Phase Three - May 2009 through ???
So...where to begin?
Well, in April of this year I attended an annual car show in my hometown. It's a small show that the local stereo shop puts on and I get invited back every year as my cars seem to be really well-liked. Well, this year was a bit different. The cars still got a lot of attention, but the show was...different. There was a much more thuggish atmostphere and the crowd was mostly 18 and under. The guys putting on the show do a burnout contest every year, though in past years it was held away from the cars and done in moderation. This year, the contest was held roughly 6-8 feet away from my M3 and my Mustang. All was well until a Dodge Ram did a burnout. His exhaust was right behind his tires and became a sort of leafblower, spraying both my cars down with molten tire and gravel. The paint was pretty much ruined on both cars. I left the show fuming and the next day when I spoke with the guy who put the show on, I was simply met with "well, what do you want me to do? It's not my fault."
So...that sucked...but I put in a call to my insurance companies and they handled everything quickly. When I went in to have the damage assessed, I was met with quite a shock. Thankfully, the M3 was an easy fix, but I was informed that the Mustang was a different story. Since I had my car painted in '07 with solvent-based paint, it would be impossible to touch up and properly match the exiting paint thanks to California's new regulation which makes solvent-based paint illegal to spray. 2 different shops informed me that they had to use waterborne paint now and that matching it would be more time consuming and expensive than just repainting the car.
This was the proverbial kick in the pants for me to redesign the Mustang.
I decided to take the Mustang to Airhead Kustoms in Corona, CA after speaking with owner Jason Russell and a solid recommendation from my girlfriend, Jade, who had dealt with him in the past. He's very professional and straight up. I didn't get the sense that he was out to take me for as much money as he could and his work spoke for itself. So, I set to work on a new paint scheme since I had been getting a little bored with my car after having the same "look" for almost 4 years. I decided to pay extra and have him do a full color-change on the car. In picking my new color scheme, I realized that my tan interior would no longer look quite right, so I also decided to swap completely over to Charcoal and kinda go from there. While I won't spill the beans on the new look just yet, I will share some pics of the progress. Sorry they're just cell phone pics for now!
Where the magic is happening:
I picked up a Cervini's GT500 2.5" cowl hood after seeing how beautiful it looked on 06ELNR's car. Thanks for the recommendation!
Some shots of Jason masking off the car for paint on Thursday, July 2nd. Paint goes on Monday morning!
UPDATE!
So, Monday morning the painting began! We wrapped up Wednesday morning after 2 very long days. I hung around helping where I could and guiding the process to get as close to my original concept as we could. The car came out looking JUST like the rendering, which I'll post later down the line as there are still a few things I plan to keep under wraps for now!
Get ready...there are quite a few pictures!
Monday 7/6
I showed up at Airhead Kustoms around 11am on Monday. The car had already been sprayed with the basecoat and primary color of the car, House of Colors Pearl White:
We immediately started laying out the graphics I had designed for the car. Like I said before, this scheme has a few cues from my old paint scheme, but overall is brand new. Here are some shots of the graphic fleshed out along the side and top of the car:
Note the rendering on the rear window of the car.
Once everything was masked off, Art began spraying the accent color, Atomic Orange Pearl!
After the orange was painted, Jason and I worked together on laying out the flame pattern that would be painted inside of the graphics. We used a plotter to to lay them out in vinyl to be used as a stencil. Art and Jason then airbrushed the drop shadows, creating a really nice 3D layered effect. There are actually 2 layers of flames and a background layer. It was a long process as everything was airbrushed. The total time was roughly 14 hours! Here are some pics of this process:
By the time the airbrushing was finished, it was midnight...so we called it a night and met up again bright and early on...
Tuesday 7/7
After the graphics were all finished up, Jason and Art set to work backmasking the car for the top color...which I won't spoil just yet!
Once the car was masked again, Art began spraying the top color.
As Art was in the booth, "Wild" Bill Wisslead showed up. He is one of the most talented guys I have ever met. Not only does he have one of the steadiest hands I've ever seen lay down a pinstripe, but he also airbrushes, lays gold leaf, does signage, and not to mention, plays a mean harmonica! He not only brough his immense talent to my project, but he brought a great deal of cheer to the paint booth with his sense of humor.
Here's Wild Bill mixing one of the custom pinstripe colors:
Go figure...I had to make things difficult by asking him to stripe the roof...
More shots of the master at work:
So, we finally got out of the shop on Tuesday at about 10:30pm. Another long day, but the car was finally done and ready for clearcoat...and those pics will be up shortly!
i usually dont read the whole thread but wow. plus the car was a added bonus. cant wait to see the final product
