Product Description

For custom car builders today, one of the biggest expenses—and a make-or-break features of the build—is the paint job. Now, with the expert help of one of the country’s top custom painters, readers can learn to custom paint their own cars, from design to finishing touches. With the attention to detail and keen sense of style that have made her the most sought-after custom painter working today, JoAnn Bortles offers step-by-step instructions for achieving that professional look at home. Her book provides detailed advice on every step from basecoating to artwork and airbrushing to clearcoating and troubleshooting, with special emphasis on designing and executing elaborate paint schemes such as flames, skulls, murals, and pin striping. Clearly written and amply illustrated, this is the ultimate how-to-custom-paint guide. Also contains an excellent chapter on realistic flames as featured on the book's cover.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #91545 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Review

About the Author
JoAnn Bortles owns Crazy Horse Painting in Waxhaw, North Carolina, a highly regarded custom paint shop used by many of today’s top chopper and hot-rod builders. Vehicles she has painted have appeared on the covers of all major magazines, including Easyriders and American Iron. An accomplished writer and photographer, Bortles has published technical articles in The Horse magazine.

Customer Reviews

Love the Real Fire Flame Tech
I saw the cover car at a GoodGuys Car Show and then saw this book. So I bought it and all I can say is wow. It was amazing to see the process of how the real flames were painted. She takes you through the whole thing, from start to finish. The story of how she came to paint these flames is pretty funny even. The rest of the book is also great. The author JoAnn really goes into detail explaining all the techniques, from traditional flames to graphics. I really liked the wide variety of techniques she goes through in this book. There's a chapter on painting pinup girls that really blew me away. I can now mix up skin tone and paint people after reading that chapter. There are good explanations of the tools used, airbrushes and spray guns. It was very easy to understand and you don't need to be an experienced painter to use this book. I am a beginner and I could follow the lessons in it. But my favorote was the real fire process. The photo on the cover does not really show how incredible this car looks in real life. Some of the photos inside the book show the car more accurately, but the depth of the flame layers is unreal. If you want to paint real flames, check out this book. I do have another of JoAnn's books and thought that one was good, but this one goes over things that the first one does not.

Answered Lots of Questions
This book answered alot of questions I had when I painted my hot rod. The book is written in a very easy to understand, no nonsense style. It does not waste space on things you don't need. I especially liked the troubleshooting chapter. That came in very handy. One thing that helped is that there are plenty of pictures. There is a photo for every step of each technique. You can really see how it is done. If you are looking to get a tool that will make it easy to do any kind of custom paint work, this is the book for you. It covers flames, tribal graphics, even airbrush artwork. It tells the tools and materials you need for each each kind of artwork. Best $16.00 I ever spent.