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Book writing is primarily a solitary discipline, except when you are writing a how-to book such as this. The process then becomes one of collaboration, as you need the help, opinions, and experience of experts.
I began painting motorcycles in my parents’ basement, but a friendship with Pete Darwell of Mech Spray, Britain’s leading custom paint shop at the time, led to full-time employment and firsthand knowledge of the art of custom painting. This was in the early 1970s, when custom acrylic paints, primarily from Metalflake Corp., were just becoming available in England. There was a steep learning curve as to the great attention to detail needed to produce a show-winning finish, but Darwell turned out some fantastic paint jobs and taught me a lot. Sadly, I didn’t wield a camera in those days and consequently have only memories of those early creations.
Pete Chapouris III who re-founded Alex Xydias’s SO-CAL Speed Shop in 1997, was a huge influence on both Mick Jenkins and Tony Thacker. Both men worked at SO-CAL; Jenkins headed up the shop and Thacker handled PR. They both owe a huge debt of gratitude to Chapouris, who mentored them, introduced them to everybody he knew, and, most importantly, taught them all he knew.
When I began writing, my second published freelance story was about custom painting at Mech Spray. The accompanying photos were not great but were taken by me using a Russian 35mm Zenit camera bought by my dad, who always encouraged me to try anything. I’m not sure that included spraying motorcycles in his garage, but he never said no.
Mick Jenkins’s career took a very different, more structured path. He was schooled professionally in the body shop arts by completing a four-year City and Guild’s apprenticeship in panel beating and bodywork. During these formative years, when so many good practices were developed, Mick worked at a Ford dealership and met Peter Patton, who became his friend and mentor.
Mick and myself both immigrated to the United States, me in the late-1980s and Mick in the mid-1990s, and we both owe a huge debt of gratitude to the late Pete Chapouris III. Chapouris cofounded Pete & Jake’s Hot Rod Parts and went on to re-form the SO-CAL Speed Shop in 1997. Mick and I both worked at SO-CAL; Mick managed the shop while I handled the PR. Chapouris was an amazingly talented, genuine guy who introduced us to everyone in the industry and beyond and imparted every nugget of knowledge he could pass on.
While Mick was already regarded as one of the best painters around and had painted the first of three America’s Most Beautiful Roadster (AMBR) Award winners, Chuck Svatos’s 0032, it was his work at SO-CAL that really put him on the map. Under Chapouris’s watchful eye for detail, Mick painted everything from Jim Green’s vintage front engine dragster to Billy Gibbons’s CadZZilla to Bill Lindig’s Indy Special that won the AMBR in 2012, Mick’s second win.
The work from SO-CAL was a steady stream of top-shelf hot rods and customs, but in 2010 Mick was approached by Steve Strope, owner of Pure Vision Design in Simi Valley, California. Another transplant, this time from the East Coast, Strope had quickly built an enviable reputation as a thinking man’s builder of exceptional muscle cars. Strope was looking for a new painter and Mick came highly recommended. The two hit it off, became fast friends, and scored when Strope’s Anvil Mustang built for Matt Lazich won the coveted Ford Motor Company Design Award at that year’s SEMA Show.
Strope’s pure vision led to many more collaborations and awards, and this book would not have been possible had it not been for Strope’s acknowledgment of Mick’s talent to deliver a top-notch finish.
One friendship leads to another, and once again Mick met his customer Bob Florine, vice president of Automotive Racing Products, through Strope. Florine and Strope had a vision to build a wildly customized 1957 Ford Del Rio Ranch Wagon that would be way overpowered by a John Kaase 520-ci Boss Nine. Mick’s Paint handled the entire body and paint part of the project that went on to garner yet another Ford Design Award at the 2017 SEMA Show.
Those are the major players that helped make this book happen but it would not have been possible without a whole lot of other folks who helped along the way. That list includes all of Mick’s staff, who work tirelessly to make the paint jobs the best they can be and get the vehicle to the show on time. None of this would have been possible without them and they know who they are.
We have to thank contributors such as Randy Lorentzen of Planet R, Alex Maldonado of Blacktop Society, and Didier Soyeux for use of their great photography. We also have to thank Mike Cranford, who is now president and CEO of Applied System Technologies. We first met Cranford when shooting the Great Hot Rod Build-Off television show when he was with Patton’s, and he helped immensely in designing and implementing the spray system at Mick’s Paint. Cranford’s contribution was invaluable as was the contribution of other industry folks, including those at PPG and FinishMaster in Ontario, who helped pull the book together.
Of course, we have to thank our wives, Anastasia Jenkins and Kailay Thacker, without whose patience, help, and encouragement this project would never have been completed. Finally, we have to thank all of Mick’s loyal customers because without them, none of this would have been possible.
It’s just a paint job. How difficult can it be, right? Wrong. A poor or mediocre paint job can easily destroy hundreds of thousands of dollars and many hours invested in a project. The first thing judges see is the paint and if it’s not up to par there is no way your muscle car is going to stand out from the crowd or win that coveted award.
The unfortunate thing about paint is that the uninitiated perceive it as “just paint” and not particularly difficult to do. That’s because they have probably never painted a car and even if they have, they’ve probably never painted a car to critical show standards. When performed properly, the process is long, arduous, exacting, and expensive; it’s far more expensive than most people imagine. However, as the process and cost of repairing production cars, particularly those with multistage pearl paint jobs such as the Nissan GT-R Super Silver and the Porsche GT Silver, escalates, the public is forced to become more educated about the complication and real cost of top-quality paintwork.
Earl Scheib did an incredible marketing job when he advertised, “I’m Earl Scheib, and I’ll paint any car, any color for $19.95. No ups, no extras.” The company is still in business and actively servicing a particular niche of the market. Unfortunately, this $19.95 figure has become lodged in our collective brains and, even though he made that claim in the 1950s, many of us still think a paint job costs less than a 12-pack. It’s difficult to convince the layman that a gallon of modern water-based, eco-friendly paint now costs between $400 and $1,000 or more. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. The materials alone to paint one show car can cost as much as $15,000 (and sometimes more), and that’s not taking into account any of the equipment costs.
Of course, back in Scheib’s heyday paint was more or less a simple one-shot operation mostly employing nitro-cellulose lacquer, known as lacquer, and you could brush it on. It was not the multilayer, environmentally sensitive process that it is today. In addition, our standards were lower. We accepted flaws such as paint that wasn’t as shiny as it should have been; we just buffed it up on a Saturday afternoon. Maybe there was some overspray somewhere;
