This is the second year my car has had the flames on it. Today I added some more. I painted flames on both T-tops. The spray can blending was much better than the other flames. I still need to put a light blue pinstrip on them so they'll match the other flames.

 

looks sick steven! Couldn't you take out the tops and rivit on some alumionum tosave some weight?

 

My T-tops are Lexan I scored a set many years ago.

 

i c i c. got any newer pics of that monster 540 under the hood?

quick question, whats the "box" mean on your car?

 

Depends what the last picture of the engine you saw. Very little has changed since last year.

Box is a slang IHRA class. It means an electronics class. I use a delay box. It's identical to Super Pro under NHRA rules.

If you're running in Pro under NHRA rules, the IHRA class is called No Box because they're not allowed to use electronics.

Some people just use a symbol for the class. Draw a box to mean Box and draw a box with a diagonal line through it to mean No Box. To keep both sanctioning bodies happy next year, I'll add S/P or S/Pro

Electronics are delay boxes and throttle stops. Transbrakes are not usually considered electronics because they don't affect the reaction time or ET.

 

Lookin' nasty good!

JamesC

 

Very nice and those blue pins make a huge difference. Looks great!

 

are you using some sort of template or stencil to make the flames come out so clean? and are you just using regular rattle can paint? or spray gun?


looks really good either way

 

I use 1/8" blue vinyl body man tape and free hand the flames. It allows smooth short radius turns with a sharp edge. I then mask everything else off with green masking tape. The edges don't have to be perfect because the pinstriping covers the edges. Because they're freehand, they're not identical from side to side including the ones on the car. They're close but not exact.

Completely done with rattle cans (including my entire car). Everything gets a base coat of gloss white. The white is then covered with gloss yellow. Now comes the harder part. Blending orange from the tips towards the front as far as I want to go. Then the ends of the tips are done in red, again trying to blend into the orange. It's not easy to do. The flames on my car have terrible blending but they look good from a distance.

Now the pinstriping. A complimenting color across the color wheel from yellow, orange and red is blue. Light blue looks better on a dark vehicle. The pinstripes are done with a #2 pinstriping brush. The quality isn't show car. They're not 100% uniform all the way around the flames. I just want it to look good in pictures and going down the track.

Pinstriping is now done. First without, second with, however the lighting changed in the second picture. It's hard to see the transition from the yellow to the orange in both pictures. Most of the yellow is washed out. The blue pinstripe really makes the flames stand out but that picture shows very little. Could also be my monitor.

 

I like it!

 

looks awesome. ive thought about going flat black as a paint job. that way it looks decent and if anyone ever bumps or scratches my car i just simply spray a light coat over it.

 

A can of flat black spray paint is part of my pit stuff I take to the track. OK, took another pic with the car in the garage out of the sun. The colors show up much better.

 

As for the paint and flames on the rest of the car. I didn't want the traditional white or yellow front end. I saw a double set of flames on another car and thought that was the best way to go. The layout was something else. You need to see the double pattern without any paint. The front black flames transfer over the colored flames and you have a pinstriped black flame on a black background. I think the style turned out better than I imagined although some of the licks are too big and the tips don't point straight back.

I'll be able to change the flames slightly this winter. I have some fiberglass doors to install this winter so the licks that are on the doors will be redone. The passenger side looks worse than the drivers but I had little room on the side to get a good view of how they were being laid out.



I've been contemplating putting a few more flames at the rear of the rear wheel openings but think it may be too much.

 

Painting a car flat black especially with rattle cans isn't as easy as it sounds. I saw a similar car at the track and the flat black paint looked bad. You could see the spray pattern.

My car was gloss black. After removing all the racing decals I had on it for years, I sanded the whole thing done with 220 grit. If you're going for a gloss finish, at least 400 grit is used for a smooth surface. Flat black doesn't care. Completely cleaned it then started shooting flat black with spray cans. The entire car got at least 3 coats before the spray pattern was completely hidden. The hood got 5 coats because I had just finished molding the scoop on and the bondo needed to be covered.

After painting, I let the car sit for a week then with clean rags, wiped the whole car down to get rid of all the particles on the surface. The flat black then took on a matte type of finish and you can't see any spray pattern from the rattle cans.

The paint picks up dust and dirt easily. A simple wipedown cleans it right up. I need to wash the car again this week to get some fiberglass dust off it and to wash a lot of bug guts off the front. I wash it like a normal car with soapy water, a sponge and a garden hose.

 

Pretty sweet flames!!

 

do you still got the all the lights on your car?!?

 

When I flip a toggle switch for lights, all the headlights come on and the brake lights come on. I wanted the brighter rear lights and all the headlights because there's no lighting at the end of the track to see the turn off when racing late in the evening. Other than instrument lights, there are no other working lights in my car. I run plastic headlights to shave off some weight.

 

You want my wheels? I think they're aluminum 15". and they have more decorative holes, too! You might save a little weight!Just send some 16" IROC lugnuts.....

 

HUH?

 

Took the car out of the garage to wash the fiberglass dust and bug guts off it. I needed the garage to do some work on my truck so I parked the car in the back yard and took a pic. I was tempted to drive around the block and park it in front of the house I held the camera up over my head and this was the best I was able to get at that angle. Now it really has that old school rodder paint job. If I ever find an old A-body to make into a rat rod, I'll know what to do for paint. So this is a 22 year old car. Is it a classic yet? It's bad when they have nostalgia races and early 70's cars show up because they're old enough.

Some kids were walking by right after I parked in the back yard and thought this was a firebird.

 

not too shabby! i'm not a flame guy honestly, but you do good work, much better than the "black pearl" thing you had going on a few years ago.

 

I was drawing flames all over my school books back in the 70's. I don't like the more modern "tribal" flames. Flames shouldn't go backwards. I don't care for scallops. I didn't want the more traditional racing stripes over the hood.

Flaming a black car is the best way to make it stand out and give it that custom look. Monochrome paint just looks bad and it's a little hard to do a two tone with flat black.

Another option to give it a subtle look and be really different is to paint the entire car in flat black then do a flame layout in a pearl overcoat. The whole car including the flames would be black but as the light changes over the car, you would see the flames stand out. Almost a ghost flame type paint job in flat black.

 

Looks like serious badass brother.

 

You know, I think some flames by the back wheels could tie it all together just do it proportional for the smaller area there. Later.

 

haha, somehow im always staring at your rearwheels...

 

32x14 slicks mounted on 15x15 rims with 5.5" backspace. Narrowed 9" with 45" from axle flange to axle flange.