Fordite, also known as Detroit Agate, is a unique automotive enamel material.
The original layered automotive paint slag “rough” was made incidentally by the now extinct practice of hand spray-painting multiples of production cars in automotive factories.The over sprayed paint in the painting bays gradually built up on the tracks and skids where the car frames were painted. These layers were hardened repeatedly in the ovens used to cure the paint. Some of the deeper layers were baked 100 times. Eventually, the paint build-up would create an obstruction, due to thickness and weight, and had to be removed. This discardedenamel was collected and formed into man-made agate, Fordite.
Supplies of Fordite are limited.The techniques that produced this agate years ago, are no longer in practice. Today cars are painted by an electrostatic process that essentially magnetizes the enamels to the car bodies. Leaving little, or no overspray.