Hydro Dipping
 

Has anybody ever tried hydro dipping anything from dash panels or helmets? I'm going to order a kit on Monday and give it a try.

my friend just starting doing it on long island...had to order a big special tank..comes out great.. pm me if you want his info ..

I'm gonna need a really big tank for my boat.:D

I'm thinking about doing my new dash panel after I get it cut.

I had my battery mounts done in carbon then candy red sprayed over it. Looks great.

I've seen guns that have been done, it looked pretty good. Where are you getting your kit at?

My buddies tried to do the DIY route on some airplane parts, worked ok but ultimately you need a proper set up to do it right...

Do you have any pics of that? I am wanting to do something similar.

Mine?

Yes sorry I thought I quoted it.

I'm ordering from http://mydipkit.com

Go to you tube. There is folks using everything from kits to model paint doing it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgDp5nOdonM

Someone did their headers in Carbon fiber but I do not know how they turned out after heat cycles of a engine running after the fact. They looked really cool but again that was new and unused.

Also following this post because looking into this as well.

I did my valve covers and expansion tanks and they turned out good. IMO the better the clear coat and base coat brand and type, the better the finish will look and toughner the surface finish will be.

BUP, The manifolds were used, doesn`t matter much as they get painted first. The base paint kinda determines how the color will look. Mine is a silver base coat. Without a clear coat they don`t look as nice fyi.

The only place they peeled was on the bottom near the flange where it`s hottest, otherwise a year later they still look good.


http://33outlaw.zenfolio.com/img/s10...93352485-3.jpg

http://33outlaw.zenfolio.com/img/s6/...93352658-3.jpg



Home DYI kits are about $3k

I think I have a pic, let me look after I get done working.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]549173[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]549174[/ATTACH]I had my motor rocker covers done in Orange carbon to match the boat, class looking job

I set myself up for it at one time, pretty cool stuff but takes some practice and proper technique. Stable adequate water temp is one of the biggest things that will make or break how well it works along with how you determine how to best move the part through the plane of the film. You have to play with the stuff bit to get use to it, how long it takes the film to disolve and what temp.

Doing a set of valve covers after the holidays american flags will post pics when done.

I don't have a good picture of my boxes, next time I am at the boat I'll get one.

These are some parts I did for a statement v-bottom. The steering wheel and speaker pod were done in a plastic tub from Walmart and I did the counter top in a jacuzzi. The counter top was a really big part with some difficult angles. I thought it was going to take 10 tries to get it right and somehow it looked right on the first try.

That stuff looks cool.

I may dip my balls in it

The twill weave carbon pattern shows up best. I have done Hydrographics since 2004, never for a job, just mainly doing my own parts....

Sweet! I have a hot tub on the back deck. I guess I could use the heater in that to stable the water temps. Will the hot tub clean up after using it for a hydro dip tub, or is this a bad idea?

Hummmmmmmm ....... think about it

I've wired up 5-6 hydro dip tanks for some local body shops/custom shops and I'm amazed at the consumption of electricity they use. Being around them I have watched and had some things done for myself by them in the testing phase and it's definitely an art to get it to lay perfectly.

The ones I've installed are 250 gallon tanks approximately 8x4 and maybe 30" deep. The heater runs for 4-5 hours to heat the water to 90 degrees. They say 86-93 is the temp the water needs to be for the activator to set up. Basically they lay the film in the water and then spray the activator onto the film, dip the part into the film and it is transferred to the object being done. Then while the object is submerged you have to wave the water around to break up the leftover print. Then you have to rinse the dipped object in cold water to rinse off the activator I'm guessing. Like said above the best durability is when you clear coat it.

Also I think it was said above but the graphics themselves are transparent so doing them over a base color is how you achieve the best look. Here is a dash I had done in 2 different colors.

Oh and about using the hot tub idk that I would use it only because the water gets nasty after a week or two. The shops I helped out were draining it every 2 weeks because it was gross.
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...5ECB28933B.jpg

[URL=http://s63.photobucket.com/user/mickeymcclgn/media/240%20sport/2E0F5122-1E0B-49D8-AB7D-980932EC310A.jpg.html]http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...0932EC310A.jpg[/http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...14745998D8.jpg

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...4494E00AFA.jpg

Those panels look great. how did you do the lettering for the labeling of switch panel?

Does look good. That's what I was curious of was how Transparent it was. I was a hint of green under the carbon for my dash.

The panel is made from a sheet of 1/8" aluminum, after I broke Afew acrylic ones I made and I have a friend that does laser etching for nasa so he took care of all the engraving. It's simply the bare aluminum that you can see. But we cleared over it once it was done so that the aluminum didn't get funky over time. Here's the panels pre being dipped.

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...DF6ECD2145.jpg

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...72AFF11ACA.jpg


http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...162D7DA41C.jpg

+1

You can also get the carbon fiber film with different tints, I went with one that had a yellowish tint as the boat is yellow red and black but I'm not a huge yellow fan but tieing it all together was my goal. I eliminated 99 percent of it on the interior so I figured alittle tint on the dash wouldn't be bad. Originally they were laid over the black but the black carbon fiber didn't really match anything on the boat.

If you did a green base color with a carbon style film you'd get a cool look. I believe a lot of the film guys get their stuff from http://www.shawnaughtydesignz.com. Good luck with it!