"RAINED on" looking paint job

I don't really care for the look of custom paint work.---NOW---But back in the 1970's, I thought it was the most exciting thing I had ever seen. I had been painting straight single colour and sometimes 2 tone paintjobs for about 2 years, and suddenly the whole Van craze came along, with all the incredible murals, special paint effects, and the wild graphics. I was simply blown away by this stuff---and a lot of it was surprisingly easy to do. I rushed out and bought a Binks airbrush, and it didn't take me too long to figure one thing out---If you are a rotten freehand artist with pencil and paper, then you are going to be a rotten freehand airbrush painter. Frank Frazetta I was not!!!! After wiping down a few really awfull freehand murals with thinners to get rid of them, I learned to confine myself to many of the other custom painting tricks, such as colour blends, flames, fishscaling, freakdrops, etcetera. Many of the really neat effects were created using cardboard "masks" and creative use of masking tape, using quick drying acrylic laquers. I had a lot of fun with it, but by the early eighties, most rodders wouldn't be caught dead with that type of painting on their cars. I know that now there is a bit of "retro" interest, and Hey, if it winds your crank, go for it!!!

 

OK Thats IT !!!! I'm getting out the 10" wide wire wheels,the CB radio and my bell bottom pants. Normal Norman

 

freak drops are pretty easy to do, while I have never done them on a car myself, I have done them on test panels, I saw them for the first time when I was 15 or so, pretty neat if done in moderation, I am going to go home tonight and spray a panel with some base coat, let it dry, hoses it down and then spray clear on it to see what the end result is, I will post pics of it tomorrow. it just seems like the paint would peel off in spots, but I dont know as I have never tried it, i dont think we should have a bash fest started here either guys, lets not rag on eachothers cars or ideas, lets test them and see what works and what doesnt.....paint is one of those touchy subjects, too many variables for everyone to agree on what is cool or neat looking. just my $.02

 

This was painted with water drip and spray can,The effect is as good as the painters ability and imagination.
To this day a water drip job on a custom bike painted by Dave Huxhold is the coolest paint I've ever saw. So much so It sticks in my mind 40 years later.It sat in the window at Nebraska Motorcycle Parts for years.
This is an effect not unlike any other custom paint effect.One might ask why someone would want their grandmas table cloth painted on their car,It's for personal expression.
I wouldnt paint the whole car like that,but am open minded enough to explore the possibilities.

 

leadsled01---Trust me---A whole car done in ANY radical custom paintwork would look like Frickaseed Shit!!! This stuff is good for small accent panels---thats it. The only exception to that rule is some of the panel painting like Larry Watson was famous for, and no, I don't have a picture of that---and that is only my opinion!!!

 

I sell fake rain drop stick-ons, sorta like the fake stick on bullet holes, ya know?

Not really...


Too many people trying to make their cars look like "B" movie props these days.
Goes along with the already pre-ripped, pre-faded, pre-worn-out jeans people pay big bucks for for what? I don't know...

 

I agree with Brianangus. Stripes or accent panels or roof are fine but not doing the whole car that way. That's my $.3 worth (inflation)

 

There are a few different variations on the water drip paint effect.

I saw Mike Lavalee using water drops as a mask.Fog the second
color on real dry,let it flash,then blow the water off,to create a spotted effect.

For realistic water drops,you need at least 3 colors.
Your base color,plus lighter and darker shades.
You spray the highlights from one side,shadows from
the other side,at a real low angle.Then let the water evaporate.
Probably works best if the colors dry slow,so when the
water evaporates,the highlights and shadows will stick to the base.

It is a real convincing effect done correctly.
Drying times,and air pressure are important.

Last time I did it,I used 1-Shot Tinting Clear over the base color,
then added the water drops while the clear was still wet.Worked well.


OR
you can airbrush each drop individually.
Probably easier,but much slower.
Mike Lavalee was airbrushing Yellow drops on a toilet seat
the last time I was in Louisianna.

 

Haha, I can't believe some of you are clowning the idea of drops like it's out of left field. The technique is as "traditional" as lace patterns. Not as widely used, but damn, some of you reacted like this guys was making stuff up. C'mon, plenty of great painters have used the water drops on some really nice paintjobs. Walt Prey for instance. And i know Gary Baca has done these. It ain't a new thing. And done right(sparingly), it can really add a little something to a custom paintjob.

 

Cool I look forward to seeing that pic. My sincere apologies to GOTRUST.

