Kustom Paint
A guide to and brief history

Introduction
Face it – the good looking young blond female, wearing a tight sweater over xxxxx xxxxxxx (censored by webmaster - go ahead, guess), a thin waist and sporting a miniskirt is more likely to be noticed walking into a room of people rather than your Grandmother. A hot rod sporting a wild paint job and body mods has a similar effect over other rides in a parking lot of custom cars. Kustom paint makes your ride noticed – period. I am not saying this is always the image you want, but it sure will get it noticed. And, if it is worthy of a closer look, that paint job will attract inspection like the blond. Your style is often projected by the colour and effects you choose (or don’t) as much as the rest of the package you drive. Hot rods were always a rebellion to mainstream transportation, paint is the easiest way to hammer this home, here is a guide to understand what is available – kustom wise.

Pearl
Mother of pearl was originally scraped off of oyster shells, ground and mixed in clear (expensive –dah!) and shot over a base colour (usually white). Pearl paints first started appearing in the fifties in nitrocellouse lacquer, not much later they were made out of a coated lead carbonate that mimiced this effect of shimmering different colours and made the cost more reasonable. Today, pearls are made of a coated mica that is shock ground and enables specific colour effects. Most people don’t realize that just about every factory base/clear metallic finish to day is achieved using this mica for the metallic as actual metal in finishes is being limited for environmental reasons. A custom pearl finish is a tri-coat : base colour (often white), pearl mid-coat, then clear (the first tri coat pearl from the factory appeared on the 86 Cadillac Allante). Pearls have a soft effect and some flip colour at angles (early flip-flop).

Candy
Candy finishes also first started to appear in the fifties, by tinting clear lacquer with a translucent and pure toner, a colour-through-colour effect was achieved that looked deep and three dimensional. Named for it’s appearance like a candy apple, candy colours looked sharper and more intense than pearls and often started with a bright silver or gold base. Due to this colour over a metallic base colour, candies vary in shade – having a deep, bright rich look that flips light and dark on edges. Versions of tinted clear mid-coats started appearing on a few factory finishes in the 90’s (Ford’s laser red tint was the first) as car makers scrambled to come up with something to set their make apart as cars look increasingly similar.

Metalflake
Metal flake finishes first started appearing on custom cars in the late fifties, by using a very coarsely ground metal often coated with colour, metal flake finishes literally sparkled like Dorothy’s ruby red slippers in the Wizard of Oz. They requires so many coats of clear – they often cracked, checked and yellowed. Today’s flakes are made out of coated Mylar (and some prism- several colours) and still require a ton of clear. Metal flake finishes were responsible for metallic colours appearing as factory finishes - very popular in the 60’s as consumers demanded more glamour.

Striping
Pin striping cars had been around since the early days of the automobile but the kustom free-form-type (think outside the box) of striping first appeared in the late 40’s and was developed to an art form by legends such as Von Dutch and continues today.

Flames, Fades, Scallops
The first custom colour graphic effects started appearing on hotrods as early as the late 40’s, being wide spread by the mid fifties and still rule today. Requiring artistic talent and technique, artwork makes rods truly kustom and unique.

Note: the advent of candy, pearl and metal flake finishes (plus kustom culture artwork), helped to create the golden era of customs and created a whole new industry for hotrods, appearing mainstream in the late 50’s through the 60’s – the hotrod as a show car, elevating modified cars to an art form and causing indoor custom car shows to pop up everywhere.

Cob webbing, Lace, Smoke, Eeriedescence, Marbilizer, Splash, Tearaway, Tribal, Paneling, Granite, Ice
These are all names of different effects used by custom painters from the 60’s to present to create a one-off kustom finish. These sort of go in and out of fashion like colours.

Monochromatic
First popularly appearing on ultra performance cars in Europe in the late 70’s, monochromatic is a process of de-chroming and painting everything one solid colour. It started a trend on street rods in the early 80’s as part of the new clean, subtle and aesthetic look in bodywork mods and was first epitomized by cars like Verne Luce’s ’32 red roadster and continues today as state of the art for master builders.

Fluorescent
Fluorescent pigment first appeared in custom and race car finishes in the late 80’s. By using crystals that literally burn from ultra-violet expanding the light source, ultra bright finishes, that literally glowed in sunlight, were achieved in solid colours. Due to this burning, they do just that – burn out and fade with continued exposure to ultra-violet light.

Phosphorescent
Phosphorescent finishes work opposite to fluorescents, they absorb UV light and charge, and glow, or emit light in the dark. They first appeared in the late 80’s in custom car finishes (moon-glo), but look pale in sunlight and do not emit until in almost complete pitch black conditions.

Colorshift Basecoat
This technique first appeared as an option on the '93 Mustang Cobra (Mystique). It was the first application of a new light interference flake made from ground hologram foil (as used for anti counterfeit symbols on money and credit cards). The effect causes radical colour changing depending on angle of light. Marketed by major paint companies as Kameleon, Chromalusion, Extreme, Multitones, Harlequin etcetera, they are available in different colours and each display multiple colours.

What’s next?
Your guess is as good as mine but what I do know is that we are always looking for something different - something refreshing in a pool of look a likes. The new look is often the old look reintroduced, but often with a twist. Kustom paint jobs are similar to women's fashions, the really "out there" ones have the biggest impact but usually go out as fast as they appear.

I find most Canadians are sheep – not innovators, following US paint schemes-but two years too late (pleeeassee!!). Certain kustom paint jobs stand the test of time and when done well, always remain kool and in style. This is your alter ego man! Use your imagination and taste – can u dig it?

John