MIMF

Hello everyone. I've been engouraged to attempt doing a swirl finish on a guitar body which has been generously "donated to science". After doing a little research, I found some people use enamel and others laquer for the colors. I have both types of paint available and I'm not sure which one would yield better results. Has anyone had expewrience doing swirl finishes? Thanks for the input.

A couple of people here have done swirl finishes, Mark Swanson posted one a couple of years ago.
There was one thread that had quite a bit about materials and technique, probably waiting to be archived on the old forum.

What kin d of "swirl finish" are you talking about? The one I did was a "spin" finish, the body was spinning and I dropped on the color until it fanned out.
Most of the time, a swirl finish is dipped. The guitar is dipped into a tank that was finish floating on the top, which sticks to the body as it is dipped and pulled back out. This is completely different from what I did.
There used to be a good website about this called www.theswirling.com but it doesn't seem to be working anymore. But there are some good videos of the process on YouTube.

Hello,
I'm planning to dip the guitar into a tank. I just can`t decide whether to use laquer or enamel. In your opinion, which one would work best?

http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/swirled.htm Google swirl guitar and you'll find more information. Good luck and be sure and post your results.

The swirls I have seen before used enamels for the color coats and they said it worked better, but that is only what I have seen and read and I have never done it.

Here is the first attempt. After some tests, laquer seemed to extend better over the water and borax mixture. However, I will eventually come up with a method that works for my local weather conditions (really hot in here). Flip flops are from clients who came to watch the process (should have sold tickets lol).

Here's the same body on a side view. BTW, the laquer is a metallic blue color. Should turn out nice once I clear coat it.

It looks good so far. Please post picture when it's done. Good luck.

I like it too!

That is awsome! I like the blue flame/marble look.
How did you get it to look mostly symetric?? Just luck?

I guess it's been just luck so far. Enamels seem to work fine. One key factor seems to be the paint dilution. If it's too thick, the paint will sink; if its too thin, it wont cover properly. Here's another try. This one has purple, white, black and silver grey.

That looks great. I'm going to have to put this on my list of things to try when I get caught up. Good job.

That looks good! I want to try this someday as well.

They look very cool. I like the purple one a lot.