 

No problem dude. If I couldn't hassle and be hassled here I might get my ass kicked in the real world. But really could someone do a wet snot thing?

 

Here's a link to a tech article.

http://clringo.tripod.com/water_effect.htm

The guy doing the tutorial mentions that he learned the technique from "Bobbo", who is another BADASS old school custom painter.

 

YA, thats the ticket!!

 

I do get it but you shure made me laugh..
Dave

 

Aren't you the guy that got his car back from the painter half done because you thought it was taking too long? If you are, this is more proof that you obviously don't know the first thing about custom painting. If you don't know (and he's not an FNG) then just leave it alone.

Though I've never done it, these methods do seem like they would produce the effect you are looking for. (Which is awesome that your still into that) However I do think using the effect as an accent in some sort of panel fade or stripe on the roof, might be better.

 

Either you don't remember the thread (about my paint job) properly or you didn't understand it when you first read it. Here is the Readers Digest version - Painter told me 4 maybe even 3 weeks to finish my car. At the end of 10 weeks I told him I wanted it done in a week. The car needed color sand and buff and reassembled. He wasn't interested in finishing the job. I am sorry, I didn't realize that Custom Paint meant my paint project was going thru a time warp and that 4 weeks could be anything. Is that the way you do business, constantly lying to the customer about when the job would be done? If the answer is No then why attack me for expecting a painter to live up to his word?

Please pardon the hell out of me for not knowing all the different techniques of Custom Painting. I have news for you junior I was spraying flake before you were even thought of. Can we give leadsled01 back his thread now?

 

No, you're right, I really don't remember that thread very well, it was pointless. But why clog up the guys thread about a custom paint effect with nonsense about bird crap paint. Thats worthless. The droplet effect has been around since before you started spraying flake when I wasn't even thought of. It's not a technique pulled from the woodwork just because you haven't heard of it or don't like it. You have like 8 posts in this thread that are worhtless to anyone reading them. For a guy that first sprayed flake close to 30 years ago, you sure don't have anything worth saying about this. If you don't have anything that can contribute, stay out of it and lets let this thread die.

 

i could piss on your car for free.

 

Ive seen these done tons of times they look great. My borther-in-law did it on a dash for some kid once. spray the water over the primer or sealer then spray the paint when the paint dries it has spots. also when doing silver if you wipe ofter the paint has tacked up and there is still water on it it gives a brushed aluminium look, its kinda cool but really easy to screw up. to each their own, some like it some dont. if its different then its cool, someone needs to step out of the world of flat black, and resale red every now and then

 

Don't know if yall figured this one out yet, but if your still interested this NEW-B might help you out... even though I have been snubbed a bit by some here for the "RR" word.





Turned out like this, but you can just leave it as water if you want... usually it's just used as a background element.

 

i've used dish soap for a similar effect ...and it works great on vertical surfaces...makes a bitchin splash mask as well.....brandon

 

Very cool guys! Thanks for posting those pics. I am rethinking, maybe just as an accent rather than the whole car. Thanks for all your help. Wheather it was good or bad. leadsled01

 

I saw that too, I think he was shooting a very light base coat over the water droplets, then they probably cranked the heat up in his booth which helped evaporate that water out faster. As the water dissipates, the basecoat leaves a space or imprint where the drop was. Then you clear over the whole thing.

Water and basecoat actually interact just fine, when I was painting full time I would always wet sand my basecoat after it dried (about 20 minutes in a good downdraft booth with the heat turned up), to remove any little imperfections such as dirt, etc. Clearcoat or a single stage would be a lot different obviously...

 

That was why I never tried water drop painting back in the 70's when I was heavily into custom painting. I worked primarily in Acrylic enamels, and water does not agree with that stuff very well at all.

 

Yeah, I never thought of that, how in the hell were they doing that with single stage paint?

 

I've done it with Krylon.
The trick is in the drying times.

 

I think it's cool that you actually use water to get a water effect.

So.....that must be how they get flames too, then.

 

You're not far off. Though I've never tried it, I've seen people use an O/A torch to get the smoke curl effect on painted flames. They crank the acetylene and let those little black curlys land on a tacky base. Looks really far out. I's probably end up lighting myself on fire if I tried it though.

 

Freak drops?
Now your are talkin... did it on my 65 Barracuda back in 1970 along with "cobweb" paint

 

The pics above are linked form the CARS OF ALBUQUERQUE SITE listed here:http://clringo.tripod.com/