Featured

MANDY: Honda Integra Type-R build

June 24, 2025

For more than 70 years, Detroit Autorama has been the proving ground where the world’s most ambitious custom cars, hot rods, and coachbuilt masterpieces step into the spotlight. What started back in 1953 as a humble fundraiser to build a drag strip has grown into a full-blown celebration of automotive craftsmanship, creativity, and hot rod culture. Today, the show packs the cavernous halls of Huntington Place with hundreds of cars, thousands of enthusiasts, and a level of competition that pushes builders to bring their absolute A-game.

STAR CARS: A Family and Its Speedstar

Dale was working on a unique rod project when his father went to a Goodguys event and saw Bobby Alloway Speedstar’s new Rat’s Glass Speedstar body and Alloway frame package. Joe knew it was the look Dale was trying to accomplish, so he purchased the makings of a Alloway Speedstar street rod and traded it to Dale for his unfinished car. Joe and Dale then went to the NSRA Street Rod Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky, and saw a beautiful orange Speedstar that Alan Johnson had just finished. They were impressed with the roadster’s craftsmanship and attention to detail, so Dale decided to take his custom Speedstar build to Johnson’s Hot Rod Shop in Gadsden, Alabama, to help him finish it. Dale’s intention was to build the roadster for outdoor car events, because the last rod he built was never driven, it was strictly an indoor show car. This time he wanted a rod that was exceptional, and a driver.

BIG THINGS COME IN SMALL (BLOCK) PACKAGES

The owner of this ’77 Chevy pickup got tired of the performance and poor fuel economy of the truck’s 350 small block, and rather than rebuild the engine, he decided to replace it with something better. If there’s an engine better than a small-block Chevy, it’s one of Chevy’s new Gen-III small-block engines, which include the Vortec truck motors, LS1/LS6, and even the new LS2/LS7.

Spotlighter

METALFLAKE: The Roth Way

A Wild Weekend in Some Rock Star’s Pad in Lake Tahoe Turns a Bone-Stock Chevy into a Kandyflake, Metalflake Baby

Spraying flake isn’t a black art; it’s simply a slightly different medium. It’s no tougher to spray than anything else, although you do have to be meticulous, pay attention to the details and resist the urge to rush. Plus, unless you have a spray booth, it doesn’t matter how well you seal off your chosen spraying area: This stuff will escape and get everywhere.

Author

Simon Watts

Story and Photography

Spraying Metal Flake: An Introduction to a Unique Custom Paint Finish

We’re not going into the details on prep, as it’s the same for any paint job. If you don’t know what you’re doing in the prep department, then no way are you going to be able to spray flake. Now that the scaremongering is over, note this: Spraying flake isn’t a black art; it’s simply a slightly different medium. It’s no tougher to spray than anything else, although you do have to be meticulous, pay attention to the details, and resist the urge to rush. Plus, unless you have a spray booth, it doesn’t matter how well you seal off your chosen spraying area: This stuff will escape and get everywhere. Be prepared to placate the wife and neighbors when you’re done.

Starting Out: Confidence and Commitment

If you’re confident with your painting abilities, have at it. Don’t be shy and don’t be afraid. You can do it. Even if you mess up, all it’s going to cost is time and materials. At the very worst, you’ll be sanding off your mistakes and starting from scratch; but then, sometimes that’s the best way to learn. After all, nobody became an expert without a few hiccups along the way.

Following the Experts: Rob Bodine and Steve Tamer’s Guide to Roth Flake

Follow along as Rob Bodine (the gunslinger) and Steve Tamer (the tech guy) from AB Paint Supplies (510/706-3200) give you the skinny on the new Roth flake. In this case, we’re spraying a coat of Uncle Bob’s Blooz onto the roof of this 1966 427 Chevy. It’s complete and utter sacrilege in some circles, but that’s their problem.

Design and Prep: Simon Watts’ Scallop Layout for the Flake Roof

Simon Watts of the Watts Factory (310/427-5566) laid out the scallop design that separated the flake roof from the rest of the car, and we were ready to mask off and get going.

Some people like to use clear to carry their flake, but Rob uses binder instead, as he prefers its higher build qualities. He mixes it in a 1:1 ratio with basecoat reducer. Binder also has the added benefits of drying faster, being easier to work with and less likely to run if you get a little heavy-handed.

Add the flake one tablespoon at a time until it’s happy coming out of the gun and you’ve got enough in there to satisfy your craving. Don’t go mad; you’d be surprised how little you need in there to get good coverage. Don’t be tempted to dump the whole jar in there, because it’s just not necessary. After all, it’s not going on in one hit. The trick is to build it up in layers, just as with normal paint. You can see on the paint stick how dense the mixture is.

Before we spray, let us fill you in on the gun. It’s a HVLP gravity feed set at 35 psi. It’s nothing special; just your average 50-buck gun. So there’s no excuse for blaming your equipment for not being good enough—it’s all down to you. Here’s the big secret though: Drill out the tip from 1.4 mm to 2.2 mm. That’ll open it enough to let the flake fly through there. But be careful when you do it. Don’t drill it so wide that it shortens the lip of the aperture, as you don’t want any more than the normal amount of needle poking through. Study the picture to see what we mean.

Before you add the paint to the gun, remember to throw in a few clean bolts or ball bearings. You need them in there so you can agitate the paint and keep the metalflake in suspension the whole time you’re spraying. Remember to shake the gun constantly, although obviously not when you’re actually spraying.

When spraying, just use your regular pattern of alternating between horizontal and vertical overlapping spray patterns. Hold the gun the usual 6 inches from the surface and let each coat flash off for between 10 and 20 minutes, depending on ambient temperature.

Here’s a surprising tip that we never would have dreamed of doing. Tack the flake down between each coat. Go easy, as it tends to attract lint, so you might want to use an old tack cloth and simply rub over the entire surface. Tacking it down helps the flakes sit down and behavethemselves, which means fewer clearcoats in the end to bury them. Just make sure you haven’t left any lint behind. If you have, carefully pick it out.

When you’re happy with the flake coverage, which in our case took about four passes, you can lay down a few coats of clear. Then start your color sanding. It looks scary, but just go for it. Just don’t go so mad that you sand through to the flake. This is pretty standard stuff—just keep sanding and clearing until you have a nice, smooth surface, but be careful. How perfectly mirror finish you want to go will dictate how much work you have ahead of you.

Here you can see we’ve still got some serious orange peel, so we’re going to have to add a few more coats of clear before we’re happy.

The next step is to unwrap that puppy once everything clears as dry as a bone. You can tear into the masking paper, no problem, but when you get down to the masking paper and the fine-line tape around the edges, be careful. Make sure you fold it back on itself in the direction you’re unwrapping so you don’t lift any paint. Once that’s done, you’re ready to roll the beast outside to savor your reward.

It’s surprising how you can get away with a “less than perfect” clearcoat surface. Although, of course, we couldn’t resist piling on the clear, and Rob and Steve certainly wouldn’t settle for anything less than perfection.

One thing’s for sure: When you roll that puppy out into the sunlight you’re going to flip, because this stuff is unbelievable. It sparkles like the eyes of a 70-year-old spinster getting married for the first time. You’d be surprised how forgiving the flake can be if you can’t be bothered spraying endless clearcoats for a mirror finish.

All that’s left now is to have Simon Watts from the Watts Factory pinstripe the edge to really finish off the job. Once that was done, the Chevy was ready to hit the road and blind oncoming traffic and low-flying aircraft.