Ghost Flames

Step 1

After wet sanding with 800-grit sand paper, I clean the surface with a tack cloth before taping.

Step 2

Before laying out the flame design, I place a piece of 1/8-inch tape dead center of the hood to aid in lining up my pattern.

Step 2A

Then I proceed with the flame layout using the same tape.

Step 3

Moving onto the pattern, I take a piece of green masking paper, line it up with the center tape, and make a rubbing over the flame design with a lumber crayon.

Step 4

I pounce the pattern using an Electro Pounce machine, which creates an intermittent spark and burns little holes in the pattern.

Step 5:

After aligning the paper pattern opposite the tape layout, I pat over the holes with a chalk bag, leaving a dot-to-dot line of chalk to duplicate the other side.

Step 6

1

Repeat step 2A using the chalk as a guide.

Step 7

I lay a piece of transfer paper over the 1/8-inch tape and squeegee it down tight.

Step 8

Using a #11 Xacto blade, I cut along the top of the 1/8-inch tape being careful to only cut through the transfer paper, not the tape.

Step 9

After the design is masked off, it’s time to mix the colors for the ghost flames. I use House of Kolor (HOK) SG-100 as a base for my dry pearl. The mixing ratio is a matter of preference. Simply reduce your SG-100 about 1:1 and then add the pearl a little at a time. I use quite a bit of pearl because I spray very fast. If you don’t have a lot of experience with a spraygun, use less pearl and slow down. It’s a matter of practice, practice, practice!

Step 10

Now it’s time to spray. I use the tack cloth again and give it one more once-over to make sure I got rid of the excess chalk (otherwise, I’d have little chalk dots through those beautiful ghost flames). For this particular job, I used Lazuli Blue, violet, and white pearls. I used blue as the base and sprayed around the edge of the tape only, avoiding full coverage of the graphics. This gives the illusion of a glowing effect. I sprayed just a little violet over the tips and then sprayed around the curves with the white. It’s important to be very conservative with the white or you’ll end up with white flames.

Step 12

After peeling the tape, I used the tack cloth one more time. That’s one bad ride!