***** tech week, step by step to lace/flake/candies/patterns/custom paint *****

I mentioned doing this step by step thread awhile ago on my build thread, but as usual got side tracked with day to day life, so without further ado, or slacking, I present you, the best I can do, a step by step custom paint thread for a chance to win some new goodies from some of the HAMB's best vendors!

if your reading this, I can only assume you are interested in custom paint.
candies, patterns, flake, endless lines, fans, shells, quilts, etc etc. im heavily influenced by the late 60's-late 70's low-rider, hippy van, psychedelic days.

lets assume your project is painted and already cleared, if it is a new project, you'll at least want to intercoat clear it for these next steps.

next step, get you lots of tape, a tape measure, both regular metal and a flexible one for rounded panels, pencil, some making paper, masking tape, inter coat clear, flakes, candy paint, regular clear coat, 320 da paper, lace, low tack spray glue 3m #77 or cheaper, wax and grease remover, oh ya lots of tape!

start off with getting your panels all sanded down with 320 grit dry paper on a da machine, or 400 wet. clean your panels really good. tape up your panels you want flaked. be sure to cover and mask up anything you do not want flake on, it gets everywhere and you don't have a lot of control when it starts flying.

I used inter coat clear on the truck, but regular clear will work if you are only doing a flake job and are not concerned about material build up thickness. you can over reduce clear also to get it to thin out.

depending on the flake size and how thick you mix your flakes,you'll want to adjust you tip size accordingly.

once all your panels are cleaned, start your tape outs. do your outlines in the 3 m blue tape, that seems to offer the cleanest lines with the least amount of bleed threw. you can use green or yellow tape after the first line is layied down.

all iwata guns where used on this. 1.4, 1.8, 2.2, and a 3.0 tipped hvlp guns.
there is 3 different sized flakes on this, all from denotnator here on the hamb, and on layitlow forum. good dude, great products.

 

once you get the flake sprayed, you'll want to burry it all in reg clear. depending on your flake size, this maybe a multiple step process.

carefully peel your tape away from your flaked panel, be sure to watch for lifting. try to peel at a 45 degree angle away from your work.








stand back and think how bad ass your ride is going to look! be sure there is no lose flakes in the non flaked parts, outside your intended panels. I don't care how may times you look at this step, you will have a few stray flakes show up when done, buried somewhere unintended.

now mix up some regular clear coat , and burry all that flakey goodness. again this , may be a multiple step process, you may need to clear it a few times to get it smooth.be sure to feather it out a good distance past your panels so you can get the edges knocked down.

after you are happy with the results, DA down the panels, with 320 grit dry,be sure to get the edges so there is no ridges, that's where the lots of clear will come into play.

 

wash your project again after any sanding steps.
now come the time to test your artist abilities, patience, and waste some tape.
it helps to have some friends help you during this process.
here ramon and Jason from b st paint works and I are laying out the designs in tape.





endless lines, ribbon lay out.

 

time for candies.
mix up your colors and get ready. if your lucky enough to spray in a booth, and use a color binder/ intercoat clear with candy concentrate or use real true candies , this stuff will dry quickly.

we mixed up some to start with, thought id mostly stay in the red/gold/arrange range.




as you'll see later, that quickly escaladed!

start off with your darker color, if your doing a multiple color panel, or just work your faded from here. as seen here the candy brandywine was sprayed around the edge of the panel.
if your doing lace lay that down first and spray your panel with that first step. then outline.





peel back your tape, which will be your base color, to expose that. if your only doing a 1 color candy panel , then you are done. so in this instance you would have a silver flake endless line, but if you are doing a multiple color panel like this, then you would peel the tape and spray you liter color over the whole panel now, in this case pagen gold.

 

same process for pans.
darker color first. here is violet first with a magenta sprayed over that.
to do a fan design, you'll need some poster board, or such non pours material.
start your fan fulcrum point up against the panel and start from there, if you decide to multiple directions or you can start in the corner and work across your panel from that point, on the roof there are 3 points, on the pillar there is only 1 point.

cut your material into a nice smooth arc and get down.
stencils can be used also, as the bandana print was custom made by a local sign shop, be creative.

 

to do shells, that your material and cut some half circles in it. for this back panel I used a 1 1/2" circle template to get the correct sizing down. adjust size to fit your panel.
just like the fans, move your template away as you spray, with the shells you move it down and over 1/2 the distance of the shape.

these where done with candy root beer with pagn gold over that.





lower window panel was done with oriental blue over lace. 2 tape lines. pulled and the candy turquoise/teal over that all, faded up the drip rail/pillar









more shell examples.

