[ QUOTE ] i've seen it on a couple race cars..can't imagine it being to durable for everyday wear and tear [/ QUOTE ] yeah i'm sure you'd have to candy over it
[ QUOTE ] i know it was / is big in the bike world but was it used often (or ever ) on a car? [/ QUOTE ] It was used primarily on some high buck race cars awhile back.Also a lot on fire apparatus and windows.Kind of fell out of favor due to extremely high materials cost and time required to apply. There are many types of leaf available;gold,silver,palladium,bronze,aluminum,copper,and variegated(bronze leaf that has been chemically discolored)to name a few. There are a couple companies today that sell 22K gold bonded to vinyl that is used for lettering but it almost as expensive as old style loose leaf but much easier to apply. You don't find a whole lot of people around nowadays who have either the ability or the patience to apply leaf and fewer still who are willing to pay for it.
leaf will hold up pretty good when cleared over. use the real stuff though, that vinyl look alike stuff shouldn't be cleared over and has a tendancy to turn really dull. leaf was (is) mostly used on race cars, low riders and wreckers.
Firetrucks used it quite a bit...until the advent of evil vinyl gold leaf look-a-likes. Shop signs, business address numbers, store windows and alot of churches use to be done with gold or silver leaf. It's all pretty durable after you varnish or clear coat it.
i had forgotten about that one... but what i was really thinking about when i posted was what a cool candy effect a silver leaf for cool colors, gold for warm colors would give over the standard metallic base coat in a candy paint job. what i mean is; i think one could whip up some killer "ghost" flames or scallops if you leafed the design on the metallic base coat and then candied over all of it. i think it would be a cool effect, but (my history degree coming out) i'm not really one to escape period correctness... am i just being crazy here? would it even be that big a diferance in shine over a metallic under coat?
I think (and I might be wrong, here) that people did use the candies and pearls over silver or gold leaf in the past. I know sign painters have been doing things like that for at least as long as I've been painting (about 15 years or so). If it wasn't done, or wasn't popular...now's your chance to lead the way!
[ QUOTE ] Is this the stuff to use [/ QUOTE ] That is the real thing.Also available in Imitation Gold.
[ QUOTE ] i think one could whip up some killer "ghost" flames or scallops if you leafed the design on the metallic base coat and then candied over all of it. [/ QUOTE ] I did a panel in October using basicly that methold. I used a pice of ground Aluminum plate for the background,cleared it and sanded flat. Added my skull design in Silver leaf,which is actually Aluminum leaf. So now my design is the same color as the background,but the texture is different. Then shot the whole thing in Green Candy. It's a cool effect.Wish I had a picture.
Cool effect lucky. Is that hand spun real Gold,Imitation Gold,or Sign Gold?. I'm guessing you wouldn't want the extra thickness of Signgold in a show finish. And the spin pattern is too regular. Anyone here ever used waterbased Size for leaf? Wondasize is one brand. Excellent stuff.Sets up in a couple minutes max.Saves lots of time.
The Jalopy Journal
