I am still loking for good pics of smoked dash and garnish mouldings. BJR, could you be thinking of blowdots using an airbruxh? Put very thinned color pigment in an airbrush- apply a dot of paint holding the airbrush tip close to the surface you are painting. - When you get a spot of paint, let up on the trigger until just air comes out in the middle of that spot, and it makes what looke like a bubble....................MO
A few from the Howard Gribble collection. FYI, Watson and Andersen were pioneers on this technique back in the 60s
Back in the day they even made a special "vailing " gun just to spray a more web like pattern. I never saw one but when I took a custom painting class back in the 70s they talked about it along with the metalflake agitating cup ( like nuts in the bottom of the cup don't work) and a bunch of other odd ball stuff. Hell they even taught us oxidized torch patterns. I am still amazed what tech schools would teach in the early 70s. Yup I still have my FVTI diploma in custom painting somewhere in a drawer!
I believe they were called blow dots around here. Here's some cobwebbing and lace paint. Not real fancy, but the guy that originally built the car said the custom paint work was done in one night. Larry T
They were called Freak Drops! you can do it with a double action airbrush, blow some thinned paint in a puddle, turn off the paint and hit it with just air. raise the airbrush up slowly and there you have it. Works best with a lot of air pressure (20 PSI)
I'm not sure if Its still available, maybe on ebay, but what you need is a book called "The Art Of Custom Painting" and it was put out by the Metalflake Finishes company back in the early 70's. at least I think thats when i got my copy. it was written by Carl Caiati "The Psychedelic Psycho". This book has ALL the Boss paint tricks from back in the day from Ribbon Painting and Fish Scaling to Water Drop painting and Lace! It's a stone gass brother!!!
Here's a pic of the quarter panel on my 57 Safari;white base with red webbing done by Sonny Pasternak in 1970.Still in good shape(better than it's owner).
Did cob webs on an O/T p/u in the late 70's. Brown webs over white. At 20 foot it looked like dirt 2 weeks later, sanded and repainted the white.
I've done quite a bit of cob webbing, and Ink Spots ( I'd never heard them called Freak Spots until this thread). Cob Webbing was unthinned lacquer and alower than normal pressure as I recall, and ink spots thinned paint, higher pressure, and a quick blast on the paint trigger, follwed by just the gun air to make the pattern disperse.
IIRC, Gambino not only built, but also painted Kirks 'May Cause Dangerous' Starliner and I swear I read about how he went about the cob webbing but I'm too lazy this morning to go search for it.
While were on the subjetc of trippy '70's paint....anyone got pics of Acetylene smoke??? Maybe some VANS???? haha......
Look at the truck I posted. (ill get better pictures.) Most of the lighter blue is cob webbing. Most of the magenta / red is acetylene smoke. Then there are the panels. Then there are the banners. Then the pin stripping. Then the base paint. Then. Then. Then.
Ok guys, I'm very old school painter and I did paint cob webbing. Make sure you use acrylic lacquer. Acrylic means plastic and that's what makes it streach in stingy webs. Plain lacquer won't work. I hope my two cents helps. Jim
did a few vans in the early 70s i used to paint the base color with a bit of retarder to slow it down long enough to hit it with unthined lacquer at very low pressure the gun would actually whistle before the paint came out you need to get the gun set up with the web color and try on a test paper and have it ready to go after the base color is done then clear it after it sets up