Dupli-Color Mirage Paint

[Vampyrate]

I was bored last night and sprung for the $20 mirage paint at advance auto parts. I painted my passenger side vent and dash facia. The color is a chameleon of green/purple with some reds and blues and golds in between. Just to let you know, it was a 3 step process with base coat, color, and clear coat. so far, I love the look and am waiting on the perfect time to do the plastic bits on the doors and center console (any idea on how to take off the black plastic door parts w/o removing the panel shoot me a PM).

I must say though, use it in a well ventilated area (duh). I really don't have those in college so I just opened my window, turned the fans on high, and left the door wide open. I was getting a bit of a buzz while doing it, but I didn't succumb to death by idiocy (though I know a few of you would get a good laugh at that for months to come). Anyway, my remaining brain cells are doing fine and my dash looks sexy. Granted I couldn't remember what day it was this morning, but that's a different story.

[hyunelan2]

:worthless

[Cypher]

:pics2: :iamwithst :worthless haha such random faces i love them! BUT GET US PICTURES!!!!

[Vampyrate]

i only have a cell phone, but i will see what i can do for you pic whores out there

[Vampyrate]

Okay, I finally uploaded the pics. They are from 2 views on one part of my dash. I love the effect. I've managed to do the driver side door as well (i need to do some serious paint cleaning now... any ideas for getting off overspray?). Next is the center console around the shifter and the tray and passenger side door.

IMO i might not do the entire interior black now, i think it looks sexy enough with the tan trim... but thats just me

[Cypher]

dude i kinda like that... it looks cool... i'd like to see a whole shot of it to see how it goes with the rest of hte interior tho

[Vampyrate]

like i said, i only have a cell phone so next time im home, ill try to get scott to get some pics, or you will just have to wait and see it at the meet

[robs02elantra]

man, I am not sure what is going on, but I sure do like that. When you first talked about it, I really wasn't sure, but that does look nice.

[BlackElantraGT]

I'm with Cypher, I have to see how it goes with the rest of the car but that's pretty damn amazing if that came from a can and not a paint/body shop.

[robs02elantra]

I guess the true test is going to be time. The difference between a can and a paintshop might be how it lasts or doesn't last. I'm definately hoping that it does last, because I think it looks pretty damn nice.

Fingers crossed

[Estopatitiana]

yeah i used that mirage **** on my van and its cool as hell....you know instead of using their black base coat i used a some leftover red high temp paint, and then put heir second coat and clear caot on..and it looked pretty badass bc my van was red...i think it would be cool to get the basecoat color of your car and then put the color change coat on they provide and the clear coat..but yeah i think that looks good..and you didnt seem to rush it bc i dont see running..nice

[Mahonroy]

Looks really good IMO. So how does this stuff work exactly? Do you spray some on, sand it down, spray, etc. or are you only supposed to use one coat, etc...?

[Vampyrate]

Actually, for the door panels i did rush it, but there wasnt much of a running problem, the only problem really was poor taping off of areas, but its not that noticable so it still looks super clean.

the process is:
1. 2-3 coats of base coat (about 15mins of dry time for all coats)
2. 3-6 coats of actual color (depends on how much of an effect you want, i found 3 worked really well and about 1 hour of dry time for the last coat in order to handle it)
3. 2-3 coats of top coat (about 30mins of dry time for all coats)

of course, you have to clean the surface and sanding is not necessary, but recommended ( i didnt sand). it takes a full 24hrs for it to dry completley, but it is safe to handle after 2 hours and you can reinstall if you wish, just be careful of scracthing and bumping it.

on antother note, i used PEELER by Klean-Strip to remove the over spray on teh door panels and that works really well. so im happy with all the products that ive used in this little experiment.

the bad think about this paint is that you cant really see the effect unless right on it with a camera phone, thats why i cant get whole dash shots just yet.

but yeah, an awesome "spray-and-wait" system. i really do hope it lasts... i tried to spray areas where not that much human contact will effect it so i hope it wont crap out in a year... ill update this in a year to let you know how its holding up

[Vampyrate]

Okay, today I had everything done... it was great! it looked so sexy (Center console tray, dash facia, and both front door panels). but then i just had to try to get some over spray off with the paint remover and it got on the passenger door panel. ARGH!

so i took the panel off, took my time with it and sanded and painted it tonight. well, I <b>thought</b> that it was dry enough to handle. it wasnt. while putting it back on, my hand slipped and i touched it, so now i have to let it dry and paint it over again. but now i have everythign that i need to make it perfect enough sandpaper to smooth it down enough to where the base coat will fill in any holes with about 2-3 coats and a brand new multi-color and top coat to finish the job. this time, im leaving the panel on, so i dont touch it at all... and there will be no over spray this time.

everything else looks sexy though

[clarion]

it looks very nice. if you got some more let over try spraying the anttena, i always wonder it would look like

[yamaha]

Can you get some more pictures for us of how it looks?

[Vampyrate]

i could, but i would need a digi-cam, i only have my cell phone for the pix... so it may be until around nov. 18th when im back home before i can get some more pix

[Dropped02xd]

neato :)

[Vampyrate]

that it is, that it is.