Thread: Who wants to follow along w/ my flame job?

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Steve, I really like the way you have thinned out the licks on your flames. IMO it makes your roadster stand out more. This effect of the flames really makes the flames flow as if the roadster was really rolling down the highway at a high rate of speed on fire. LOOKS SWEET!

Dennis showed up today but are a day behind. They had to finish a bike on Friday & Saturday so we won't see a test panel until sometime tomorrow.
However, they started the masking process. Seems like there should be an easier way but ???


They start the process w/ green tape right along the edge of the fine line tape & go from there.




You can start seeing the flames materialize on my car. Note: they took the hood home as it needs to be done on both sides!




More tomorrow.......

There are several ways to mask...each having their advantages and disadvantages. After 35 years of experimenting, that is the method I use, also.

This is a series of pics when they painted the trailer. I didn't realize there were so many steps in laying flames. I was limited to posting five pictures here but there were at least 3 more color steps involved in the process. The labor intensity is nuts, no wonder it cost so much to have done.
John

All of the custom painting procedures are labor intensive. I gave up a lot of security and income to be in this biz, but some things, like happiness are worth more than $$! :-)

I have tons of more respect for painters now that I have had a taste of what it takes to do this sort of thing. I helped with this and it seemed like it toof forever...LOL! In the second picture, for my current set of flames, they were done differently.

Ok, couple of day delay. Dennis got stuck striping a Bonneville streamliner.
Back to my car.
This sequence is a black test panel made of acrylic- 24x36.
All I can say is amazing!
To save time- he shot the clear w/ a rattle can of Krylon (test panel only).
Panel lacks pin stripes.
They are sanding the car now & will shoot the car tomorrow or Sat.

Those look great. Do you get to keep the test panel? That would be something neat to hang in your garage or something.

Yes- I keep the panel. I'll either have him sign it & hang in garage or add text for a show board.

Loooks great steve. Fun to watch it unfold!

I'm with Stovens in that I think the blue pinstripes look best...sort like the blue hot flames when you fire up a torch. Steve making the flame licks narrower really makes the flames flow so much better and makes the deuce look like the flames are flowing over a moving vehicle. SWEET!

Ok- here we go.This is Friday. We rolled into the booth at 1:00 pm. He wanted me there to critique the fade & color choices as they happened. Wow, was this time consuming! I had to leave at 5:30 & he was just getting ready to clear. He got down 4 coats of clear after I left w/ a 30 minute flash between coats- and left 3 hours later). As soon as last coat of clear was laid down- he starts removing the fine line tape next to flame only- and the rest stays for now.
Remember- most of what you are looking at is overspray.


1st pic. Adhesion promoter has just been shot after a day of careful sanding. Pay attention to flame pattern- that's the only part that matters. The rest is overspray. Everything's been taped off & entire car is taped to floor.





This shot shows how symetrical the lay-out is.




1st step? White primer.




Primer is down.




On goes the yellow.




Car is all yellow now. Dennis shot a pale yellow up front for fade but I didn't like it so we went w/ the single yellow. This is straight toner.




Dennis lays on the orange we mixed & I approved.
It's about this point I about had a heart attack!
Looks like too stripy to me. Dennis said to have patience & let him work the yellow/orange fade some more & quit looking at the overspray- and concentrate only on the open flame area. After awhile- I got the eye he was talking about.





This side is nearly perfect now. I had him move the fade forward some.




Close up of the fade. This is before he goes back & plays w/ darker shades in teardrops of flames.

10 pics maximum so I have to split the posts.





On goes the red. We lightened it up a bit so it would pop agains't the black car.




Here's the fade so far. No clear yet. No highlights yet either. I give the thumbs up. We nix the deep magenta fade feeling it would be too dark so reserve that color for the final shading on ends of tips. Dennis mixed a little magenta w/ the red & faded that in the door. It's so subtile, doesn't show up much in pics.




Dennis doing what he does best (besides the fade), adding the shadows that give it depth. He spent alot of time on this. Pics don't do it justice.




More of his work. He's tweaking as I'm taking pics. I'm in the booth the entire time w/ him except when he shot clear. Too nasty.




This is pretty close to done. Dennis continues to tweak.




4 piece hood panels are removed from car to be cleared tomorrow morning. No way can Dennis remove all the tape in time so he removes these & clears the car in 4 coats after I leave.

Saturday morning 9am.



Dennis is all ready to go. The clear actually melts the fade even better. Dennis has removed the fine line tape last night & one of their guys who used the booth later last night rolled the car out of booth.
I saw it & my jaw dropped. Friggin awesome!



Driver side. The flames are more obvious now.




Passenger side. This side has better lighting & is more represenative of the color & fade. In person is waaaaay better!





Grille shell. You can see the orange shadows on top from base of flames on hood.




Dennis starts shooting the clear. We decide to shoot the sides 1st- he's afraid he won't be able to get the tape off in time if he sprays all 4 at same time. Good decision as it was getting close to hard when he worked the tape on the 2nd panel.
4 coats of clear, sand & buff Monday.




Removing the fineline tape. Probably took 1 1/2 hours to get all the tape off on both panels.




Pulled the side panels out of booth after 45 minutes & put on shelf out of the way. They won't be re-installed on car until after the motor is detailed for the open house.





Dennis just finished last coat of clear & it's about 4pm. Pulling of the tape.





Removing the last of tape. Dennis removed a few sections of tape for the camera. Taped it up when I was done.



That's what? About 14 hours?