I have a friend that has a corvette, custom paint. Its white, and depending on the angle you look at it, it has a blue tinge to it. Plus I have heard and seen pictures of ghost flames. I was just curious on how you accomplish this. Do you paint on the flames in the color you want then paint over them with the color of the car??

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Godti
'89 Trans Am (Red)
305 TBI 5spd

 

First you paint the base coat, then you mask off the flame area and shoot the flames in a pearl coat, it's a special paint that does that color-change effect, somewhat similar to a film of oil on water. Then you go over the whole car with the clearcoat and voila, ghost flames!

[This message has been edited by 86ZRICHIE (edited December 04, 2000).]

 

Actually, you should shoot the base, then a coat of clear,(to seal the base) then shoot the clear with the pearl in it, then shoot more clear. Color sand the edges of the flames a litte more than the rest of the car and then apply more clear. That way you don't have the dreaded "step" in the paint.

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'82 Firebird, dead stock, 9 bolt disc rear, over 200,000 miles and still going strong, more to come...

 

I would not clear the base until after the flames were painted. At least when dealing with urethane paints, the base is very thin and dries fairly rapidly. The manufacturers also say that you can go up to 7 days before applying the clear and still be able to have a strong bond. So as long as bonding is not an issue, I would prefer to paint the base and the flames, then clear. That way the clear isn't a foot thick over the base where it was done twice. To me, having a uniform thickness of clearcoat will provide a better finish.

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The IROC Homepage
<A HREF="http://www.rit.edu/~jli4307/camaro" TARGET=_blank>
View the restoration of an 85 IROC</A>
"I didn't know a bored out Ford could go so slow" -Shenandoah

 

I have heard of the factory paint jobs being baked on. Would you wanna do this with the ghost flames??

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Godti
'89 Trans Am (Red)
305 TBI 5spd

 

The reason I would lay down a coat of clear, then the flames then more clear is I usually shoot about five coats of paint. Using one as the seal, then the flames, then the other four. The clear won't be that thick, and anyways, it will not be uniform because of the flames. But, after the color sanding and polishing, you won't be able to tell a difference in the thickness.

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'82 Firebird, dead stock, 9 bolt disc rear, over 200,000 miles and still going strong, more to come...

 

Factory paint jobs are baked on BEFORE anything is assembled on a car. Bake your car at 300* for 30 minutes and see how much plastic is left on your car.

Stinger, I guess it's personal preference. I prefer the clear to be applied a little heavy so that it can flow more smoothly, and 4 or 5 heavy coats is too much paint in my opinion. My father usually does no more than 2 coats of clear. My car got 3 coats because we planned (but still haven't actually done it) to wetsand and buff. A buddy of mine that works at his father's autobody shop painted ghost flames on his Mustang and they came out fantastic. This kid is extremely good at flames. I'll talk to him because I'm interrested in finding out how he did his.



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The IROC Homepage
<A HREF="http://www.rit.edu/~jli4307/camaro" TARGET=_blank>
View the restoration of an 85 IROC</A>
"I didn't know a bored out Ford could go so slow" -Shenandoah

 

If your talking basecoat/clear coat, don't play with the base coat ( i.e. masking, sketching, cutting etc) until you've clear coated it.Base coat is very fragile and marks easily, trust me, I've used it many times

 

That's the reason I say seal the base. When I painted my helmet, I sealed the base, and they,(the flames) came out awesome. I used a maroon that we used on a '38 Caddy and the pear was gold. It's beautiful. The base is very fragile to dirt and oil. The clear is not as absorbant. The oils in your skin, and the glue from the tape will make your first class paint job look like crap. When I paint clear, I use a siphon fed Devillbis with a 1.3 mm tip. That makes the finish smooth as glass. Almost no reason to color sand and polish.

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'82 Firebird, dead stock, 9 bolt disc rear, over 200,000 miles and still going strong, more to come...

 

what's color sanding exactly? sorry, i'm new to painting