Topic: Solved: Wendax 604 - Gemballa Diamond Coating model

[Wendax]

A sleek design.

For one point, please respond and identify the purpose of this model, its maker and the year it appeared.

[Wendax]

up

[Ecnelis]

It's the Gemballa's model showing their diamond coating that uses real diamonds, the world's first. May 2012.

GEMBALLA's Ultimate Automotive Finish is a Genuine Diamond Coating

 Diamonds may be considered "a girl's best friend", but now premier automotive tuner, GEMBALLA, has created a very special "gem" that should be equally attractive to both ladies and gentlemen of sophistication. This is the world's first diamond coating for the interior and exterior finish of vehicles. More than just a special paint, this technically elaborate and exacting diamond finish is hard to beat in terms of exclusivity.

 "When GEMBALLA speaks of diamonds, we really mean it", explains CEO Andreas Schwarz. "Our complex process uses genuine diamonds as its key ingredient - not metal pigments, glass fragments, or crystals."

 Apart from having the strongest light refraction properties of all the precious stones, which explains their seductive twinkle, diamonds are one of the hardest naturally occurring substances known to man. The word 'diamond' means 'invincable' and speaks volumes by itself.

 The requirement that the coating had to be applied like paint defined the dimensional limit of each individual gemstone. The challenge for GEMBALLA was to grind the diamonds into a size small enough for their intended purpose, without losing their brilliance. Since a diamond reflects light according to the number of facets showing, this actually turned out to be an advantage. The greater the number of stones present in a given area, the greater the refractive surface, so the thousands of facets reflecting the light through the innovative GEMBALLA process creates an incomparable shine.

 With a company philosophy that has always been focused on the ultimate and the best, this new diamond finish fits the GEMBALLA portfolio perfectly. And as diamonds are a form of carbon formed under extreme heat and pressure, they are the perfect finishing touch for the carbon-fibre bodywork of GEMBALLA's ultra-exclusive cars.

[Wendax]

Absolutely correct. One more point for you.
I found it surprising they chose a streamline model with a 1930s look.

[Otto Puzzell]

FWIW, the DiDia (AKA "Bobby Darin Dream Car") used paint with embedded diamond dust. Of course, that was just paint, not "more than just paint".  

http://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/index.php?topic=10287.0

[RayTheRat]

Hmmm.  I never would have thought of this as a solution.  But I don't see diamond "dust" as being any more effective at the "Gee Whiz" factor than other types of metallic or metal flake paint. Diamonds themselves may be high on the hardness scale, but it's the medium in which the "flakes" of any kind are encapsulated that is the "weak link" so to speak.  WAY back in the day (1960s) when metal flake paint was real popular among hot rodders and especially kustom car builders, the clear lacquer in which the flakes were carried and applied that was relatively soft (though not as soft as enamel) and it had a terrible propensity to turn yellow if exposed to normal sunlight conditions.

Great advances have been made in transparent top-coat/clear-coat media, although I don't see a disproportionate use of metal flake paint jobs.  Most of 'em are limited to dashboards and other interior metal surfaces, although some painters use House of Kolors metal flake with nice looking results.  I haven't looked into the current carrier media's resistance to UV exposure-caused yellowing, though.

Finally, I bet one could get the same effect by using cubic zirconia or other prismatic, reflective "chunks" in paint.  I see a lotta stuff like that at car shows.

RtR