Heya!

Well, I'm trying to plan out my exterior look for the car and have finally decided to go with het black and have a flame pattern. What makes this different/unique (at least in my opinion) is that the flame pattern will only be on the hood as it's going to be exposed metal.

My question here is two fold...

1) would this be on par with most custom paint jobs with respect to price since I'm assuming they would need to cover the entire car with the paint and them remove the areas where I want the flame pattern? Or would they be able to mask off the area I want the flame pattern on and just paint the rest, thus making it -possibly- cheaper?

2) risks to the metal. I know that I would have to have several layers of clear coat in that area and some other -hopefully clear- protectant. Am I correct here?

Also, is this really even possible? I mean, the project name of the car is "Burning Chrome" (yeah, I'm a William Gibson fan), so I figured this kinda went better with that.

Opinions? Warnings? Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.

- St Francis Asisi

I have painted a coulple cars and parts in the past and I am pretty sure you would just sand down the area for the flames to the bare metal, mask it off and paint the rest of the car. Only thing I am not sure about is clear coat bonding to bare metal. I know of several motorcycle buddies of mine trying to clear coat a polished frame which didn't work out very well and it peeled off withing a month. However, what you can do is polish the bare metal frequently in order to prevent oxidation. Thats what they ended up doing.

hey gadkin, come down to okmulgee and let our (OSU)paint and body take a crack at it hehee. im sure you could get a good price....or just find out what all would be involved. im sure you could find someone to do it...and it would be cheaper. iv already got friends willing to paint some of my parts for free if i just supply the paint.

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2011 Nissan Xterra Pro-4x

2007 Kawasaki Ninja 650R

1996 Mitsubishi Eclipse RS-NX 75 shot, AEM CAI, P&P t/b and intake mani-SOLD

1964 Buick Electra 225-all original, all power options, 325hp, 445ft/lbs tq

I don't think the clear will bond to the steel.

I think it needs something of similar chemical makeup to bond.

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-Ryan