# My Wildest Paint Job...EVER



## vypurr59

1937 Chevy, velocity stacks and dash tach, made on my mini lathe.
Floated Testor brand paint on water mixed with Borax soap powder.
Got the idea for this off of youtube from some guitar painters.


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## SteveR

Wild! Swirladelic! Here's another example:
http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=37122

Hank Borger used that technique on cars in the 70s. Here he is with a recent build: http://www.gatormodelers.org/articles/kit-builds/62-1970-don-nicholson-pro-stock-drag-maverick


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## DCH10664

The first time I ever heard of floating paint on water to do a paint job was in the instructions for the 1977 AMT KISS Chevy Van Model.
The van had a sort of swirling paint job. And the instructions told how to float paint in a bucket of water to most closely resemble the paint job shown on the box.
Although I did try it. I must admit mine didn't turn out too well. But you seem to have had better results with the method than I had. As they used to say, your car looks "Far-Out" !!!


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## whiskeyrat

Really cool way to paint some different color schemes! Endless possibilities for patterns and colors with this style.


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## Dave621955

Thanks for the idea. I had to give it a try...
















Now to let it set for a couple of weeks to dry, spray some Omni clear and we'll see how shinny it is. Hope it's as smooth as your '37'.


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## vypurr59

Very Nice Indeed, Dave. Fun to do, not knowing what the result will be, until it is completed.
I did do a polish on the body, before clearing. Novus Polish on a soft cloth, just so I didn't have to do alot of work when the clear went on.
Sweet colors!!!!:thumbsup:


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## DOM-19

*Great job*

Those are the wildest paint job,s i ever seen--dom


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## slotcarman12078

LOL!! I think I saw the same guitar dunking video about 5 years ago!!  I did the same trick floating Testors enamels in a margarine tub full of water. The test shot came out cool, the first body I dunked came out great (I was doing slot car bodies) and the second not so hot. I must have wasted 8 bottles of enamels trying again with zero luck. Never thought of adding a detergent or water softener to the tub. I might just have to try this again!! 

Not sure it it would work, but maybe having a body painted white pearl in the water, and floating candies on top will work. I'm looking for a tie dyed effect...


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## vypurr59

slotcarman, I did this without the detergent and it did not work as well. I stripped it, and then watched the vid again, then I realized, I didn't add the Borax, after that, it work well as you could see by my photos.
The pearl white body sounds like a winner. Hope to see you try that.


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## Dave621955

slotcarman, just a note... I also used borax - 1.5 tablespoons to a gallon of water it worked out so-so but didn't flow real well. then I did the same but heated the water to about 80 degrees and it worked out better but still didn't flow as well as I'd like. final run I diluted the testers with auto body enamel reducer 50/50 and it worked out rather well. Good thing I did small tests on small scrap hoods .. I wouldn't want to strip that 16th scale '57' each time. After the first try I read a crap load of posts on guitar forums and found the tips about heating the water and finally diluting the paint (unless you use Humbrol paint, whatever that is) Heating the water causes the Testors to film over rather quickly but diluting with enamel reducer helped this and gave a lot more time to dip the car. Important note .... and I learned this the hard way ... DON"T DO THIS IN THIS IN YOUR MODELROOM IF IT'S IN THE BASEMENT OR YOUR WIFE WILL BE PIS.......!!!!!
I'd suggest trying this, it's really interesting what you get. Next try is the 1/8th scale T bucket. Dave


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## vypurr59

Dave621955 said:


> slotcarman, just a note... I also used borax - 1.5 tablespoons to a gallon of water it worked out so-so but didn't flow real well. then I did the same but heated the water to about 80 degrees and it worked out better but still didn't flow as well as I'd like. final run I diluted the testers with auto body enamel reducer 50/50 and it worked out rather well. Good thing I did small tests on small scrap hoods .. I wouldn't want to strip that 16th scale '57' each time. After the first try I read a crap load of posts on guitar forums and found the tips about heating the water and finally diluting the paint (unless you use Humbrol paint, whatever that is) Heating the water causes the Testors to film over rather quickly but diluting with enamel reducer helped this and gave a lot more time to dip the car. Important note .... and I learned this the hard way ... DON"T DO THIS IN THIS IN YOUR MODELROOM IF IT'S IN THE BASEMENT OR YOUR WIFE WILL BE PIS.......!!!!!
> I'd suggest trying this, it's really interesting what you get. Next try is the 1/8th scale T bucket. Dave


 1/8 scale?? you gonna need a bigger bucket...LOL


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## -Hemi-

SO. this is a NEW one on me. you take a bucket, fill it with water, and what? Borax? And then take your enamels, and reduce them with Enamel reducer, NOT thinner, and "float" them on the water in the bucket, add as many colors as you want, and then dip the body, hood and any other part to match "that" color, and your done?


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## vypurr59

The paint is not reduced, just straight from the bottle.


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## -Hemi-

So let me ask, where do I find "instructions" to pull this off? I'd LOVE to give that a try!

Got a few ideas of my own on a paint job like that!


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## vypurr59

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27lHeE_JLU0
Is the video I saw when I decided to try this out.
I mixed the Borax soap in warm water in a bucket, then floated my testors paint on the surface, then dunked the body, wiped off the rest of the paint on the surface with paper towels(if you don't do this, more paint will get on the body) and pulled it out and let it dry for a few days, before clear coating it.


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## vypurr59

Good Luck to you, Hope you try and have a little fun doing it.


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## -Hemi-

WOW! I see how this was done, my question is, I want to say do a Mopar car......

