Crystal Paint - Tricks and Traps

[Shortfuse]

In the coming posts, I will go through some of my experience with crystal effect paint.

In this post, I will go through the process of making the solution.

For those who don't know, this is crystal effect paint. (excuse the pink)

P1020008.jpg

To do a whole bike, you need about 2L of crystal solution.

Ingredients:

about 2.5kg Urea prill. (Bunnings or garden stores.) It comes in 400g boxes.
2L tap water.
15mL dishwashing liquid.

Method:

Put 2L water in a pot/bain marie and slowly add (400g at a time) the Urea prill. Stir to disolve before adding more Urea.

When you have disolved 2kg of Urea, heat the water very gently on a stove or bbq wok burner with your hand on the bottom of the pot to just slightly hotter than body temp. Take the solution off the heat and disolve another 400g of Urea in the solution.

This creates a saturated solution. Do not over heat the solution, as it decomposes the urea and renders the solution useless.

Once the solution is done, add the dishwashing liquid and stir through.

This can then be decanted into an empty softdrink bottle for storage.

[Bendito]

And then this mixes with the paint?

[Uncle Flash]

This would be an interesting way to add highlights.

[=Stevo=]

what is the entire process for spraying/painting, including adding the paint and such?

this could be very useful, cool effect...

what is the paint durability like? does it chip/scratch easily?

[camshere]

Tried this a couple of times, with mixed results - I also tried different surfucants to use in the mix instead of dishwashing liquid. Mainly rinse-aid, cloudy ammonia, and different types of detergents.

The main problem i have, apart from getting the mix just right to make the crystals i wanted was actually getting the mixture to "stick" if you will. Basically is was just running off the basecoat on anything that wasn't almost dead flat.

I put that down to a problem with the surfucant, thats why i tried a couple of different options. I'll also explore further with perhaps clearcoating before applying the mix, or sanding the basecoat/clear with 800 or just scotchbriting it down.

Did you have any issues with large areas where the mixure ran off? Did you find out how to stop this? It must be hard when trying to get even coverate on a nose piece or complex shape like a stator cover etc.

[Shortfuse]

And then this mixes with the paint?

Nope. You prep your base colour with scotchbrite, then spray the solution over your base coat. Wait until the crysals form, and then lightly dust a darker coat of paint. (black works best for depth of field.) Once the black is dry, you wash the piece off and the water disolves the crystals under the black paint.

The black coat that went between the crystals sticks to the prepped base colour.

I can mix up a batch and bring it up to give you a demo if you like.

this could be very useful, cool effect...

what is the paint durability like? does it chip/scratch easily?

It can be done with any paint type, but engine black works best as your shadow coat.

Tried this a couple of times, with mixed results - I also tried different surfucants to use in the mix instead of dishwashing liquid. Mainly rinse-aid, cloudy ammonia, and different types of detergents.

The main problem i have, apart from getting the mix just right to make the crystals i wanted was actually getting the mixture to "stick" if you will. Basically is was just running off the basecoat on anything that wasn't almost dead flat.

I put that down to a problem with the surfucant, thats why i tried a couple of different options. I'll also explore further with perhaps clearcoating before applying the mix, or sanding the basecoat/clear with 800 or just scotchbriting it down.

Did you have any issues with large areas where the mixure ran off? Did you find out how to stop this? It must be hard when trying to get even coverate on a nose piece or complex shape like a stator cover etc.

Dishwashing liquid mate. Just add some more, or dont add so much. If the solution runs off, adjust. I tipped some solutions out because I had tweaked them too much.

Practice mate. You can wash the crysals off if you dont like the look of em before you paint...

Post some pics of your work so far.

[camshere]

Practice mate. You can wash the crysals off if you dont like the look of em before you paint...

Post some pics of your work so far.

This is just the crystal mask done with black topcoat, over an old silver test fender then cleared out. I know i could have got a better result with a brighter base, but that was already painted up and ready to test.

[Bendito]

Probably won't be doing it myself anytime soon, just like the effect

I don't understand the process though.

Using your example, what colour was your base, pink or black?
And if youd dissolved the crystals under the paint, wouldn't the paint just flake off?

