1971 Chevy El Camino Custom Paint - Set It On Fire

Before we go any further, let's take a look at what supplies were used and how they helped us with this hood. The paint is PPG DBC basecoat black, the reducer is PPG DT 885, and the clearcoat is PPG 2010. We used 3M quarterinch fine-line tape to lay out the stripes, and 3M painter's tape to mask off the vehicle. Auto Prep from Klean Strip was used to wipe our substrate clean.

Now that the black has been sprayed, we took a break for a while to let the paint cure. We could just stop here and be satisfied with the job, but that's no fun.

Once Albert Venegas laid down one layer of flames, he sprays clearcoat mixed with House Of Kolor Candy paint. This makes the flame more vivid and at the same time helps blend it in with the surrounding black.

Once Albert was done with the several layers and colors of flame, it was sprayed with a clearcoat mixed with black. This mix helped to bury the flames into the black stripes, add more depth, and make them less visible as well. Almost like ghost flames, but not so ghostlike.

The only way to really see the flames is in direct sunlight, so we took this shot in bright sun to show how flames can look. Most of the time they stay hidden fairly well. In Part 2 of our story we will go hog wild on another hood with flames just to show you the methods. And yes, anyone can spray these with enough practice.

The tape is carefully peeled away, and ta-da! We have stripes and flames on the hood.

We are not done yet. Twenty-four hours later, after the clearcoat has cured, it was time to cut and buff out the final product. This is where the brilliant shine comes from.