Customs Hydro-dipping

Im pretty sure Swirl painting and hydro dipping are two different processes.Swirl painting is liquid paint on top of water. The hydro dipping is some sort of film.

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Swirl painting and dipping are totally different yes.
Though swirl painting takes no special tank with heated water and purchasing the dip film. Yes a dip is probably the way to go for something like the wood grain or carbon fiber look (though theres tricks to spraying it too)
Both have their place. Since the OP is on a budget and seems to be the DIY kind I thought id suggest it.
Pouring the paint or spraying it will also give different results. play with it. experiment then go. I have fun with it

 

I remember the model car magazine article nrgwizard mentioned above. Never tried it, but thought it was a great idea when I was around 8 or so years old.
-Dave

 

The only thing prohibitive for a DIY'r is the size of the printer needed to print the film. Other than that it is not rocket science.

My son works for me as a mortgage loan officer, to promote himself at Realtor offices (so he doesn't walk in empty handed) he bought a special printer cartridge and some edible film. He loads his business card image in the computer, prints it on the film and after he bakes the cookies and ices them, he applies the film that melts to the icing and becomes a permanent, photo perfect image, edible part of the cookie. Same sort of idea. Aint tech neat?

 

There are tons of places online where you can buy pre-printed film. I am surprised there don't seem to be many that offer to print custom stuff probably requires a pretty high end expensive printer to do it well.

 

Contact U-Grain-It in Florida. Jay-Dee, on here, owns it and this sounds like something he would be playing with. Haven't talked to him at Hershey for a year or two but he loves this kind of stuff.

 

Digressing, I know from having my 46 Olds steering wheel pearled by a local business (No longer in operation) that 3M branded coloured sheets were used as I had to select colours to match my car. I wasn't there to see how it was done however this was the second wheel that was done by them even though I could have used Pearlcraft, it would have cost a lot more. I know that the result was worth the $$$ and can only speculate that it was a commercially available product and this is what Pearlcraft use, if not that then something similar.

 

^^^^^That's beautiful^^^

 

I had a company in Raleigh NC to hydro dip the garnish moldings in my '40 Ford. It wasn't cheap but the results were outstanding. I had another Ford guy who has a '39 with the factory wood finish dash tell me that it was a $5 option in '39. I don't know if that's true or not, but I spent $400 having mine done!

 

Thank you. I can't wait to pull my finger out and finish this damn car! Sadly the fellow who did this work passed away due to the big 'C' and will be sadly missed. Soooooooooo long in the making now. There is light at the end of the tunnel. In saying that, Pearlcraft do beautiful work and I'm surprised that there aren't too many doing it Here are a couple of others that I bookmarked.
http://qualityrestorations.com/
http://www.steeringwheelbob.com/gallery

 

I had the dash in my '38 Chrysler done. Been on the road 4 years now and holding up fine.

 

Stumpy;
Too bad you couldn't get info on the process before t he guy passed. Anyone stepped up to take over, or could let you see his books n tools? Might be worth a try?
Marcus...

 

Billy;
They've been doing that on cakes n ice cream for years, although I don't know how, as I wasn't ever interested in it. At least around here, the images are a bit fuzzy, & less than really nice.
Marcus...

 

As long as they taste good, I'm good!

 

Here's a cake my daughter did for our car clubs 60th anniversary using the the edible printer paper.

Mick

 

My wheel was the last he did as a favour and sadly no one took over where he left off.
I had no idea at the time how sick he was at the time as he kept it private apart from saying that he was winding down his business.
I never thought to ask what the process was or see how it was done but remember that the film came in a thick roll and was wrapped around the wheel until it was covered. The process is now a closely guarded secret by those in the know and believe that the product would something that is most likely commercially available to anyone as it would have multiple other industrial or other uses.

 

It probably something like this stuff that Peralcraft uses.

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/mother-of-pearl-for-car-steering_60507313259.html

 

That’s worth taking a gamble on! Thanks a ton for the link!


What’cha got in there, kid?
More than you can handle!

 

You have to buy a shit ton from these guys. Like 500kg per order by the looks of it. Similar products are available as drum wrap (as in the instrument) but most of what I have seen is a lot thicker like 21mils compared to the .5 to 1 mil stuff Pearlcraft uses. There must be some source for the thinner material in smaller quantities out there.

 

Oh yeah i see that now, guess it's back to a washtub full of water and paint for me.

 

I'd imagine if the clear coat on a heavily used or heavy wear item such as a steering wheel or handle burned through, you'd have to re-clear to keep from burning through the under finish.

Wonder how this holds up to heat, UV exposure and weather such as engine components, wheels, etc?

 

Here is a thought on the pearlescent marble that may be experimented with using the hydrographic dipping. There are pearl additives that could be added to a base that floats. There is three shades of white so swirling the shades of white pearl may create a pattern similar to mother of pearl. Clearcoat with urethane to give it a durable finish.
https://www.jacquardproducts.com/pearl-ex-pigments.html
It may be just tinting white pearl paint as well to get the variations.

 

I wonder the same thing, I see intakes and blower cases done and have no idea how the finish can possibly last under use and duress.

 

A friend of mine done this for awhile. When I had my dragster he done a bunch of stuff on it in carbon fiber. You can get all kinds of stuff for this off the internet, any design you can imagine. You got to heat and filter the water, got to have a pump to circulate it. I know it was a real pain. I loved the stuff, you could take valve covers that looked like crap and make them look new, he done several wheels. I always wondered if you could find a used hot tub or something similar and convert it. He went to powder coating now, has a huge oven and all kinds of coatings. I really liked the hydro dipping myself.

 

I think I've finally found what to do with the steel rim of my 40 Buick wheel. Swirl! Now I just gotta decide on colors.

 

They sell do it yourself kits hundreds of different patterns
http://www.hydrodip.com/

https://www.mydipkit.com/