Dual Action
Mickey recommends that if you want to do any of this style of work, make sure to find a dual-action brush. Much like the bigger spray guns, these have a trigger that has the air and the fluid on different channels. Push down for air and then rock it back for fluid.
1. Here is test truck number two. We built this Ford for Comp Cams last year and dubbed it the Comp Cruizer - man, we are clever, with those kinda titles just dripping from our ultrafantastical fingers. Anyway, after all the bodywork was done, the truck was prepped for the basecoat by final sanding it with 600-grit. | 
2. The Auto-Air Colors are ready to paint. That's right - no mixing in catalyst.Jerry just put it in a bucket to make it easier to strain in his spray gun. | 
3. Jerry started spraying the pearl white base and warns to not spray the WBP like you would a solvent-base paint, meaning apply Auto-Air Colors in light coats. He says, "Some colors are best as a three-coat process, with the last being a light-medium coat. But some, such as candies, transparents, and the new Sparklescent colors, should be light every coat and may need four to five coats, especially when base-painting with the candy colors. Wetted coats may cause pigment to migrate, causing a fish-eye effect." |
4. When the basecoat was dry, Jerry took our Jason Rushforth rendering and started with the layout. The truck was dry and ready to tape in about 15 minutes after the last coat was sprayed - try that with a solvent-based paint. | 
5. With the tape down, the upper portion of the two-tone is coated in orange flake. When we say flake, we're not kidding. This stuff looks like it was mixed with the flake from a bass boat (check out the detail shot later). | 
6. Then the orange area was masked off and the purple split line sprayed. Again, the techs went from spraying the orange to spraying the purple in a matter of 20 minutes. |
7. After the purple line, the lower masking paper was removed so the already-laid-out flames could be done in Pearl Lime Green. | 
8. And after it was all done, we pulled the paper to reveal our new custom paintjob. After curing, the truck was cleaned with a tack rag and DuPont's Final Kleen. | 
9 a & b. Before the clear was shot, we had Willis Dorman come over and stripe the licks with purple and drop-shadow them with candy black. This added the final dimension needed to make the whole job look complete. |
9b. | 
10. Here is the detail photo we promised earlier. Take note of two things: one would be the flake - we said it was big - and two is how white the pearl white actually is. Solvent-based pearl white usually turns yellow, but because the WBP binder is so clear, it keeps the white, well, white. | 
11. Once it was color-sanded and rubbed, we installed the Street Scene body kit, took it to SEMA, and handed the keys over to Comp Cams. |