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Our Project Ford Mustang Gets A Paint Job by House Of Kolor - Real PrettyNo Matter How Well Kinnan's Car Runs, Our Project Real Street Will Look Better Thanks To Flamed House Of Kolor Paint And Much More From the August, 2002 issue of 5.0 Mustang & Super Fords By Steve Turner Photography by 5.0 Mustang & Super Fords Staff
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Here's the raw material Rob... Here's the raw material Rob Kinnan left us with before heading back to sunny Southern California. The car ran, but it was in rough shape. It looks so different now, Rob probably doesn't believe it's the same car. As you can imagine, the Real Street class features a strict rule set. The body section of the rules begins as follows: "Must retain original appearance and body profile. Exact original OEM body shell type and dimensions required. This is a zero-tolerance area. Chopping, channeling, sectioning, or any other alterations to contour, lengthen, shorten, widen, stretch, or modify any area strictly prohibited. Only allowed lightweight body panel permitted is a hood..." It seems everyone wants to know how to get their cars in the magazine. The only question that comes close to "How do I get my car in the magazine?" is "Can I have a license plate?" Our standard line is, the car has to be really pretty, really fast, or-preferably-both. It's that simple. Unless you built the entire car for 10 bucks, rebuilt the engine in your kitchen, or found a way to run it on light beer, it better look good, or have impressive performance for its given level of modifications. Believe us when we say our... Believe us when we say our photos don't do this paint job justice. You'll have to head out to the NMRA World Finals in Bowling Green, Kentucky, to see it for yourself. The flames fade from a light gold to red, and horizontally the car fades from white to yellow to orange. The base Lemon Yellow is retina-searing bright. We certainly hope our little Project Real Street will end up with a bit of both, but just to make sure we were setting a good example in at least one category, we wanted our former four-banger to look the part. We started out with a rat-trap coupe we bought from Rob Kinnan before he left Florida and 5.0&SF for Cali-fornia and the NMRA. Rob paid $500, so we thought $400 was a fairly good deal for a running car. The only problem with it was a blown tranny, but we didn't need the drivetrain anyway. What we did need was a solid, cheap basis for a race car, and that's what we got. Of course, the yellowed headlights, busted taillights, rotted weatherstripping, faded paint, and dinged body panels didn't exactly scream magazine quality. In addition to showing the kind of flash needed to attract jaded magazine types, we also wanted to show a good way for racers to attract attention for their sponsors-which is important. And, a good paint job is a great way to start. Of course, we tend to do things a little over the top, so we wanted to go beyond the cool-but-safe monochrome scheme. Flames are cool, and I like yellow, so I came up with the basic idea for the flamed front and yellow rear on the car-sort of a reverse of Don Walsh Jr.'s trick Pro 5.0 paint. From there, we thought what better company to help us with a wild paint scheme than House of Kolor. Though known for show car, street rod, motorcycle, and other flashy paint jobs, the House of Kolor representative we initially spoke with indicated the company's paints were capable of covering more than just show queens, and the company would be game to help with Project Real Street.  Before hauling the car off...  Before hauling the car off to Auto Specialty for its rebirth, we added a 4-inch cowl-induction hood from Cervini's Auto Designs. The extra-tall hood gives the car that racy look, yet remains under the 5-inch legal limit for Real Street hoods. Cervini's gear isn't the lightest stuff around, but the fit and finish are excellent.  To get Project Real Street...  To get Project Real Street from Lakeland, Florida, to Longwood, Florida, we borrowed a now-extinct Lincoln Blackwood from the Ford press fleet. It proved a fine tow vehicle, especially with our light aluminum trailer and stripped chassis. At this point, Project Real Street was our version of a body in white. We stripped off the lights, the fenders, the nose, the trim, the interior, the drivetrain, and anything else that might hamper a quality paint job.  Auto Specialty painted every...  Auto Specialty painted every removable body panel of the car so every nook and cranny on it would reflect the color change. House of Kolor is a huge proponent of using its entire system of products to achieve the best results. Here our Mustang's nose had its nicks filled in, its surface sprayed with Epoxy Primer-Surfacer (KP-2CF), and the primer sanded to a paint-ready finish. The entire car received this prep treatment by Larry Hansen.  With the prep work finished,...  With the prep work finished, Kevin, Patrick, and the Auto Specialty crew began laying down the brilliant Lemon Yellow basecoat. As you can see, we stripped the car down to the bare essentials before the painting began. If you want a top-notch color change or custom paint job, you'll have to strip your car down this far too.  The same goes with the interior....  The same goes with the interior. We wanted our Maximum Motorsports rollcage sprayed to match the primary Lemon Yellow on the outside of the car. As such, we removed the dash, the seats, the carpet, and the trim panels before taking the car to the paint shop. The cage received the same priming and prep as the exterior of the car.  You can tell our custom job...  You can tell our custom job required several different House of Kolor paints. This is just a sampling of the list. Kevin sprayed our ride with Lemon Yellow (SG101), White (BC26), Sunrise Pearl (PBC30), Sunset Pearl (PBC31), Raspberry Pearl (PBC34), Intercoat Clear (SG100), UC-35 Clear, and UFC-35 Flow Clear. Kevin sprayed project Real Street with multiple coats of clear for durability and shine, but the clears on the flames were laced with HOK's Ice Pearls in Gold and Red. The Ice Pearls add a multi-color glitter effect to Kevin's flames. Apparently because of its reputa-tion for high quality, House of Kolor is unfairly considered an expensive paint. Our local rep, Ernie Banfalvy, explained the company's product is not that much more than competitive paint-it's simply most often used on custom jobs such as our flamed and faded Real Street car. For example, the paint supplies for our car cost in the $800 range, but by the time you do wild paint such as ours, you're looking at a $6,000-plus job thanks to all the labor. However, you could do something cool such as a monochrome job in the Lemon Yellow (the brightest yellow we've seen) basecoat we used, still look cool, and not spend nearly as much. From there, we had an illustration created so the painter would have a better idea of what we wanted. Of course, having a skilled painter working on a custom job such as ours was key. One of the guys in our sales department turned us on to Abdullah Baker and Auto Specialty Custom Paint & Body in Longwood, Florida. There, Kevin Busby and Patrick Daharm of Bermuda's KP Custom Design do high-end work for many of the athletes and entertainers who run their SUVs and sports cars through Auto Specialty and its sister car stereo shop, Audio Excellence. With the illustration in hand, Kevin and Ernie came up with a wild combination of paints to make our car stand out-and keep the paint in great shape for years to come. Then we replaced our worn-out exterior gear, and beast became beauty.  Once the rolling chassis received...  Once the rolling chassis received its basecoat, it was time to hang the doors, the fenders, the hood, the nose, and the rear bumper cover before commencing the final paint work. 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,...  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,...  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?  We picked up our shiny, new...  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.  She's getting close now. The...  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.  Once we hauled Project Real...  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...  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...  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...  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...  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...  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...  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.
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