Rags to Riches, our new project, was in crazy need of paint. Since we were in a time crunch and on a crappy budget, we called somebody we knew who could get this done in a rush. We called Nostalgic Restyling out of Hemet, California, which is located behind Bio Kustumz. Josh, the owner and mad painter down there, told us he could throw down on the truck, do bodywork, and paint it in seven days. He didn't only deliver on time, but we got a much nicer paintjob than we had expected or for so fast.
 1. After completing some serious...  1. After completing some serious bodywork, taking out dents, and shaving a laundry list of items, Josh primed our truck in a light-gray primer. |  2. Once the gray primer was...  2. Once the gray primer was sprayed and dried, Josh added an even basecoat of black to the areas where silver and clear will be applied. Josh says that silver should always have a base, and his base of preference is black. |  3 and 4. After the black,...  3 and 4. After the black, Josh applied an even coat of Xotic Sparklee Silver basecoat in the areas where blue candy would be applied. |
4. |  5. Here's our silver base...  5. Here's our silver base ready to be candied. |  6. Josh quickly applied the...  6. Josh quickly applied the Cobalt Blue candy paint by House of Kolor. Josh mixed it by using a 1:4 ratio. |
 7 and 8. Josh then mixed the...  7 and 8. Josh then mixed the clear to spray over the candy that would be our flames and scallops (four parts clear, one part hardener). The reason we sprayed our graphics first wasn't because we really wanted to make things difficult for ourselves, but to leave less of a tape line on our graphics when finished. | 
8. |  9. Wow, it looked so pretty...  9. Wow, it looked so pretty in candy blue, maybe we should have just painted it, instead of just suede. |
 10-12. Josh laid out our scallops...  10-12. Josh laid out our scallops by hand, then moved on to drawing the flames by hand. He's probably done more flame jobs than most people twice his age. | 
11. | 
12. |
 13 and 14. Here, you can clearly...  13 and 14. Here, you can clearly see the pattern for our graphics. Josh made sure that both sides were even the old-skool way-by eyeballing it. | 
14. |  15. Even though we don't show...  15. Even though we don't show every step, this section of the paintjob is crucial. Josh color-sanded and buffed the area of our graphics, because it would be very difficult to do this at the end. You don't ever want to buff your dull clear because it will bring out the shine. Once our graphics were taped, he also sanded to the edge of our tape line. |