? for Truck painters

[Jengle]

How are ghost flames done? Do you put the flames on under a thin, opaque coat of the original color? Just wondering how its done. TIA

 

[DBogo]

i beleive ghost flames are airbrushed on very faintly

 

[Jeff Clark]

Most are done with a regular paint gun. The difference is the type of paint used. Usually a pearl. Mine were done a little different. We used a paint made from crushed glass. It is what Lexus uses to give their white a pearl coat. If I had it to do over again I would do it different. Mine don't show up as much as I would like. They are between the original paint and several new coats of clear.

 

[DOUGMartin]

Jengle

At fall brawl there was a guy with a ford with a sweet ghost flame job. I forget his name but he did it him self. Maybe some one else who was at fall brawl can remeber his name.

 

[JStieger]

Might want to talk to TDR member Scotty1 (of Scotty air systems) - he just had this done on his truck.

 

[Jengle]

Thanks, I am not quite ready to do this yet. I want a new hood, and was hoping someone would pick up that business for sale, that made that AirBulldog hood that Bob Wagner has. That was one sweet hood. I'd hate to have a custom job done, then have to do it again for the hood. Keep the answers coming though, I might find something like that and go for it.

 

[SLezotte]

You can do ghost flames several ways.



First, chemical clean your truck, wetsand what ever panels you intend to flame with 600 grit (for lighter base colored trucks)... or 800 grit ( for darker colored trucks). Chemical clean again. Wash your freaking hands before and during the masking process OFTEN. Keep the french fries out of the work area. One misplaced fingerprint under the clear coat will smoke the whole job!

I'll tell you how a few ways to do them with HOC (House of Color) brand paints. I do not know what the base color of your truck is. This is very important! You can do some nice stuff on a darker base coat (blue / black) that will look like *** on a white truck. So be careful. You can use HOC "prism pearl" paint. . it comes in quart cans (liquid). This looks best on dark base colors. Avoid Prism pearls like the freaking plague on a white base color! As an example, on a black truck, I would mix 1 part of Prism pearl (color of your choice) to 10 parts SG-100 intercoat clear. Reduce this with proper reducer for the shop temp... . probably RU-310 or RU-311. Reduce it 2 parts of your mix to one part reducer. Mask off flames. I do NOT recommend spraying 2 or more layers of these flames with this system. If you do, the flames will be "double strength" and look like crap where they bisect. Spray ONE medium coat on the surface. You will more than likely NOT see anything on the sprayed surface. The darker the base color is... the more prominent that ONE coat will appear. If your truck is a "medium" toned base color... like medium blue for instance... you MIGHT want to sprat two coats. That's it! Any more than 2 coats and your ghost flames will NOT be ghost flames! Do NOT spray this coat on TOO WET... if you mottle it, you're screwed! You'll be wetsanding off your mistake.





OK... say you look at the HOC color chart and see nothing in the Prism Pearl line that catches your eye. You CAN custom mix your own pearls using their PBC like of pearl paints... . once again, pick a fav color..... lets say pearl green... mix the PBC pearl 1 to 10 with SG-100 intercoat clear and reduce as I mentioned before. follow above instructions regarding spraying. You CAN use this PBC line of pearls on lighter colored trucks as well as white trucks.



They offer pearl in powder form, I do use this on ocassion but only recommend it for matching obscure / exotic colors like on Bimotas and such.



Use the HOC clear of your choice. Do not be a chump and intermix brands of base coats and clear coats. Bad things can happen further along in time, it's not worth it.



You might also want to check out the Dupont "Hot hues" line of custom paints. You can use their "adhesion promoter" just like the HOC SG-100 intercoat clear. They (Dupont) have some nice colors available too. You need to activate their base coats with the proper activator. Supposedly this will give you a slight edge over HOC brand as far as chip resistance. save yourself some time, money and embarassment and spray up an old door, hood... or piece of sheetmetal the same base color as your truck. Experiment on this, not your ride. have some fun.



My name is Sean. I'e been painting professionally for over 25 years and my work has appeared on the covers of Easy Riders, Biker Magazine, HotXL, Big Twin... and also inside Motorcyclist, Sport Rider and a few others. If you need more pointers, email me at -- email address removed --. Make sure you put something in the header regarding TDR... . or Paint... otherwise i'll just blow it out as spam,



hope this helps.



good luck,



Sean