1989 Ford Mustang - Project Real Street Part 4: House Of Kolor Paint Job - Real Pretty

Our friends at Year One really bailed us out on this project, because the Auto Specialty crew discovered our fenders and moldings just weren't in good enough shape to be sprayed. As such, Year One supplied passenger- and driver-side fenders, as well as all the door and fender moldings, on short notice. Thanks, guys!

Despite his painting prowess, Kevin had never shot flames before, so we opted to use House of Kolor's Bag o' Flames template kit as an outline. Here, House of Kolor's Ernie Banfalvy demonstrates how to perforate the template with a pattern-maker's pinwheel.

With the template perforated, it is taped to the body at the painter's discretion. Kevin and Patrick dust the paper template with powdered chalk to outline the flames. Then the template is carefully removed to show the chalk outline that the painter uses to tape off the flames. Cool, huh?

She's getting close now. The flames are taped off, and Kevin begins spraying the flames. He fades the flames from light gold to red, then tops it off with clearcoat laced with House of Kolor's Ice Pearls for some extra sparkle.

We picked up our shiny, new Project Real Street on March 1, 2002-a scant week before the NMRA season opener in Bradenton, Florida. We had a lot of work to do, but a beautiful new canvas to work on thanks to Kevin, Patrick, and Auto Specialty.

Once we hauled Project Real Street back to the safety of our tech shop, we began a six-day thrash converting our flamed shell into a Mustang again. Naturally, Tech Editor Mark Houlahan bore the brunt of the work (and stress). Here Mark installs new door weatherstripping from Latemodel Restoration Supply. Now we won't have to worry about any pesky wind noise at the big end of the track.

To get rid of the rotting stock stuff and to keep water from flooding our doors, Mark replaced our run-channel weatherstrip with new pieces from Latemodel Restoration supply. LRS also provided us with new hood bumpers, a firewall-to-hood seal, and trunk weatherstrip to make Project Real Street good as new.

Of course, dingy, yellowed headlights just wouldn't do on our freshly painted car, so we ditched them before the car went to Auto Specialty. To contrast with our bright paint, we ordered a set of KS Reproductions smoked headlights and the required headlamp adjusting plates from LRS. Here Mark bolts the lights into place, and they look smokin'!

Out back, we reinstalled the stock taillight chassis, as Associate Editor Michael Johnson makes his cameo appearance pushing on our new smoked KS lenses from LRS.

Somehow in the thrash we forgot to drop off our wiper arms at the paint shop, and the worn, flat-black arms just wouldn't work with the new paint. Fortunately, we have a set of UPR Products' Billet Wiper Delete Covers. These sleek, billet aluminum pieces simply slide over the wiper crank and are held in place by set screws.

Since we plan to do a little street driving with Project Real Street, we have two sets of wheels. Mark bolts on our "street" wheels-Weld Pro Star XPs. The XP version of the Pro Star drag wheel is built for the street with a forged alloy construction and improved brake clearance. It is available in 15-, 16-, 17-, and 18-inch versions. We just love the way the XPs look, and fit them with Nitto 555 rubber for the street.

After we finished making the car presentable, Kevin and Patrick removed all our fingerprints and gave the car a thorough detailing before we loaded it on the trailer headed for Bradenton. If you didn't get to see it there, you'll have to wait till the World Finals, as we have a lot of work left to do. First up, we'll pull the engine and dash out of the car and take our time installing the fuel system, trunk-mounting the battery, wiring the gauges, wrapping up the interior, and more.