Okay, this introduction is getting lengthy, but I hope instructive. Besides the lessons already taught, I just want to stress that whatever else I have to teach in this book, I have learned by doing, making mistakes, and asking lots of questions.
Many books of this type are written by (or with) professional painters or shops that have perfected a specific system that works for them. That doesn’t help much if something goes wrong, and it’s very hard to preach one system in today’s ever-changing world of paint products and equipment. This is especially true if you’re painting at home in your garage, not in professional shop conditions. On the other hand, some books are written by people who work for, or are “sponsored by,” a particular paint (or polish) company, and therefore push a single brand of products. Not only are such books skewed, but today they are out of date as quickly as they are printed. More on this later, but I avoid specifying products by name and number in this book because (1) as soon as I named them, they’d be superceeded, and (2) I’m not sponsored by anybody.
This one was pure fun. About the time nostalgia drag racing got started, I found this old Altered sitting ignored in someone’s backyard. The owner obviously didn’t want it, letting me have what you see here for $300. Honest.
Other than adding an extra hoop to the roll cage and rebuilding the brakes, I didn’t have to do anything but clean and paint it. I used “Urethane Black” spray cans on the frame, which were excellent (but no longer available), and sprayed things like the axle, spring, and radius rods with a Mercedes silver. Several other parts I had cad plated, which is really cheap.
The fiberglass body and grille shell had never been painted, so I sanded off mold lines, primed them, and sprayed them Corvette Yellow in single stage, glossy, catalyzed enamel. No rub out needed.
The injected Chrysler Hemi was an extra $500 and needed a couple of new parts. The very talented Steve Stanford added the turned gold-leaf “Low Buck Special” and “Pure Purgatory” lettering, along with painted-on teardrop taillights and license reading “Cheap.” And, no, that’s not me in the driver’s seat. I like the building part, not the scary part.
Let’s end with this ’53 Chevy, which became my most involved car project. I wanted to promote ’50s rods at Rod & Custom magazine, and my cousin’s inherited coupe looked like a cherry-pie prospect—until we stripped it down and bead-blasted it to bare metal. Since it was a magazine project, I got some expert help repairing the worst sheetmetal and filling/peaking the hood.
I still did the vast majority of the car in my own garage. I didn’t remove the doors because they fit well and the bead blasting cleaned the jambs thoroughly. But the entire interior was stripped, all glass but the rear window was removed, and all the front sheet metal came off (a few times). With some bodywork and custom modifications, here is the car coated in PPG K200 (an excellent high-fill primer that is no longer available), prior to a lot of block and board sanding.
I painted the dash and window frames charcoal gray to match the upholstery. But note the quality of paint and detailing in the doorjambs. It was easy to paint these when all the interior and glass were out of the car. But this sort of detail is what makes the difference between a regular and really high-quality paint job. It just takes time and effort.
Since it was a magazine project car, that meant it was the first time I didn’t have to work within my own personal budget, so it’s, by far, the nicest car I’ve built. I just had to do most of the work myself, which included filling, smoothing, and painting the firewall, inner fender panels, under the hood, splash aprons, and lots of other parts, all in the 3-stage pearl with clear.
This paint color sort of came about as a mistake, or a compromise. This was the ’80s period when pastels were briefly popular on street rods. I would have painted the car competition orange (or black), but we went for a custom mix somewhere between cantaloupe and watermelon—just a solid-color lacquer (non-metallic). But after I painted the car this color, it looked like an atomic-reactive pumpkin. It glowed in the dark. So I decided to soften and tone it down with a lighter pearl coat, which became known as “Peach Pearl.” It might not be the color I’d choose today (I’d go with the black), but I have to say it’s probably the best paint job I’ve done. And it’s the first pearl I did on a big, full-size vehicle. Nobody told me to spray it like a candy, so I’m lucky it came out even.
I’m not a professional painter. I’ve never done a paint job for money. But I have painted all or parts of every car I’ve ever owned, as well as plenty for friends and relatives, since my early teens. I’m sure I haven’t discovered all mistakes yet, but I’ve made—and figured out how to correct—plenty. I have done paint jobs that have won awards and made magazine covers—all from my garage at home. That’s how I learned. And that’s what I am passing along in this book. Best of luck to you.
In the first chapter I ask why you want to paint your own car, and point out that it’s a lot of hard work, which I think this photo exemplifies. I have just sprayed the final clear coat on some front-end sheetmetal, and I look a little tired. But the real point of this photo—and this whole introduction—is to show that I painted this car, and the others shown here, by myself, in my garage (or driveway), with regular home equipment and no training. You can do the same. Reading this book gives you many pointers. Doing it—trying it—teaches you how.
If you have a choice, find a good car to fix up that mainly needs a new paint job. This ’55 Chevy 2-door has been sitting in my SoCal neighborhood more than a decade. It even used to be shiny. But there are no rust bubbles showing anywhere on it, it’s straight, it’s complete, and the fact it’s a Bel Air makes it even more desirable. You could strip it to bare metal to satisfy your curiosity, but all this car probably