What Happens When You Blend Powder Coat Colors May Surprise You

There’s a well-told story of how a certain NASCAR racing team named Petty came up with its signature “Petty Blue” hue. The color, created entirely by accident in 1959, has graced decades worth of stock cars wearing the number 43. Essentially they scrounged up whatever leftover paint was laying around to get their car ready in time for the next race. It turned out to be a pretty unique combination of dark blue and white, and the rest is history.

Recreating their secret recipe has vexed Mopar enthusiasts for years. Today, even though it’s now trademarked and available to purchase under license, it’s fairly common knowledge that a 1:5 blend of the right blue and white paints will get you in the neighborhood. But what if you were to attempt to blend this unique color for powder coating using the same method? Chances are you wouldn’t even come close.

That’s because powder paints don’t blend the same way liquid paints do. Powder coatings are typically composed of a mixture of finely ground particles of pigment and resin. The absence of solvents means that there is no liquid carrier to facilitate the blending of colors. Because powders lack the fluidity of liquid paints, the melted powder tends to flow less than liquid paint. This results in sharper color boundaries and even stratified coloration where some colors bond closer to the base material than other.

To demonstrate the unpredictable effects of blending powder paints, we made like the Petty family. That is, we scrounged up some open containers of powder colors we had around the garage and sprayed them out. The results, as you can see below, were surprising in so many ways. We’re not suggesting you can’t blend powders on your own, we’re just saying you need to test first and prepare to dismiss your expectations.

Sample 1 – Satin Black + Chrome

Painting fine metallics over a black base often results in interesting and complex dark/smoky/shiny finishes that can really set off a project. In this case, we blended roughly two parts Extreme Chrome Bonded powder with one part Satin Black powder. The result was closer to a satin nickel finish, with slightly less shimmer than traditional chrome. The satin black powder also seemed to add a bit of texture to the surface. Overall, a very cool effect that would actually look cool on underhood components like brackets.

Sample 2 – Atomic Orange + Metallic Blue

If you’ve ever watched kids with watercolors blend blue with red and yellow, you know they typically end up with a very basic brown color, which is great for painting trees and dogs. We were expecting something in that range when we mixed equal parts Atomic Orange and Metallic Blue. What we got was this deep, translucent jade green metallic color instead. This pairing was a total surprise to us.

Sample 3 – Storm Silver + Atomic Orange

We anticipated getting a rusty color from blending the same Atomic Orange with Shimmering Metallic Storm Silver in equal measures. The result was a very deep metallic copper effect that looks like it belongs on the body of a street rod. We could see using this blend to powder coat something like a bike or motorcycle frame, or perhaps accessories like brake calipers.

Sample 4 – Satin Black + Metallic Blue

It’s really difficult to describe how the addition of Metallic Blue to Satin Black changed the overall effect on this sprayout. We expected black with blue speckles. However, the blue powder seemed to bond more directly with the work, leaving the black powder exposed at the surface. But there’s just enough blue tint in the final finish to separate this blend from a standard black. Cool but subtle, and maybe not worth the effort if you’re going for a special effect.

Sample 5 – Metallic Blue + Bright Yellow

Yellow and blue make green. Every first-grader knows this. But powder coating doesn’t care, as you can see here. Again we blended our Metallic Blue powder with Bright Yellow in similar proportions, expected perhaps a freckled effect. And we got some of that, with blue specks poking through the mostly yellow surface. But as with the black and blue test above, the blue bonded more tightly with the bare metal. We suspect that because the blue is a metallic color, it is more heavily attracted to the electrostatically charged part.