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Oil swirl/Gasoline rainbow/Burnt chrome body finish?

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Emanresu

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Hi guys, I've been looking for a way to do this for a while now with no luck, basically the type of finish I'd like to achieve seems to have various names all describing very similar finishes, the best way to demonstrate the type of finish I'm looking for is probably to just show you this image :icon_thumright:;


hqdefault.jpg



I found an old thread with someone looking to do something very similar with no luck here;
http://unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=6973.0


The problem seems to be this finish has so many names (Burnt chrome, Gasoline rainbow, Anodised titanium, Bluing steel, Oil can, and Torched metal are just a few) which makes it really hard to search for exactly what I'm looking to achieve, but basically I'm looking to achieve the same/similar finish as you can see on the Bare Knuckle burnt chrome pickup covers, but covering a guitar body.


The finish seems to be achieved most commonly by just heating a metal item with a blow torch until the metal becomes discoloured by the heat, obviously it isn't that simple with regular guitar body. I was thinking possibly electroplating the body then heating to get the finish might be the way? But I have no experience with electroplating and have no idea if that would work.    ???


Looking for your thoughts and suggestions to try and make this work, anything is possible right?!

Thanks!  :glasses9:
 
You can't electroplate a guitar body mainly because it's made of wood, which is an insulator. But, you can get what appears to be a plated finish. These guys have a process.

I'm not sure if this is the same stuff, but here's a video of it being done...

[youtube]e8alYwpyFjc[/youtube]

Of course, that's not a metal finish, so I doubt any of the "oil can" treatments would work on it. Still, it's an interesting twist on guitar finishing.

Edit: This guy seems to know what he's talking about when it comes to chroming guitars.
 
Thanks for such a quick reply!


Sorry, I'm not really knowledgeable when it comes to electroplating, was just the first thing that came to mind when thinking of ways to plate an object with metal :toothy12:


Of course, that's not a metal finish, so I doubt any of the "oil can" treatments would work on it. Still, it's an interesting twist on guitar finishing.
Click to expand...


Ahh that's unfortunate, as INSANE as the chrome finish looks I'm looking more at creating a gasoline rainbow swirl than a chrome guitar.


It seems that sort of rainbow finish is created by a thin film interference pattern (basically where two layers of a reflective substance/material reflect light, the light reflected from each layer interferes with the other light wave making this rainbow pattern) so perhaps this chrome layer could be used as the base finish and another translucent-reflective finish be applied on top to create the same effect?  :dontknow: Although I doubt applying any finish on top of a glossy chrome finish is an easy task  :toothy12:


This guy seems to know what he's talking about when it comes to chroming guitars.
Click to expand...


That's fascinating! That guy really knows his stuff, I'm heartbroken that chroming wood is such an expensive and problematic process, I guess my second dream of having an entirely chrome guitar to use as a mirror in my bathroom will never come true, oh well...  :sad:
 
I believe the finish you're interested in can really only be achieved by heating metal. For example, the blues and golds that appear on exhaust pipes on motorcycles.

Your best bet would be to have a metal plate fashioned to fit the face of your guitar, have it chrome plated and then heat it from below with a torch.

Then you'll need to clearcoat the metal plate to (hopefully) preserve the desired finish.

A bit of an undertaking, but not out of the realm of possibility.
 
I believe the finish you're interested in can really only be achieved by heating metal. For example, the blues and golds that appear on exhaust pipes on motorcycles.

