I'm doing a 52 Pontiac tin woody for my wife's Dad (just like the ad) and am looking for a good local woodgrainer to do the exterior simulated wood . I just painted it and 2 toned the 2 colors of base for the graining . I did one of these myself before and it came out pretty good (I have the tools and it's really simple to get it to look okay) , this car is nicer though and I was hoping for a more pro job (like this blue/green chevy) without spending what somebody like Bob Kennedy would charge . If not I was thinking maybe I'd grain the light color and use that country squire type applique for the dark , or maybe even use some thin veneer and cut it to fit . Any ideas you guys have done ? He said the car is my 4 year old son's someday and I'm trying to do as nice a job as possible without spending a fortune . Thanks
If you painted the car, you should be experienced enough to try it yourself. The original way to do it, in the factory, is to pick up the woodgrain pattern (taken from pics of REAL wood) with a rubber cylinder, and transfer it to the basecoat painted surface. This is still done today, by some companies....as well as artists who can do it with brushes, rags, etc. I'm assuming you tried doing it this way...which can be tricky to get right. Jdee, here on the HAMB, works for such a company. Grain-It Technologies. Base in Winter Haven FL. He is great with advice, and help. His company also sells a hobbyist sized "kit" to do graining yourself. It comes with a woodgrain pattern, your choice, and a roller set-up, as well as light and dark inks, and a CD to show you how to do it. I've got one, and while I've only experimented with it on small parts like glovebox doors, and window trim, it seems easy enough to do panels of the size of your wagon. If you can't find JDEE here, do a search for Grain-It Technologies on the internet, they even have videos of them performing this on dashboards. They are nice people to dela with!
I'm not meaning to hi-jack the thread - Mark, thanks for posting this info. I need to do some wood-graining on the '39. 'Just goes to show that if there's a HAMBer with a question, there's a HAMBer ready to help. Dave
You mean like this? I don't know about the roller/stamp thing on these, I don't see how you'd do the compound curves and the insert areas. Woodgrain film looks like woodgrain film, to my eye it'd look like crap on your Pontiac. My buddy taught me how to do this in about 5 minutes, you use foam rollers, hardware store foam brushes, and wood stain. For real. It fools cabinet makers. Pm me if you want to do it yourself, spend a hundred bucks, or ship me the car and about 7.5K and I'll do it for you. Brian
I think this is a BAD idea. I attempted to veneer some metal parts once, with less than desirable results..
I guess I didn't make it clear in my original post , I have the woodgraining tools and have done a 50 chevy wagon in the past for myself , I understand how it is done . I know it is inexpensive to do it myself , I was hoping somebody local that is very good at it might want to do the job . There is a big difference in an amateur job and a pro , I know Bob Kennedy is world famous and does beautiful work , I can't spend what he would charge if he even had the time and would agree to do it (I called him a couple times and it just rang and rang , maybe I'll ask him at the roadster show in a couple weeks ) . Any local L.A. pro quality woodgrainers that would consider doing the job for a resonable price , hit me up , that's what I was looking for . If not , I WILL do it myself and it will look pretty decent (I can dig up pix of my Chevy if anybody cares ). I was thinking maybe grain the lighter color and figure out a veneer for the dark , it makes me a little nervous as far as keeping it looking good , securely attached after time / washing etc. I was asking if anybody had done something like that in the past , I understand it's a little bit of a funky idea , just kind of brainstorming to figure out a way that might be nice and look sharp . A top pro would maybe charge $3-4K so I probably won't be shipping anybody the car and $7500 , Thanks .
Here's my Chevy I did in a few hours , maybe $50 in materials . I know I can do a lot nicer job if I spend some time on it , but like anything , a guy that's been doing it for years will do a far superior job obviously .
It came out great.I say let er' rip. You have the talent, why not save the money? Good luck and post pics.
Want a job ? See that's a lot better than I could do , I'm a zero to extremely little talent . I just want it to look more professional than I think I could pull off .
nice work guys....i say DIY....you already have the basics....if you screw up can you sand and restart?....i ve used wood grainers before and they work great on a flat surface....i've also used a feathers edge for graining faux marble.....a feather would likely work better on curves
I went ahead and did it myself , maybe $50 in materials . Still detailing stuff and my buddy is supposed to come do a little airbrushing on it . I think once it's cleared and glossy it will look okay . It's no pro job by any means , but I saved a bunch of cash and am proud that I went for it . I tried like hell to talk my Father in law out of that metallic blue color and stay with the stock dark blue , but I actually really like it now .
Were the cars originally grained on the moulding portions or just painted a generic pale wood tan or taupe and the panel portions grained (likely DiNoc film rather than paint) or ?
Brian, the factory used to do this on dashes, and window trim back in the 30's. Those parts have lots of curves, concave and convex. The rollers used to be rubber, but the Grain-It boys have a better version, with a VERY soft urethane. You wouldn't believe how pliable they are, and the areas they can get into! Dave...if you'd like to try out my kit, or borrow it, C'mon down!
I believe the process used on factory woodgrained mouldings, dashes, glovebox lids etc. was a photo transfer rather than rollers and paint.
I didn't know how pliable the rollers are in the kits, thanks for the info. I used small urethane trim rollers with a sort of squiggley pattern melted in with a chev. starter shim, which is sort of the same thing. That and $7 dollar graining tool on a stick, some foam brushes and one really good brush to "pull" the stain after it was rolled are all the tools used. BTW, fantastic job on the wagon! Aren't you glad you did it yourself now?
No, they were grained, but it wasn't a very realistic looking finish, and I don't care for the very pale "ash" color of the "framing" panels. It was all painted, no transfers or stick on DyNoc type film.
Technically, it is. A photo of real wood is engraved, probably with an acid solution, onto a steel plate. The plate is inked with a roller and then the ink is picked up with the soft rubber roller, and transfered onto the painted surface. Photo-engraveur I think it's called, the webiste goes into the whole history of the process. The reason it looks so great, is that the engraved plate is 3D so the roller picks up ink in graduated thickness. The grain actually looks very dimensional when it's transfered and clearcoated.
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