Post #259082 by Tom Slick on 10/05/2006

This is one of the best tiki themed cars/trucks I've seen thus far! Great job! The roof job is a late 60's to early 70's styled lace job. It is right when the Bellflower/Downey hotrod crusing scene was fading and Hollywood and Montebello were the newer hotspots. Its technically out of the earliest of lowriding roots that was influenced by the Full Kustom Hotrods of that era.Similarly influenced by Larry Watson & Gene Winfield, but with a twist. This is a tedious job. First you start with maybe a basecoat of a metallic base(silver or gold).Spray it on to get ample coverage. Then you mix metalflake with the clearcoat and spray the combo to where you feel you have enough flake on the surface(usually determined in percentages) like my roof is 90% covered in metalflake. Then after your flashcoats(time between spraying layers of another coat of paint or clear) you then seal the metalflake/clear combo with straight clearcoat(no flake) (usually 3-5 coats of clear)to seal in the flake to protect it during the wetsanding process. It is nesseccary to wetsand to remove "boogers"(debris), fisheyes and orange peel. Then you use thinline tape with masking paper to mask areas that you want only the flake to show like the silver lined border you see dividing the lace job. then you grab grandmas lace curtains and secure it to the roof using paint tape leaving the areas underneath your lace, metalflake exposed. then you spray your favorite colored candy paint(a transparent tinted paint)and cover the lace.
When you achieve the level of candy color you want(just don't run the candy by applying too much,or else back to the sanding it off after it drys). You then proceed to remove the lace material and masked taped areas. Now you need to reclear the roof with clearcoat usually about another 4-8 coats with about 10-20 min in between coats. Now the car sits and dries.(Paint cures slower, with more coats). My roof is curing for 2-3 weeks before the FINAL wetsand 1000-1500grit wet. Last phase is the buffing out after the wetsanding for that "like glass" look. 3 different buffing pads, 3 different cutting/polishing glazes are buffed into the roof which brings it to a clean mirror glass finish. Once again great looking Burb