4. The yellow went on next. Mickey pulled the airbrush back a ways from the hood and just dusted over the white. A heat gun is used to quick-dry the layers so we can paint right away, which is something you can't do with solvent-based paints. | 
5. Mickey kept going back and forth with his color, spraying orange, yellow, and so on to produce what he calls "layers of reflectivity." The first couple coats he applied are now visually way down below the hot spots, or last coats, to create a very deep effect. | 
6 a & b. When Mickey showed up, he asked what we wanted to see. Other than color and flames, we set him loose - man, oh, man, check out the evil skull he free-handed using pearl white and pearl black. |
6b. | 
7. A stencil was cut so Mickey could spray some hard shadow lines, again to give the design more depth. | 
8. Here is the hood just before it was sent to the booth for a couple coats clear. We can't wipe off the hood with a tack rag because it will disturb some of the blending. We have to now bury it in clear and sand it smooth before we can put the final coats of clear. |
9. Mickey got to work on the fenders and doors of the truck. He even broke out a few stencils and added some skulls inside the flames. | 
10. We stuffed everything in the booth for the clearcoat after it was all masked off. | 
11. Two coats were sprayed and left to dry. Then we color-sanded it to smooth out the dirt and sprayed two more coats. |
12 a &b. Here are the parts covered in clear. As you can see, the colors really pop, and since we didn't use any tape lines, there will be no need for pinstriping. | 
12b. | 
13. Now, to really let our custom design shine through, we had to color-sand the areas one more time. With 800-grit paper and a rag, we moved the paper in a back-and-forth motion with light pressure. |
14. Here is the gun finish with some orange peel. | 
15. Here, we are midway. As you can see, there are still some shiny dots. These need to be completely gone before we can polish it; some more sanding is necessary. | 
16. This is what it should look like if it is sanded properly - nice and dull. |
17. Now with a polisher and some compound, the sanding scratches are rubbed out - yes, that's why it's called "color-sand and rub." | | |