A couple weeks ago we went out west to visit our son and his family. Our daughter-in-law is a jeweler. She pulled a rock from her bench and asked me if I'd ever heard of "Fordite". Nope, never had. He's a picture of the rock. For the "rest of the story" go to Fordite, its' history and value.

 

Stu,

Wow! you learn something new everyday. I have a degree in geology and semi-regularly attend gem and mineral shows. I have never heard of fordite.

Very interesting, and I can see how the price will just keep going up and up as the process that created it is long gone

Cool info
Bobby

 

Looks like a old squished book that is underwater?

 

Thats awesome, I have been looking for something unique to give my Wife for our tenth anniversary coming up this fall.
I think I found It!

thanks for the link

Josh

 

I have seen this before, I think what you might have there is a section (chunk?) off a paint booth wall, or paint bench wall, with multiple layers of different color automotive paint. When cut and polished they look very very cool!!

 

The story ends in a sad note about how vehicles are painted today.

That beats the original method all to HE!!

There was no automotive enamel paint before 1924 = none.

Enamel paint was invented by DuPont in the 1920's, they called it DUCO ENAMEL.

First vehicle to be painted with DUCO = 1924 Oldsmobile.

Previous to DUCO, vehicles were not painted...they were VARNISHED!

The process took several days to complete for one body, because it takes roughly 24 hours for one coat of varnish to dry.

Ford used two coats of varnish.

Black varnish dried the quickest.

Now y'all know why Henry said...

"You can have any color, so long as it's black!"

Since black varnish dried the quickest, the assembly line moved faster.

 

Here's another rock of the stuff.

 

We used to chip this off the paint both floor at the truck shop I worked at. If only I knew!

 

I think my truck came painted with that...

 

When plastic manufacturers clean or ( purge) the process lines, the resin are dropped onto a pile on the floor and then collected after a few runs of differing materials. After a few days or weeks depending on the run size or material, the hardened or cured glob was either tossed, taken home, or if all the same resin or monomer/polymer then it was put back into the mix as a non virgin material to recycle it. Some made great stepping stones . My favorite was a clear from polycarbonate.
The one in pic ?? I have no clue but a fun thread none the less. Could it be from a Ford factory that made plastic parts?

 

Looks like I'll be out in the paint shop at work this weekend. There's enough layers of construction yellow and black to make a nice "bumblebee"

 

I was thinking, looks like a petrified Ford owners manual.....

 

second one looks like a shop manual......