Arts/Crafts Beautiful huge chunk of “Fordite” I rescued from work. Decades of paint build up. [OC]
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u/2g4r_tofu 10h ago
It's too bad everybody buys boring car colors. Modern fordite must be pretty uninteresting.
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u/OrigamiMarie 8h ago
I suspect there is very, very little new fordite. New robotic painting techniques are very good at applying the paint perfectly with minimal overshoot or dripping.
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u/shiekhgray 6h ago
Plus they do crazy cool stuff like charge the paint and car differently to attract the paint from the sprayer to the surface meant to be painted. Wildly cool stuff.
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u/shrunken 6h ago
We have a boring colored car because that what the manufacturer supplied. 7 shades of neutral to choose from.
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u/2g4r_tofu 5h ago
It's a feed-forward loop. People buy boring colors so manufacturers paint with boring colors so...
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u/LOTRfreak101 4h ago
For me it was "we have this car with all the stuff you want on it ready now or you can wait like 6 months for the color you want". I didn't want to wait 6 months so now i have a boring color color instead of a moderately boring color.
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u/NecroJoe 4h ago
In my case, they had like 10 of the one cool color from the model, red, but every one of them was either the bottom-rung pleb-spec, or the absolute top-tier, fully-loaded spec...nothing in the middle.
When I asked if that was intentional, they said that they had some of every trim level when the model year started, but the middle ones sold out right away. But then they didn't want to order more dealer units until they sold through the other red ones that hadn't sold yet, because they didn't want to have too many red ones on the lot.
When I said, "So...you don't want to have too many examples of the cars you actually sell?", the salesman, without a moment's hesitation, said, "Yep! Exactly" as if he's so proud that I undeerstood some complicated concept he had just revealed to me.
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u/ebikr 11h ago
You might want to polish that up a bit.
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u/djgui 13h ago
That’s one suggestive way to display it
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u/worstpartyever 9h ago
That… is valuable
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u/Mr_Funbags 4h ago
In its own way, I suppose. It's rare and it's made of paint. You could absolutely make your own, which would be less valuable because you made intentionally.
Like lab diamonds vs mined ones. They are the same thing according to their chemical makeup, but mined ones are worth more. DeBeers' stockpiling bs, marketing, and blood-mining with all the death involved, all compound a mined diamond's percieved value. It's almost always perspective.
The richest people will pay the shittiest and most malignant companies the most money for things that the poorest people worked and died for. And at a huge markup because to buy their beautiful baubles at a reasonable price is gauche for these people. Style cost money, by definition.
I remember briefly taking with someone to find out their jeans cost $300. I should have offered an exchange with mine!
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u/Wyndorf03 13h ago
Where would one find a piece of fordite were they local and unafraid of derelict factories?
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u/EikonVera_tou_Lilith 7h ago
Lapidary Dave would think this is neat! He showed me Fordite for the first time.
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u/RoboticGreg 4h ago
That's beautiful. I'm designing my first watch and I was going to use fordite for the dial
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u/AlternativeResort477 5h ago
Is fordite body-safe?
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u/blackpony04 3h ago
If it's pre-1980s paint, it likely contains lead. But when put in jewelry it's polished and clear coated, so the lead is contained. I have a fordite wedding ring my wife bought from a Redditor (Wedgewood Designs I believe) back in 2019. Mine came from a Corvette factory and it's awesome. 7 years and so far no issues (I'm a GenXer, I ate lead paint chips as a kid, so I'm already fucked up).
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u/adderalpowered 2h ago
To my knowledge automotive paint hasn't had lead in it since way before the 80s. lead was used in white colors mostly in oil based enamel and a few laquers mostly for hand lettering work and not painting cars. Lead use in house paint has totally different timeliness similar to what you quoted. Source: worked in the industry. Starting in the early 80s, kind of an auto paint nerd.
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u/mtndewfeind 6h ago
Hey OP before you chuck it or do anything make sure to check out how much this is worth. Many hobbyists pay good money for a small piece of this.
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u/molostil 1h ago
Great find! Took a similar though way smaller chunk from a wall that was used for graffiti for decades. Try and sand it to a smooth finish. i reckon it might look even cooler!
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u/Polymathy1 9h ago
What did you remove it from? Who uses that many layers of paint on anything?
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u/UserC2 8h ago
The layers are from different objects being painted, like a bunch of cars going through a paint shops. This is the paint that gets left behind on machines.
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u/Polymathy1 8h ago
Yes, I know why. I'm asking what object it's from.
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u/PhlacidTrombone 8h ago
I had the same question because of the rings. I'm assuming it's off the floor and formed as a stalagmite.
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u/Noxious89123 3h ago
"Fordite" comes from the manufacturing lines where they paint the cars.
As they're painting many thousands of cars over the years, and in many different colours, you end up with layers of paint building up (I'd guess on some of the equipment, or the spray "booth"?)
The paint becomes harder over time, until it's like a rock.
It's called "Fordite" because it would originally have been from a Ford manufacturing plant.
I've seen other similar names for it, when it's come from other manufacturers. But I think Fordite is the more common name.
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u/Backrow6 2h ago
There's a surfboard maker on YouTube who sells trinkets made from spilled epoxy resin in funky colours, they brand it as Surfite.
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u/Polymathy1 3h ago
Ohhh, I didn't realize it was built up from basically overspray or waste product. I thought it was some object that had been painted over and over like a concrete bollard.
Thanks for explaining.
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u/PsychedelicConvict 13h ago
If you plan to cut and work with it, make sure to wear a ppe mask