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

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It looks like you've got some great guys working on your flames. I was looking at the flames and thought originally that they'd be too dense in the door area for such a small car. I think someone else mentioned that as well. My curiosity was KILLING me so I did your car up in photoshop with the flame style that was taped on your car and mimicked the sample panel that you had done...and...I must say, I was wrong. Those flames are going to look killer!

Since I was there I did it up with both blue and green striping...looks great either way! Nice work, can't wait to see it finished.

Signshop, nice rendering! It does look great! I also like the blue edges to the flames!

thanks Signshop- that looks great.

However- I'll describe the paint as well as I can. It's a front to back fade.
Starts at pale yellow at front- to bright yellow- to pale orange- to deep orange, to red & maybe a magenta tip.
Licks in front will be yellow w/ orange shading. As the licks move down the car- they get deeper. Probably won't see any reds until they get to back of cowl or in the door. No yellows beyond the cowl.
And definately green stripes.

So - more like this?

Still looks sweet.

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?

Can't wait to see the finished product Steve!

Never had any idea that this process was as labor intensive. Many, many hours to get 'em right.

As I've said above, I'm not a real lover of flames painted on a car, but this thread has convinced me that there really is a place for them. While at NSRA York this past weekend I took a bit more then a passing interest at the variations. There are some that are excellent and some that should have never been considered with most of them somewhere in between. I haven't had a chance to download and clean up what few pictures I took, some were of flamed cars. Might post a few in a day or so just for comparison's sake

his flames are the best ! here is a 33 he did ,i love it

Labor intensive isn't the half of it!

My original plan was to paint & flame the car all at the same time. Then bury it all under clear so there was no edge. It was significantly more money to paint it that way & the coordination of the booth- So-Cal's painter, Dennis & the Roadster show made it impossible to meet. As it was- I was damn lucky to get Dennis at all. As it turned out- a project he was starting got delayed because of the guy's vacation so I jumped at the chance.
He's doing 2 other cars at So-Cal. One is a 3 window that will be painted like The California Kid. They shot the black about 2 weeks ago but nothing is back together,
There's a black custom you can see parked behind my roadster during alot of the tape shots that's getting a panel job. That car belongs to Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top.

Last update before Friday's show. I have an out of town job tomorrow. Car is filthy as it's just been colorsanded & buffed. All old pinstriping on car is now gone. Windshield is back on car & it runs. Found out panhard bar in front is bent today. :crazy: Nothing like more drama. Theirs will have to be modified to fit the TCI mounts. Car will be detailed tomorrow top & bottom. This is the 1st time I've had a car professionally detailed. Can't wait to see the engine. It was pretty nice but I hadn't had time to really get in there before.




Grille shell- less pinstriping. That will be done tomorrow. Moon tank is installed.





We have flames!!! No pin stripe yet. Cheapo work camera doesn't do colors right though- but this one is closest.




Hood side. This one is all striped & looking great!




Hood top, all striped.




Close up of louvered hood side all color sanded & buffed. Striping isn't done yet.




Open & say AHHHHHHHHHH
Color is not right though. Should have moved the floor jack.




Another view of hood side.




Tools of the trade.




Side view. Doesn't really show the dark shadows w/ flash on & colors are wrong.

Dennis at work






The book "Up in Flames", showcasing 18 famous flame painters.




Section of book on Dennis Ricklefs




I got him to sign my book. Pretty humble guy!

I almost hate to see this thread come to an end. The book signature is icing on the cake, seems like a great guy to work with!