You might recall the DipYourCar YouTube channel’s recent project of painting a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution in Musou Black. The special paint is in a color that absorbs 99.4 percent of visible light to make a real-world object appear two dimensional. Now the team is back with an even more ambitious plan to add HyperShift to create an automotive paint finish like nothing you’ve ever seen.
The challenge is that Musou Black’s special properties mean that you can’t treat it like normal paint. Applying the HyperShift like usual results in a hazy finish that looks awful. Instead, DipYourCar comes up with a strategy of combining the color-shift layer with naphtha thinner and then waiting for the naphtha to dissolve.
This experiment works, and the result is amazing. Depending on how the light hits the body, all of the little pearls of HyperShift shine like tiny LED lights. At times, there’s a purple tinge that’s reminiscent of photos of outer space through a telescope.
While the Lancer Evo looks fantastic in this mix of deep black, sparkles, and purple hues look fantastic, the finish is not durable enough for regular use on an automobile. The host from DipYourCar warns not to bother trying this at home because it would be too expensive and wouldn’t last.
Musou Black retails for 2,500 yen ($24.19 at current exchange rates) for a 100-milliliter (3.381-fluid-ounce) bottle. Amassing enough to paint a whole car is quite an expensive project.
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Vantablack is the major competitor to Musou Black, and at 99.96 percent, it can absorb even more light. However, the company doesn’t sell the paint to individuals. BMW was able to get enough to paint a one-off X6 (above) for the 2019 Frankfurt Motor Show and then displayed the crossover coupe in a neon-lit room to create a bizarre juxtaposition.