pass matters more than speed.
Also heard as
- candy color
- tinted clear
Related terms
Two-coat
Describing a finish built from a base coat and a top coat, each sprayed separately.
Film build
The thickness of the cured coating, usually given in mils or microns.
Bonded metallic
Metallic powder in which the flake is fused onto the base particles so it sprays and recycles evenly.
Recoat
A second coat of powder over a cured first coat, used to fix rejects or build a multi-coat system.