Your best bet would be to have a metal plate fashioned to fit the face of your guitar, have it chrome plated and then heat it from below with a torch.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, it does seem that way, that's exactly what I'm looking for I was just hoping there'd be a way of achieving the same/similar finish, avoiding the need for a metal plate fitted to the guitar, maybe by just chrome plating the top of the guitar, without the need to have a special chrome plated shell made reminiscent of those Zemaitis guitars :sad:

I'll keep looking, but it's currently looking pretty bleak, hopefully there's a secret process somewhere I've just overlooked  :icon_thumright:

Thanks for the responses, open to any more suggestions! :help:
 
I read a tutorial about something like that years ago. The idea was to laminate a layer of some material to the body and put a transparent finish over that. One thing they did was use cloth with a paisley design, but another used some chrome effect plastic foil. I didn't immediately find it anymore now, the site it was on may not exist in the same form anymore, but I did run into a tutorial on using mylar film for this kind of finish. If you do some searching I think you could turn up something useful.
Do a couple of test runs on a piece of scrap before committing your brand new Warmoth, though. It's not that somebody writes something on the internet that it suddenly becomes true.
 
you could do it to a metal scratchplate yeah? Would look great on a Strat style axe, but less so on a VIP/Regal etc.
 
I read a tutorial about something like that years ago. The idea was to laminate a layer of some material to the body and put a transparent finish over that. One thing they did was use cloth with a paisley design, but another used some chrome effect plastic foil. I didn't immediately find it anymore now, the site it was on may not exist in the same form anymore, but I did run into a tutorial on using mylar film for this kind of finish. If you do some searching I think you could turn up something useful.
Click to expand...

This sounds like what I could be looking for, assuming it works the way I think and that the two reflective layers interact with each other to create the rainbow effect I'm looking for, the only thing I'm weary of is that the effect won't be as obvious as I'd like? Although I suppose this could be cured by using a thicker transparent finish or the like to increase the effect?

Do you mind linking the tutorial? The closest I've been able to find is iridescent mylar film.  :icon_scratch:

Do a couple of test runs on a piece of scrap before committing your brand new Warmoth, though. It's not that somebody writes something on the internet that it suddenly becomes true.
Click to expand...

Of course! This seems like a finish that's going to take a lot of tweaking and experimenting before I get it right.

you could do it to a metal scratchplate yeah? Would look great on a Strat style axe, but less so on a VIP/Regal etc.
Click to expand...

I am planning on doing this finish to a strat style body, and I have thought about this, however I've never really liked the idea of a full body scratch plate, they've just always seemed kind of garish IMO, so it's kind of my last resort.

Perhaps this could be more easily achieved with a clever iridescent paint job? Some clever swirls to reach the same effect? Seems much easier than torching any metal plating or anything but I could be wrong. :dontknow:
 
A burnt chrome Zemaitis style guitar could be pretty cool :party07:
Click to expand...

Hey, if you feel inspired feel free to try it, at least one of us will have a burnt chrome guitar then  :toothy12:
Better yet, just use a genuine Zemaitis if you fancy setting a 3k+ guitar on fire, bet it would make a killer guitar if you also happen to be the front man of a death metal band! :guitarplayer2:
 
Gotcha. Took some searching to retrieve them - it was some years ago but here they are:

http://www.projectguitar.com/tutorials/finishingrefinishing/swirled-guitar-finish-r36/
http://www.projectguitar.com/tutorials/finishingrefinishing/material-finishes-r30/
http://www.projectguitar.com/tutorials/finishingrefinishing/how-to-do-a-holoflash-finish-r47/
Click to expand...

Wow! Thank you so much man! This is virtually exactly what I wanted, never heard the term 'holoflash' before seeing that link but it turns out there are hundreds of other guitars with that finish that I somehow overlooked...  :doh:

Sorry if I put you out, but this is perfect, can't thank you enough!
 
Emanresu said:
Hi guys, I've been looking for a way to do this for a while now with no luck, basically the type of finish I'd like to achieve seems to have various names all describing very similar finishes, the best way to demonstrate the type of finish I'm looking for is probably to just show you this image :icon_thumright:;


hqdefault.jpg
Click to expand...

:dontknow:
Would this idea work on a aluminium strat body ?

Can buy them, I have one sitting here.

Doug (has one too) he might be able to answer this Q
 
I believe the chemistry of aluminum would not allow you to come up with the colors you get when you heat chrome that way. 
 
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