I've been reading a lot about Ghost flames, but I'm not even sure what they are. I've included a pic, to give you an idea of what I'm looking to do. Basically, I plan to paint the car black (XR4Ti Merkur) and add some subtle flames, probably in a silver pearl. Does anyone have pictures of a black car with silver flames?

Is the picture I'm showing in ghost flames? What kind of flames are easiest to do? I'm thinking about buying a flame stencil from a place like eastwood. Is that a good idea.

Thanks,


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yes them are some ghost flames. i have painted some in the past and the best way to do it is freehand. stencils are very hard to use if you are doing curved panels. another big varible that you should consider is the brand of paint you are going to use and whether they are powder or liquid pearls. House of colors make some nice black candies that have different colors to the but they are a little expensive. i will see if i can dig up some pictures of some i have done. let us know if you have anymore questions.

When you say by hand, it would go something like this: I buy the appropiate paper, have my artist friend draw and cut out the flames and then use those for the template.

I'm a little confused about the pearls. Do both the dry and the liquid mix into the clearcoat? If I'm understanding that correctly could I use southern poly urethanes black base coat and their clear coat with the hok pearls, by mixing into SPI's clear? Or if I'm going to use a hok pearl, do I need to use their base coat and clear coat?

Thanks

just have your artist freind tape them off and then back tape them with paper. make sure to use the 3m blue tape to get a crisp tape line. if i was to do it i would use spies hecker because they have liquid pearls permixed in a clear binder. you can use a dry pearl by like ppg but they may settle during the process. with house of colors they have some new actual black pearls out to use with there bases. go to the paint shop and check out these colors in the chip book. the you can clear it with any clear you want. i like spies or spi's clear.

I'll try to be brief.

Yes ghost flames are pearl in clear over base. Silver over black is way kool. Ghost flames need to be just that...ghostly and not immediately obvious IMO. Do as luckys says and get your design down and taped. BE CONSERVATIVE!!! Too much will look like a car full of after thoughts. Lay out the design as if it were going to be a full frontal flame job. The trick is when you get to laying down the pearl to 1st do a test panel of how many coats will give you what you want. Have some SG100 intercoat clear handy if you're doing HOK to see the final pearl look as it will not hardly show when dry. TRUST YOUR TEST PANEL!!! Spray only the edges of the taped design. Be smooth and fluid as you do the curves at the bases of each "lick" and flow it out some. Ok, now we have a minor road block after the pearl is down...some of it will float out to the front of your design. You will have a metallic black front end with ghost flames trailing behind if you don't do this...have some thinned out black base coat ready to re-spray the exposed areas out in front of the flames. Use it to also tone down any areas that seem excessive to you as well. You can "tint" the job by easing a little transparent black here and there to add character. Once un masked you will invariably find a "leak" or two where some pearl got under the tape. THE WHOLE JOB DEPENDS ON HOW CLEAN THE DESIGN IS BEFORE CLEAR IS APPLIED. Gently remove with 1500 paper any leaks of pearl on the base.

If done this way the car will be black with a surprisingly subtle and yet radical design that appears from nowhere and disappears just as well. Good luck with it. It's a nice look on nearly anything.

Here is a tank I did. They are in the same concept of a ghost flame, but I just sprayed more on there to make them a little more obvious. It's PPG Violet pearl, sprayed over the factory black basecoat. You can't see these flames at night and at certain angles. Owner loved it though.

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Thanks for the replies, that makes a lot more sense now.

How do you guys think it would look, if I went with a dark carbon grey for my base color with a black pearl ghost flame? It seems most go with a lighter colored ghost flame, so I'm not sure how this would look.

Thanks