doing a swirl finish ?

[j.arledge]

hey guys , i am playing with swirling guitars and was wondering if any of you who know can give me some tips .

i have a large container , i filled it with water . I have a couple of scrap finished bodies which i painted white with enamle paint .

the first swirl i tried i had the wrong paint and it didn't really stick right .

i found some rustoleum oil (sp) enamle paint which worked sort of . i got silver and black , the only two colors they had which i liked. the silver floated and stuck great , the black however was thick and didn't float at all . the silver stuck really well .

so my question is what kind of paint (brand and enamle oil or whatever) are you guys using to make stick . I know that paint extender helps and they said paint thinner would help the black float better but tips or advize would be great .

thanks
jordan

[Fender868]

I can't help you much but do you think you could post some pictures of the trials you done - i am interested to see what exactly happened.

Thanks

[shreddersymphony]

http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/swirled.htm

This seems useful, dunno if youve read it.

[j.arledge]

Originally Posted by shreddersymphony

http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/swirled.htm

This seems useful, dunno if youve read it.

yep i read it , and that is where i got my info from but i can't find plastikote paint anywhere in my town . i check there website and the closest place is about 30 miles out in a town of less then 10,000 (go figure ) .

so that is why i asked if people used something different .

[jemjem]

I used sign painter's oil based enamel paint when I did my guitar. I had to use paint thinner for the black and the small amount of pink that I used. The purple and the blue that I used didn't need to be thinned. I noticed that I got a little better results with the floating if I slowly and carefully added the paint to the water so as to not let it disturb the surface of the water anymore than necessary. I also noticed that the dipping process was a little tricky. I seemed to get thicker paint on one side of the guitar than the other. This might have been related to how I spread the paint on the water to begin with, but I dont know for sure. It took me 3 tries to get a decent dip on the guitar body. Well, actually I take that back, the first dip was pretty good, but the temporary neck broke off and I dropped the body, catching it with my foot, but ruining the paint. The second dip sucked completely and the third was decent. You can see it at the link below under my photos.

www.myspace.com/timkoppmusic

[j.arledge]

Originally Posted by jemjem

I used sign painter's oil based enamel paint when I did my guitar. I had to use paint thinner for the black and the small amount of pink that I used. The purple and the blue that I used didn't need to be thinned. I noticed that I got a little better results with the floating if I slowly and carefully added the paint to the water so as to not let it disturb the surface of the water anymore than necessary. I also noticed that the dipping process was a little tricky. I seemed to get thicker paint on one side of the guitar than the other. This might have been related to how I spread the paint on the water to begin with, but I dont know for sure. It took me 3 tries to get a decent dip on the guitar body. Well, actually I take that back, the first dip was pretty good, but the temporary neck broke off and I dropped the body, catching it with my foot, but ruining the paint. The second dip sucked completely and the third was decent. You can see it at the link below under my photos.

www.myspace.com/timkoppmusic

wow that is a cool swirl IMO . I wanted to just do like black and purple or black and green . nothing too crazy but it would be cool to get the process down .

[jemjem]

Thanks. I also helped a friend swirl his guitar and he used fire engine red, orange and black on a yellow base coat. It looked really cool, but we didn't thin the black out so there was a couple of small areas where the black ended up looking a little bit like a JEM7DBK texture but he still liked it..it had a very molten lava look to it. I didn't particularly care for the texture look...I think he just couldn't bring himself to strip it all down and start over.

I think the hardest part of the process is getting the right amount of paint onto the water to cover the entire guitar especially if you don't want too much base coat to come through. I don't know how a GMC type of swirl can have so much black and green without the base making the black look gray and the green look like all shades of green. I suppose that's what seperates the professional job from the amateurs.

[HDS]

Well the pros I think are using auto poly which is nasty to work with but yelled a hight pigent count with gives better covrage. You could try acrylic but you have to thickin the water.

[j.arledge]

i think i am just going to have to experiment with paints , which sorta sucks because i found out quickly that the oil paint is very messy, and sticky and somewhat expensive depending on what you want to get . Like i said if i get it down that would be cool because i could swirl bodies and maybe sell them , if nothing else i still think it would be cool do to one of my guitars . I think my razorback would look badass swirled in black , with either green red or purple.

[Tubarão Guitars]

Originally Posted by HDS

Well the pros I think are using auto poly which is nasty to work with but yelled a hight pigent count with gives better covrage.

You're 101% correct.
I'm using PU with great success:

[HDS]

Yep Tubarão I just cant get past the nastyness of working with them.

I was working on one guitar and had put my colors in a few plastic cups till I could pour and I be damned if the paint ate right threw the bottum of the cup onto my carport!

j.arledge, the problem with the oil paint your using has a clear laqur mixed in with the paint to allow it to dry without using a clear coat. Most oil paints have a built in top coat. They make for a sloopy mess when swirling because they dont flash as fast. The plastikote oil paints I used in my tut didnt have this added top coat, (when I say top coat think Testers model paints, it has it).
Now you could try hitting an art store that sells canvas oil paints. You will have to thin them but they have a hight pigment count then your over the counter hobby paints.

[TicTac in my eye]

Originally Posted by HDS

Well the pros I think are using auto poly which is nasty to work with but yelled a hight pigent count with gives better covrage. You could try acrylic but you have to thickin the water.

A really good friend of mine is a professional car painter is using auto poly for his guitars. The results are really good.

[j.arledge]

yeah auto paint works well , i had my project guitar painted by a local body shop and the color is great. you can check it out , www.texicanchopshop.com click on gallery then on the menue, then custom creations . my guitar is on the first page.

the top coat would certainly explain some of the issues . So i guess i'll try oil paint with paint thinner , i have yet to make it by the local sherwin williams so maybe they will have something if not my local craft store has oil paints which i can just thin out and try .