From personal experience, I can tell ya that the guys at Paint With Pearl are great and this is one customer that will continue going back to them.

I would never recommend Top Secret Coatings however.

There is a problem with roller painting pearl and flakes. But there is an easy way around it should you want a two stage--or even one stage--paint with rollers and a little extra.

I'd follow all of the instructions found here and get down to a final glass like surface. Not polished of course.

Then I'd use a rechargeable rattle can and fill the clear coat with pearl and/or metal flake and add the pearl coats on with that method.

http://www.eastwoodco.com/shopping/produ...ProductID=14355

They're not that expensive, and they're reusable. Or if you're patient, buy a very inexpensive air brush set from ACE, cheapest I could find, and try that. But the rattle can from Eastwood would make more sense.

I'm in the same situation as most of you, trying to find the cheapest way to work on our cars and city codes and ordinances keep me from spray painting the car with anything other than rattle cans. The roller method fills a need and does it well.

If you want just a metal flake, then try hand casting the flakes over a wet coat like they did back in the day when the flakes were larger and would clog the spray nozzles. Hand casting a micro flake from Paint With Pearl is pretty easy since it is such a small flake, you don't have to worry about knock down sanding since it settles into the paint rather well.

I know that this works, I tested the process on a Sattelite Hood and it came out looking good. Black base, emerald green flake. (no, I don't have pictures, it's been over a year since I did this and I don't have the hood anymore.)

There's always a way around a problem and if you're jonesin' for a Pearl coat, I'd recommend trying this.