Custom Paint Job on a 1999 Dodge Dakota R/T - Strong Shade

1. Our rendering features an R/T logo on the rear quarter panel, which looked pretty plain on paper. Steve said he could make it look a lot nicer by creating a beveled edge. This will be done with a few simple masking techniques and an airbrush. Here Steve is transferring the logo from his sketch onto the completely masked area with carbon paper.

2. After Steve got the logo transferred, he cut out the entire letters with a razor knife. Steve said be very careful and cut with a light hand. You want to cut through the tape but not into the paint.

3. Next he mixed up some white base coat and sprayed the area. We'll go into more detail on the paint later.

4. Once it was dry to the touch, Steve cut out the inner area of each letter and centered the pieces into their respective shapes. This will prevent paint from getting on this area, which when complete will appear to be a high area.

5. Now with some black in his airbrush and piece of lightweight cardboard (like an event flyer), Steve started adding the beveled edge. He made it look very easy, but this can be confusing the first time you do it. Basically you want to create straight lines from inside to the outside of the design at the points or corners.

6. After he had the lines finished, he dusted the whole logo to darken the edge a bit more. Even at this stage it looks a bit odd.

7. Here is the payoff to this work: As you can see, once the center is pulled out, the completed design reveals itself. Now we have something that looks more like an emblem instead of a flat set of letters.