Yet another Pure Vision Design/Mick’s Paint joint effort was this 1968 Charger built for Karl Williams. It appeared at both the 2013 and 2014 SEMA Shows. (Photo Courtesy of Didier Soyeux)
Not one to let an award go to his head, Mick and his team of highly skilled craftsmen continued to turn out exemplary work. Among these are cars for Billy F Gibbons of ZZ Top that included a repaint of the famed CadZZilla. He also painted the 2012 AMBR winner, the Indy V-8 Speedster for Bill Lindig. Later that same year, the Pure Vision 1965 Martini Mustang owned by Karl Williams won the Ford Motor Company Design Award at the SEMA Show.
More awards followed: The Halo 1972 Camaro won the GM Design award at the 2013 SEMA Show, and the 1967 Chalupa Fairlane won the Ford Motor Company Design award at the 2014 SEMA Show. At the 2012 SEMA Show, the Martini Mustang garnered an award from Mothers while Lindig’s Indy Speedster picked up two more awards from Mothers.
Meanwhile, Mick began working with Mickey Larson of Twins Custom Coaches, assisting in the build of a fleet of custom-painted show trucks for Freightliner and Western Star. That fleet included a pair of Optimus Prime trucks for the Transformers movies.
Mick’s Paint, however, is not confined to the hot rod, custom, and muscle car world. Mick has painted everything from a Porsche Speedster and a 1958 Pegaso Z-103 that came third in its class at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance to a rare 1931 Alfa Romeo 1750 Spyder and a 1941 Packard four-door convertible. There was also a 1955 Alfa Romeo Boano that won its class at the 2017 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, as well as several Ferraris, a lightweight E-Type Jaguar, a “hot rod” concrete pump, a pair of background walls at Disneyland, a semitruck covered in chrome-plated nails, and a few motorcycles.
Amir Rosenbaum of Spectre Automotive had this 1970 El Camino built at the SOCAL Speed Shop before Mick’s Paint handled the mile-deep black paint. With a setback LS7 engine, it was featured on the TV show Hard Shine. (Photo Courtesy of Alex Maldonado/Blacktopsociety.com)
Most recently, and due to customer demand, Mick’s Paint has expanded its capabilities into full builds. This includes everything from frame-off restorations to complete frame-up builds. Mick’s third AMBR Award came at the 2017 Grand National Roadster Show with Bruce Wanta’s amazing 1936 Packard Roadster.
A complete, ground-up build by Troy Ladd’s Hollywood Hot Rods, the Mulholland Speedster featured a handcrafted steel body with a retractable, cantilevered hardtop. Mick’s Paint handled the body and paintwork. The car won the AMBR, as well as the America’s Most Beautiful Custom Award, the Sam Barris Award, the Custom D’Elegance Award, and the World of Wheels Legend Cup in Chicago.
Later that year at the Annual SEMA Show, Bob Florine’s 1957 Ford Del Rio Ranch Wagon, built by Steve Strope’s Pure Vision Design and painted by Mick’s Paint, garnered another Ford Design Award.
In a little more than 20 years, Mick has reached the top of his game but, as he is quick to point out, you are only as good as your team. He also warned that you should never stop learning. New paint materials, technology, regulations, and, most important, new projects, keep you on your toes.
The engine in Amir Rosenbaum’s Spectre El Camino SS was an LS7 Corvette Z06 set back in the chassis and built for the Optima Ultimate Street Car challenge. (Photo Courtesy of Alex Maldonado/Blacktopsociety.com)
This 1969 Camaro Convertible has been in the same family since 1970, but a multiyear, multishop restoration resulted in many lost parts. However, Steve Strope’s Pure Vision Design and Mick’s Paint returned it to its former glory.
The engine compartment of the Camaro is testament to the work of both Pure Vision Design and Mick’s Paint. It never looked like this from the factory; at times in its life, it has looked a whole lot worse.
As Ben Franklin said, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!”
The logic behind this book is to share our experience, expertise, and technical knowledge with anybody who is game enough to want to undertake tackling the body and paintwork on their own muscle car project. What we have to share will be of benefit to anyone wishing to restore or even just repaint a car. The person who will gain the most will be the one who knows the least going in. Nevertheless, we’re certain that anyone who reads this will pick up some useful tips for the long and often arduous road to restoration.
This is one business in which you never stop learning because the technology and regulations are constantly changing. If you think you know everything there is to know then you are way too smart to be working and playing with cars. As this book was in its final stage of preparation, we had an incident where a painter had moved to California from another state and he was unused to painting with water-based materials. Despite being instructed on the prevailing methods, he insisted on painting, in particular mixing, in his tried and true way. Unfortunately, those methods don’t work with these different chemicals that typically require a lot less reducer. Needless to say, he mixed his paint and painted the car only to find that his old methods were redundant. The whole car had to be rubbed down and started over. No matter what you think you know, read and follow the instructions.
In this book, we’ll concentrate on process and technique rather than the chemical aspects of paint materials or legal requirements. You can study the wide variety of materials that are available as well as the legal requirements regarding refinishing in your city and state or country through books and the Internet. Mick’s Paint is located in California, where the maze of regulations is very confusing. You could call two different paint stores and get three different answers.
Regardless of what you are painting, whether it’s a muscle car, a hot rod, a custom, a truck, a motorcycle, or whatever, the principles are the same and those principles are what we will be covering in this book. First, you need a plan. You need to know how long it’s likely to take, how you are going to get ’er done, and, most importantly, how much it’s going to cost.
Find a car such as this 1963 Dodge 880 with decent factory paint and you should think very seriously about keeping the original paint. A repaint might alter the value significantly.
Of course, you can ignore all this and plough ahead, but in our experience not knowing what you’re in for is a prelude to disaster. Forewarned is forearmed. For example, if you get the body prepped and had not accounted for the cost of paint materials, how are you going to finish the project? You can’t leave it in primer, as primer typically absorbs moisture. You won’t notice for a few months but that moisture works its way down to the steel where it initiates oxidation. A year in and you’re going to have to strip the car back to bare metal, including all the Bondo. It makes sense, therefore, to have a plan and know what you’re getting into.