Customs Weird paint techniques

Most times I'm out working on my 57, the neighbor guy comes over to chat about cars. He says he had a 54 chevy back when he was my age and him and his brother pained it at home by spraying it light blue, and then turning on fans and throwing pieces of mylar they had cut out into the air, and once the paint had dried with big Mylar flakes all over it, they cleared it. What kinds of weird techniques have you guys heard of?

 

My father told me the story of reversing the motor on a vacuum sweeper to use as a compressor Seems like I have read something here on the hamb about that too. After reading this article, he must have used the exhaust, instead of reversing the motor.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/anyone-remember-electrolux-paint-jobs.989936/

 

????? WTF?

 

the high volume low pressure turbine systems are that. Get yours today.

 

The acetylene smoke jobs are pretty cool.

Mixing colors and candy makes for some fun. Did a gorgeous candy root beer with B5 blue base and tangerine candy over it.

 

Always wanted to try mixing toluene based paint with water-based (they don't mix), and seeing what would come out through the spray gun. If I get drunk enough one day, i may just try it.

 

Anybody ever just throw the flake or use some type of old style bug sprayer to put the flake on wet paint and clear over later?

 

Back in the '50's I primered more than a few cars with one of these....

 

I once used craft store glitter for giant flake on a cycle tank ,, it was way to big for my flake tip on my gun , so I just dumped it in my hand and blew across my hand with a blow gun to blow it on to wet clear .it turned great ! Just like I knew what I was doing. Sometimes luck is better than skill !!!!!!!

 

I always thought the lace paint jobs were crazy. Tape down a piece of lace like a template, paint over it, when dry, take it off. Never tried it, but saw a few that looked decent.

 

In the early 60s, my dad tried to paint a school bus with one of the vacuum cleaner spray guns. I distinctly remember the statement, "I could do better with a Effing scoop shovel." He was not one to drop F bombs, but dropped several that day, then the paint brushes came out and the job got done.

 

Paint by brush was very popular and done more than you could imagine. Aerosol spray paint was also done allot.

 

I have a friend who is a very good custom motorcycle painter and he did some panels on a Harley where he put Saran Wrap on the paint while it was wet and pulled it back off right away, gave a marbled effect.


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My grandfather was an Electrolux salesman through the 50s. A sweeper repairman till he died in 2014.
I scrapped probably 200+ vacuum cleaners and 200+ sewing machines.
I kept some of the sweepers from the 20s and 30s that he took in on trades.
Anyway. My point is you are on the right track. You don't reverse the motor. You put the hose on the exhaust and use an actual sprayer attachment. It basically looked like an old style spray gun with a glass jar as the reservoir and the air blew threw the top and sucked up the paint.
I have a few laying around. My gramps said he painted a car once with one back in the 60s.


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My parents had an Electrolux like that, they got in the 70s, I think that thing stayed with them longer than I did. My dad always used an air compressor, but we would use that vacuum cleaner to inflate air mattress

 

I did a mild "custom" right around the time that Pontiac Firebirds came out with the first body color bumpers (one of the first??). The project wasn't a T/A but I was going for that look. I paid a shop to de-chrome my steel bumpers, ready for paint. It was going to be a driver and I wanted something to stand up to stone chips better than regular body paint. I had recently redone a floor with one of those kits with a base coat/vinyl flakes and a clear, top/sealer coat. I guess I was sort of impressed with the thick, viscus clear and dumb enough to try anything. I had some of that clear stuff left over that I mixed half and half with the auto paint and shot that concoction on the bumpers. The color match turned out perfect but a day later the painted bumpers were dry to touch but still soft and gummy enough to see finger impressions. I thought I had screwed the pooch but I had one thing I could try. I was a lithographer at a print shop where there were these infrared heat cabinets for drying stacks of printed sheets a skid at a time. I put the bumpers in there and left them over night (or the whole weekend, I don't recall exactly.) When I checked back, the finish was tough and hard. It was pure dumb luck.

 

One of the old Rod & Custom reader's rides sections from the late sixties showed a homebuilt T-bucket that was painted "using a vacuum cleaner with a bug spray attachment"; looked OK but it was a small photo...

 

I think my dads problem and the trick in general was to get the viscosity just right. Up until the bus painting fiasco, I doubt my dad had ever sprayed paint at anything.

 

Back around 199) I used a Glasurit primer-surfacer that was pale yellow, but somewhat tintable. We tinted it, and would spray urethane clear over it. It could go on wet-on-wet, or after sanding. It was kinda handy to use as a primer-surfacer, and clear right over it after sanding. Doing so saved using a sealer and a color coat.

 

What about using an airless spray gun for that "Jackson Pollock" effect

 

How about cobwebbing or freak drops?

 

Just for the helluvit a while back, I 'carbon fibered' some trailer fenders I was doing. Gray/charcoal base, perforated drawer liner overlay, then black on top. Kinda did it as a joke. (trailer fenders pretty boring, ya know) Came out pretty damn good! Not Hamb material at all, but a neat effect for 'other' projects.

 

I painted my first car in lacquer with a Wagner power painter.

 

^^ come to think of it, my first (non rattle can) spray job was with a Power Painter. Shot primer on an old IH Scout for that 'hot rod' effect...

 

I still do cob webbing for accent pieces, always liked the effect. Getting harder to find lacquer paint though.....

 

Yep, used the power painter on my 64 merc pu using synthetic enamel Massey red tractor paint! It turned out awesome for a 13 year old... And just last week the father in law gave me a pile of junk he cleaned out of his house he is selling and there in the box power painter! Brought back some memories!!!!

 

I painted a guitar a few years back. Silver base, a coat of clear followed by flake just thrown at it with more clear to finish it. Turned out ok...

 

While visiting my uncle, near the end of his life, he had me do some work on a '41 Chevy he had. He had worked on cars since he was in his teens, did his own chroming of small parts, had his own frame straightener, did beautiful restorations.
I had sanded down the problem areas and he was showing me how to shoot the black lacquer. I had shot before using a gun, but had always used the side to side motion. He pulled the trigger and spiraled-out from the middle, laying it down perfectly, no runs at all.
I had never seen that technique and certainly couldn't repeat it. There was a lot of sanding for me that day.

 

A guy came to the strip many years ago with an A hiboy painted with reflective traffic yellow line paint. Different to say the least.

 

Highly unorthodox methods


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