Ford Fever in the Smokies
September 30, 2025
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THE AUTO BUILDER
Featured
HPX Emerges as a Must-Watch Tradeshow for the Performance Industry
There’s a new name making waves in the high-performance and motorsports world: HPX. The High Performance Expo, presented by the North Carolina Motorsports Association (NCMA), brings fresh energy and forward-thinking focus to the industry. Held at the Charlotte Convention Center, HPX delivers a dynamic experience for automotive professionals, racers, fabricators, and performance enthusiasts alike. Built as a bridge between business and passion, HPX sets out to connect the key players in performance engineering, aftermarket innovation, and motorsports culture—and it’s already making a strong impression.
PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT: Cam Covers for GEN/3 Coyote from Pyramid Optimized Design
You can bolt all the horsepower in the world under your hood, but if that engine bay looks like a tangle of plastic and wires, it’s still missing something. That’s where the new GEN/3 Coyote Cam Covers come in — from the same team at Pyramid Optimized Design that scored Best New Product in Street Rod/Custom Car at SEMA 2021.
ONE HATCH IN A LONG LINE OF HONDAS
Northern California native Fred Chapman’s ’96 Honda Civic is a project he undertook after having owned a handful of water-cooled Volkswagens. Chapman decided it was time to make the move to the Japanese market, and he found himself owning more Hondas than you can count on one hand. Having been around the Honda scene for well over a decade now, Chapman, with the help of his wife, recently acquired the one “H” car he had always wanted—the one you see here.
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 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.
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.
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.