 

another design is quilt panels.
for this you'll need your chosen material again.
cut out some shark teeth.



for this process youll want to match up your points as you spray. aligning the centers. spray the edges.



if your looking to do a lace panel on some thing curved like a dash, or in this case a center council ill use the low tack spray glue to hold it to the shape. lightly spray the lace with it, wait about 5 mins and press into place. spray your candy color and remove the lace when satisfied. if your doing a multiple color panel like this, be sure there is no glue residue left behind, if so a wax and grease remove will make quick work of it, but be care full as it will also remove your pattern if pressed to hard or too wet.





first round of color down.



topped with pagen gold.



more examples of lace work over a flake base, this time with endless lines also.
first color, oriental blue.



and with candy teal over it all .



as mentioned earlier, color quickly got carried away once the paint started to fly.



good idea to have a spray out table /board around to get used to a color or to see what a color will look like over another.

 

quick review / run down with the inner door panels and center council.
flake base, sand down smooth.







clean panel, tape out your design and borders.









spray your edges an design.


remove you tape and expose your design if doing a multiple color panel. and spray your next color.









video of endless lines.

 

Awesome write up!!!

 

so at this point you should be done with your designs. time to seal all the art work up. mix up some reg clear top coat and burry it all. again this may be a multiple step process to get all the lines "floated" out so you cant feel them.
on this truck we cleared it 3 times. spray the clear, give it a few days, sand it down and inspect, not good enough, sand it down, spray some more clear, wait a few days, try again, if satisfied, go about you normal color sanding duties. this project got hit with 800 da, then 1000, 1500 hand, 2000 hand, then 3000 hand and da. polished and shined.

for reference this project took about 1 day for the flake, 1 day for layout with the tape, and about 2 days spray time.

some more finished examples.

















if you have any questions, please post them up, and remember to vote next week!

 

Thanks for showing the techniques used on your truck. I've been painting for quite a while and some of those designs had me scratching my head when I saw it in person.

I hope to implement some of it soon!

 

I have a question.. If you are doing a simple one colour of flake over a base colour with lace.. I.e A white roof, gold flake and lace so that when you pull the lace you have a white lace with the gold flake.. How long is it before you can pull the lace up?

The flake i have you do 6 - 8 coats of it, and i'd of thought after that many coats because its a very heavy flake as it dries you would end up pulling it up with the lace at the same time? Do you leave it to dry for a certain amount of time before pulling it up?

 

That looks bad ass ! Pullin out all the tricks.

 

FUCKING Awesome work ma'man!

 

Thank you ryno I at least understand the process now and man does that truck look amazing I really want to see it in person

 

thank you

If you have any specific questions please ask, ill do my best to answer.

I should have mentioned this, but im glad you asked!
I like to do a like color base with a flake. meaning If your going with a gold flake use a gold base. if you spray gold flake over a white base, it will look spotty, in my option, it can be done, but I don't think it looks best. do a like color of said flake color, or use a silver flake and candy over the whole roof to achieve your color shade.

I have really like to say it takes this many coats, cause like I mentioned before it really depends n how heavy you mix your flake and the amount if coverage you want, but around 6 -10 coats is about right.

now to answer you question. if I under stand your desired effect. you want a white lace negative pattern and gold flake over that?
if so I don't think you will be able to get a nice look doing that way with flake over lace, meaning the flake will be spotty and will not fill in the lace pattern as the lace will suspend the flake from going through. If you desire the board white lace look, id flake the roof and then come back with your lace and shoot a solid white top coat over that.

good luck, do some test panels. its really not that hard, just build up the courage and get to spraying!

 

Holy visual overload Batman!

That's mind boggling, great job!

 

Great tech! Now I get how you pulled some of the designs off.. The pick-up looked amazing in Austin. So did the cooler.

 

Whoh!!

 

Awesome work dood....you have more patience than me! I would of been spent just doing the consoul!!!

 

After reading your reply i'm thinking that if i start with a white roof, lay the lace down and spray a gold base over that.. lift the lace and wet sand any imperfections / to flatten it.. and then spray the flake i have over the top of that would give me a pretty good result?

The flake i've got is basically a tin of some form of clear liquid, not entirely sure if it is a clear coat or not.. and it has the flake mixed in with it.

I painted a diff last year with it to simply see how it comes out, and its quite a heavy flake. I was told to use a gloss black base coat, and then do the 6 - 8 flake layers on top of that until it was heavy enough that i liked it.. and then leave for 24 hours for the solvents to dry out, and then 6 - 8 of clear.

Heres a picture for reference:

 

Lovein it

 

WOW, your work is amazing! I have always wondered how this was done. Love all the colour!

Brent

 

pure talent. Thanks for step by step.

Just curious, not counting the labor, how much in paint does a job like that cost?

 

Fuckin amazing as always!!!!

 

Oh my god, thats beautiful stuff there.

 

Now that's what I call limitless talent. Great article my friend.

 

Pure Art! Amazing work

 

Rad! Great job.