I have a 2017 RG Billet silver, bought some extended side panels from bad dad that come gel coat white. I also bought some billet silver paint from HD store (there went my retirement fund)! anyway i sealed the stuff with the grey auto sealer often used and when painted it was lighter then OEM. Does anyone know what HD tends to use for a basecoat behind their metalic paint? thanks.

 

I think I remember seeing a documentary on the manufacturing of Harleys and the tins were a black e-coat base.

 

Depends on what the finish coat is.I was at Tomahawk tour when the root beer color was new and I was told that, that color starts with purple.

 

Most of those colors are a two coat paint job. The first coat is nothing like the top coat that what creates the look.
I going to have a sidecar painted HD the Black Hills Gold. That is not going to be cheap.

 

Unless it's a pearl or some other transparent color your primer base color should be irrelevant.

In fact, it's a common practice to use panels that are half white/half black for spraying out color match specimens. When the black base and the white base sides of the panel are the same color then you know you have complete hiding of the finish color.