Brilliant effect, but I can't get my head around how it works

[Shortfuse]

Base coat on Boop was that LOUD pink colour. Top coat was black. The paint peeling off is what you want. The crystals are formed as the water evaporates, and do not completly mask off the base coat. Only the bits that do not land on crystal stay on the tank.

[Bendito]

*Light Bulb*

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh
I get it now

Very clever

[Sentry]

I've been thinking about doing something like this for a while. Thread subscribed!

[Shortfuse]

I can give you a hand if you like Sentry. It looks awesome in red.

[Sentry]

I can give you a hand if you like Sentry. It looks awesome in red.

Don't have the vfr anymore mate. What I was thinking was a 'hypercolour' paint over a crystal paint. I've been looking into paints that change from colour to clear depending on the temperature. Funky stuff. Having it go from a colour into a crystal would look awesome if you could colour match the original colour to the crystals base colour

[Shortfuse]

So lets try it! I have some spare sidecovers.

[Sentry]

You want to try orange to clear or black to clear? Which would give the better effect with the crystal painting?

[lukusis]

Alsa Corp | The World's Most Exotic Paints and Finishes

bottom left vid

or here:

http://www.alsacorp.com/products/ecl...lipse_show.htm


HOLY CRAP I WANT !

this last one shows a colour temp change revealing/hiding (not sure which - its early and the beer goggles are on :p ) the crystal paint effect....

http://alsacorp.com/products/eclipse...e_prodinfo.htm

[Aido]

Tried this today following the instructions at top.
Mixed results but practice makes perfect I suppose.
Using a couple of side covers off the current project KH125.
I mixed up the brew according to instructions and was able to grow the crystals no problem. Its the painting I'm having trouble with.
Trip to Bunnings got me 5 kg of Urea for $20 and a couple of cheapo paint cans to experiment with. Mixed it as per instructions and found an interesting anomaly. Normal when you mix chemicals and the like you get a chemical reaction that causes heat but by simply adding the Urea to water caused the temperature to drop substantialy. Enough to cause condensation on the side of the pot and then ice Interesting stuff this science business.
Ok so with the brew mixed and the side cover rubbed with 800 grit I dipped it straight into the solution and then watched it dry leaving behind the crystals. Off out to the garage and a spray of black paint. Now this is where I cocked up. I gave the whole lot a thorough coverage and allowed it to dry thinking that the crystals would still wash out but this is not the case. The paint just formed a film that would not allow the crystals to wash out without taking away large amounts of paint and so the result looked like a 4 year olds finger painting . Rubbed back the black to the base coat again and tried again. This time I gave it a light coat - Translucent - so that the base coat could still be seen. I let it dry for about 2 mins before chucking it under running water and this achieved the desired result but revealed that in areas there was tight crystal growth with the majority being a uniformpattern plus areas that had had not gotten any crystal coverage. The end result is that it has about 75% of the desired effect but the rest looks crude and messy. Overall with the base coat being Tropicana green and the crysatl overspray it just looks dirty and crap from further away than 3 feet
Is there a way to grow consistent sized crystals?
Is it the surfactant - Dishwashing liquid - that allows it all to flow evenly over the part? I have the other side cover setting up now but I can see areas that the liquid will not sit on nor will crystals grow on. This cover has had the same treatment as the previous and I have presented it with a clean surface rubbed with 800 grit and fine steel wool until the base coat is flat and dull.

More experimenting tonight and tomorrow - pictures later.
Have to go clean up the kitchen before the missus gets home. There are white crystals all around the stove and the bench.

[Desmo]

Dissolving urea in water is endothermic, causing the temperature of the solution to fall when urea dissolves.

From here.

[Shortfuse]

I went down to Mandurah a couple of months ago to show a bloke how to do it, and we came across an interesting problem that I had not had before. We obviously made the solution too concentrated as the crystals formed a dense layer about 1cm thick. Add a bit more water and all was OK.

If you are getting beading or run off of the solution, experiment with a little more dishwashing liquid.

[ccooper]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flhLObG3SMM&feature=channel_page]YouTube - DNA Paint Mutant CrystalZ[/ame]
This might be of interest to someone...a short video of a guy from DNA paints showing a step by step demo of the application of their proprietary crystal paint system. I imagine the application process would be very similar for this 'homebrew' crystal paint solution?