Water Transfer Printing
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eddiebx
New member
Basically...just pretend you are floating a sheet of very thin sticky material in a big tub of water. Then you dunk whatever straight down and right on top of the sheet and the sheet sticks exactly to the entire three dimensional surface of the object you dunked in. The loose stuff past the edges of whatever object just fall off since there's nothing to stick to.
Now imagine the sheet is a carbon fiber pattern, what you would end up with is an object covered in a carbon fiber pattern. Pretty cool idea and works great for complex shapes such as dash pieces and what not.
Scott@Hightech
New member
Ah a subject i'm familiar with. Eddie your description is pretty close. but here is what actually happens.
First the parts are preped and painted with a base coat(automotive paint) of desired color. Then the Graphic film is laid in a vat of liquid. The film is then sprayed with an acid which makes the film dissolve. This leaves ink floating on top of the liquid. The parts are then "dipped" through the ink and then removed. The parts are dried and then clearcoated with automotive clearcoat paint.
I had the interior of my bmw done in urban digi camo. This is the place that did the work. The pictures of the lexus is my buddies car. he had his engine covers and calipers done. the calipers are black with a gold carbon weave. engine covers are a grey wood grain and black wood grain. My interior cost about 300, which was the dash and all the door trims.
Custom Functionz
not the greatest picture
First the parts are preped and painted with a base coat(automotive paint) of desired color. Then the Graphic film is laid in a vat of liquid. The film is then sprayed with an acid which makes the film dissolve. This leaves ink floating on top of the liquid. The parts are then "dipped" through the ink and then removed. The parts are dried and then clearcoated with automotive clearcoat paint.
I had the interior of my bmw done in urban digi camo. This is the place that did the work. The pictures of the lexus is my buddies car. he had his engine covers and calipers done. the calipers are black with a gold carbon weave. engine covers are a grey wood grain and black wood grain. My interior cost about 300, which was the dash and all the door trims.
Custom Functionz
not the greatest picture
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Hawaiian4runner
New member
Ah a subject i'm familiar with. Eddie your description is pretty close. but here is what actually happens.
First the parts are preped and painted with a base coat(automotive paint) of desired color. Then the Graphic film is laid in a vat of liquid. The film is then sprayed with an acid which makes the film dissolve. This leaves ink floating on top of the liquid. The parts are then "dipped" through the ink and then removed. The parts are dried and then clearcoated with automotive clearcoat paint.
I had the interior of my bmw done in urban digi camo. This is the place that did the work. The pictures of the lexus is my buddies car. he had his engine covers and calipers done. the calipers are black with a gold carbon weave. engine covers are a grey wood grain and black wood grain. My interior cost about 300, which was the dash and all the door trims.
Custom Functionz
not the greatest picture
How durable is the finish? Can it be used on door handles and other places that are regularly touched?
Has anyone tried a do-it-yourself kit? Sounds (and looks) easy enough but I don't want to screw up my trim pieces and then dwell on it. I'm pretty anal about stuff like that.
limamike
New member
Very durable if applied correctly. It's a mature industrial process, and as someone stated earlier the firearms industry has been using it for years to apply camouflage and other designs to weapons.
Scott@Hightech
New member
Yeah, my parts have automotvie clear coat so its just like the paint on the outside of your truck. if i scratch it i can buff it out. and it has a very glossy finish. You can have no clear coat or a matte coat or whatever finish you want. Most firearms just have the graphics, no base coat/clear coat
eddiebx
New member
Thanks for the explanation, it's interesting to read about how it actually works, since I've never researched past watching videos of it on the internet over and over again.
BTW, interior looks very sharp Scott. I like the contrast!
