Sc: What is hydro dipping?
Mick: It’s an alternative to painting or vinyl wrapping. Basically the part to be decorated is dipped into water with a film floating on top. The graphic or pattern that’s been printed on to that film sticks to the part perfectly and completely, no matter how complicated its shape may be.
Sc: How did you get into hydro dipping?
My hydro dipping journey started some 11 years ago when I was one of the UK’s early adopters of the process. I’d been into scooters my entire life, notably building the NorrieDecember 2015. The whole thing started when I was ‘swirl dipping’ guitars for musicians, which is a very messy and random process. By random, I mean that you don’t have much control over how the graphic will be applied, hence most of the patterns are a ‘swirly psychedelic’ effect. Nevertheless, I liked the process and the creativity of it all, so continued to research other methods and processes. That’s when I stumbled across hydro dipping and knew it was a process that I wanted to get involved in. I researched the hydro-dipping process and then put that into practice. The results were good from the word go but I knew that I could do better and so that’s what I did. At that point, all major materials and processes were coming out of the US and China, so I contacted a few companies in China and started ordering various materials and samples to see what could be done. I’ve been developing my systems and refining the process ever since.
