If you're a regular follower of MTV's Pimp My Ride, you'll realize the extensive use of candy colored paintjobs for most of the rides featured. Now why is this paintjob so popular? You could say this is due to the fact that candy colors gives the surface a depth which normal paints won't be able to provide.

The secret to eye popping candy color paint is that it's a transparent kinda paint, which depends on how bright or reflective the base coat is to provide the shine and depth which makes it's so attractive. However, it's also a bitch to work with, as I unfortunately found out while trying out some experiments for a new DIY project I'm gonna work on soon.

Using the information I gathered from the net, I found out that applying candy paint is going to be a 3 step process. I used an old cap from a spraycan as my subject for this paint test.

First, we need to give the cap a black base coat to cover all the imperfections on the surface.

Next, we need to prep the surface by applying a chrome paintjob onto the black base coat. I used decorative chrome from an Anchor spraycan for this.

After waiting for the paint to dry, give it a good buff using a very soft cloth to give it a better shine.

Once that's done, it's time to apply the candy paint. I bought a can of candy blue, and gave the cap several thin coats of the paint. And here's where everything went wrong.

As you can see from the above pics, 3 major things went terribly wrong. The first was that any dust or grime will have a severe effect on the surface finish. And I saw a really horrible surface finish on the cap.

Next, the candy paint sort of 'ate' into the chrome mid-layer coat. And this left really ugly black spots all over the surface (the black spots are actually the black base coat showing).

And finally, I found that chrome finish from a can is hopeless. It looks pretty when applied on it's own. But when you add another top coat, the mirror like finish dulls into a matte finish and there were blemishes everywhere.

So, I took another unused spray cap to try and see if I could work around the problem. I cleaned the cap thoroughly this time. Then I waited longer for the black base coat to dry. I also applied thicker layers of chrome paint, hoping that the candy paint won't eat through this time.

All that gave me this. It looks marginally better than the first attempt. At least there weren't so many blemishes this time. However, I'm still extremely unsatisfied with the results. It wasn't anywhere good enough to be called successful.

My opinion is, candy paint works best with properly chromed surfaces. Off the shelf chrome paint just won't do, and will not make candy paint look at it's best. It's way too much work and the results are at best average. Don't even think about a showroom shine.