You spritzed on clear lacquer after the smoke. First coat or two real dry to seal it then the wetter coats afterwards. Haven't seen it done in ages, last time I tried it was in highschool. Did smoke comming of the flames on an old 3 window coupe. Its a real art to get it right.
My entire 63 galaxie was done like that. From bumper to bumper with acetelyne spots and those things were paint is shot on and then air behind it to make circular dots with runs. I wish i could find the pictures.
Wet paint and acetylene. Sounds like a recipe for disaster! I can just see some guy igniting his dash and burning his freshly completed car to the ground!
I think that pretty well answers the question of how the idea got started! First guy was probably lucky-1 time!
Keep in mind, this was started in the 50's, before clear coats and sealers. The reason to smoke it wet was to embed the smoke into the paint so it wouldn't wipe off Using candle smoke made a brownish smoke. A torch made a blacker smoke...........................MO
When I first began to learn custom painting, in the late 70's this was still being used. It looks best if used in moderation, as does most of the wild custom paint tricks (blow dots, fish scales, endless striping, lace, cobwebbing) We used the torch, acetylene only. MY mentor could do some really nice stuff with it!
hahahahahaha!! I did so much of that back in the 60's and early 70's on a lot of racecars and customs...
I was ten years old when I watched the body man painting my Dad's '33 tudor's dash and moldings. He used a medium brown base paint (lacquer) and let it dry. Then used the acetelene soot to swish back and forth over the parts. Looked kind of like woodgrain, but not exactly. Then cleared over the top of it with very light pressure at first coat, and later heavier for coverage. The car is still around (new owner) with the same paint, and the dash and moldings are still in it. It lives in Rochester, Minnesota now.
The best smoke dash I have seen was done in my town by a local Rodder We are located 150 miles from cities that may have had custom or rod shops. This was in the mid 50's and all the ideahs came from car magazines. There were several good looking home made custom cars in our little town (pop. less than 2000) That dash and garnish mouldings were vertical stripes of different pattern of smoke. In other words, no two were the same. There was a space of white between each stripe that was about 2-3" wide. Sure wish I had a pic of it to show how Kool it looked................MO
I don't like it! Kind of trashy.Looks like someone screwed up a nice dash. I bet you would get people asking how you got the fire out.LOL.
Evidently you don't have appreciation for old school customs and their roots. Thats OK, I don't much care for the hi teck crap and the hot new latest thing Differnt strokes for different folks....................MO
I remember a 55 or a 56 Ford Vicky in the 80`s with the garnish mouldings smoked not far from cornpatches area. A vertical burn area with about an inch between each one.
After seeing what ZomBrian did (& thanks for the pic of the "tech article"), I like it. If for no other reason than for people to ask how you did it..."Well, I sprayed my base...and then I fired up my torch..." Seems a lot easier than how I've seen some tech articles on how to, say, woodgrain a dash... I think I'd start on a mailbox, too, by the way...
SO.... ever wonder how todays high end cars get the woodgrain effect on curved plastic dash and console bits and pieces??'Its not dissimilar.. in effect they submerge the plastic part in a vat of liquid and on top of the liquid floats thin paint which is agited and 'swirled' and the part is lifted from the tank leaving the swirled film on the surface which is dried and clear covercoat applied.... cool or what!!
I cant say all the example look cool, but do see that if done right, lets say on just one part of the dash, this can have a pretty cool look!
I did a lot of this back in the 60's. I learned right away to do it outside (unless you really like having "horsefeathers" all over the shop.
Yes. With the mailbox I did, my base was a dull gold-ish metallic...think kinda silvery olive maybe. After the smoke I used about three coats of rootbeer candy.
Here you go. I scanned this from my copy of "The Art of Custom Painting"......and now I'll make myself a ham sammich and watch a little bit of "The Trip", ya dig?
Yes stanlow 69. You know what I'm talkin bout! Maybe it was a midwest thing?? I googled it and couldn't find a good example. It is probably in some of the mid 50's car magazines. I am really surprised that among the old skool customs, we don't have more examples to show.........................MO
Of the 1500 magazines I have, I only remember seeing one article (the 90`s) with it done to the garnish mouldings. It was even talked about in the article. But then again I wasn`t looking for smoked mouldings either. My mom even knew what it was in the 60`s. She`s not into cars.
This looks pretty cool, I'd like to see more pics I Don't understand this one little detail though, every time I light my torch I crack the oxygen also because That soot floats around for ever and gets everywhere. Can't imagine doing that in a paint Booth or inside of a car. A little bit of soot and everything gets freckled.
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