I want the majority to be Plum Crazy Purple....BUT, here the hitch, I want the other color to be bright DEEP yellow kind of like the regular yellow from Testors.....BUT, not as pronounced as the Purple, I want more purple then yellow, How would I achieve this?

Also, that's the water and Borax ratio mixture have to be? See, back when I used to paint, I never seen this before!!!! This is down right AWESOME! I have got to try it! Even if its a small amount, you know?

ANY help with this is greatly appreciated!


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## vypurr59

Paint the car the Plum Crazy then use your other colors for the swirling effect is 1 way.
Or float more purple in the water, and less of the yellow. Most of this is hit or miss.
I used a 2 gallon bucket and mixed about 1/2 cup borax in the water.


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## -Hemi-

I will do this with the Purple painted on first, I will also "flatten" the purple for the yellow to adhere to it.

I will do this with a bit of experimentation really. Something "small" first so that I can go about it in a technical way...

The other question is, with the "floating" of the paint, in that one video, it showed the person putting the paint to the surface of the water with what looked to be a squirt bottle, does that need to be done in order to do this with Testors hobby paint from a 1/4 ounce bottle?

This is a fun activity, one of such I've NEVER tried but, I plan to do this....It looks like it could play real neat swirls if done right, the paint once "floating" the person used a stick to "swirl" It, yes? OR was that something that's not always needing done?

It looks as tho, the paint will not "mix" together to create different shades of colors when floated.....is that correct?


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## vypurr59

I just dropped the paint right from the mini testor bottles myself. I actually had the water moving before I dropped the paint into it, but you could achieve the same principal, by moving the body you are painting through the paint in the water, since you can see how it is going on while you are dunking it. And you are correct, the paint did not mix with each color, they kinda just float there, because you are not trying to stir them together to mix them together. I did experiment myself with a piece of styrene I had laying around.


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## -Hemi-

Thanks for the info on just dropping the paint directly from the Testors bottle. that helps! NOW with that, does it go on "smooth" or does the clear cote to seal it all in have to make up for a little roughness of paint from one color to the next?

Then on to the "moving water" what you mean, stir the water and paint to "swirl" it so that it does that sort of "motion" as the paint goes onto the item being dipped? I need to know what you mean by the water was moving as you added paint. I'm not sure what your referring to here.

As far as experiment, you betcha I'll be attempting different things from one surface to another as I want to see just what happens! BEFORE I do an actual car that I like, you know? SMALL items, old hoods, sections of scrap plastic or such, as the video even said, primerd paper plates work too!

So. I'll be sure to post up any results once I start, I have some material gathering to do first.


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## vypurr59

The water was moving from me stirring it again before I started my dunking, just to make sure the borax was mixed in well enough, but was not moving like a whirlpool or tsunami, then I dripped the paint on the surface in various patterns across the water. I also used some toothpicks to add "spots" of paint in where I needed some contrasting color. The clear coat is needed to level it out, as you would see the edges of the paint would be pronounced, but not very much. The Chevy in the pic I posted only had 2 coats of clear, so it wasn't needing a lot of leveling. Good Luck and can't wait to see your Swirladelic Mopar pics.


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## -Hemi-

OK, so that clears that up in how you did that, and what you were referring too as "moving water" as you were dunking the shell....

The other question I have, is in the video, the guitar they dunked, it has A LOT of red in it, is there some how they had the red in the water, NOT floating? As it went in the water all primer white, but came out almost all red. See, that's what I want in Plum Crazy Purple, on the Mopar, when I do it......I want more Purple then any other color....Almost as tho, it was painted purple first, as some one mentioned. (In some cases) Now IF and that's a big "IF" I can get the purple to lay onto the body, as tho the guitar had the red lay on it in that video, I'd be happy (I know) that the "look" isn't controllable, BUT the amount that goes onto the item, is.....I'm trying to figure out what they did to get the amount of red to go on the guitar body, as I want the purple to go onto the shell I'm planning.

THEN, I'm going to reverse it, I'm going to do a yellow car, with more yellow then purple!

See, back in the 1990's, I painted up a 65 Chevy pick up. it was painted all silver, and then I splatter painted it with red, and black....These were my school colors, and it looks GREAT ( I still have this truck, however needing rebuilt. As its gotten broken over the years but....I plan to "restore its condition" And probably add a different motor under the hood, but anyway, this was something I thought about with the Mopar thing, and then I seen this "swirl" painting.....Which, changed my mind!

So....I want to try this as it looks to be a really interesting way to paint!


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## vypurr59

In the Video, he had more red floating in the water than the other colors.
Just an update also, this car won Peoples Choice best paint at the Stark Model Contest.
http://public.fotki.com/vypurr59/stark-model-show/img-3575.html


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## -Hemi-

Yeah, I could see that he had a lot of red floating. BUT "that" much to cover almost the whole guitar body in red? It also looked as tho it was under the waters surface, unlike what could be seen "floating"....

I also think it will go a long ways on how the shell in dunked in the water and or moved as its submerged through the floating paint....

I will "play" with this to see if I can learn from doing........


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## -Hemi-

Also, Forgot to ask/say.... have you EVER tried to "thin" the paint to float....? As to say to make the paint thinner for being smoother on the models surface so that the shell doesn't need "a lot" of clear coat to make smooth?


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## vypurr59

I went straight from the bottle to the water, without thinning it.


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## -Hemi-

This is gonna sound odd, but that's strange, the thickness of paint you would think to "cover" the shell would leave huge edge differences to be made smooth. That's why I asked on the thinning part. I just thought thinned paint would "lay" smoother onto the model body.

Wonder if it has to do with the Borax? Altho you did this to a model, and it looks assmooth as a baby's behind. hmmmmm


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