It seems everyone wants to know how to get their cars in the magazine. The only question that comes close to "How do I get my car in the magazine?" is "Can I have a license plate?" Our standard line is, the car has to be really pretty, really fast, or-preferably-both. It's that simple. Unless you built the entire car for 10 bucks, rebuilt the engine in your kitchen, or found a way to run it on light beer, it better look good, or have impressive performance for its given level of modifications.
We certainly hope our little Project Real Street will end up with a bit of both, but just to make sure we were setting a good example in at least one category, we wanted our former four-banger to look the part. We started out with a rat-trap coupe we bought from Rob Kinnan before he left Florida and 5.0&SF for California and the NMRA. Rob paid $500, so we thought $400 was a fairly good deal for a running car. The only problem with it was a blown tranny, but we didn't need the drivetrain anyway.
What we did need was a solid, cheap basis for a race car, and that's what we got. Of course, the yellowed headlights, busted taillights, rotted weatherstripping, faded paint, and dinged body panels didn't exactly scream magazine quality. In addition to showing the kind of flash needed to attract jaded magazine types, we also wanted to show a good way for racers to attract attention for their sponsors-which is important. And, a good paint job is a great way to start.
Here's the raw material Rob Kinnan left us with before heading back to sunny Southern California. The car ran, but it was in rough shape. It looks so different now, Rob probably doesn't believe it's the same car.
Of course, we tend to do things a little over the top, so we wanted to go beyond the cool-but-safe monochrome scheme. Flames are cool, and I like yellow, so I came up with the basic idea for the flamed front and yellow rear on the car-sort of a reverse of Don Walsh Jr.'s trick Pro 5.0 paint. From there, we thought what better company to help us with a wild paint scheme than House of Kolor. Though known for show car, street rod, motorcycle, and other flashy paint jobs, the House of Kolor representative we initially spoke with indicated the company's paints were capable of covering more than just show queens, and the company would be game to help with Project Real Street.
Apparently because of its reputation for high quality, House of Kolor is unfairly considered an expensive paint. Our local rep, Ernie Banfalvy, explained the company's product is not that much more than competitive paint-it's simply most often used on custom jobs such as our flamed and faded Real Street car. For example, the paint supplies for our car cost in the $800 range, but by the time you do wild paint such as ours, you're looking at a $6,000-plus job thanks to all the labor. However, you could do something cool such as a monochrome job in the Lemon Yellow (the brightest yellow we've seen) basecoat we used, still look cool, and not spend nearly as much.
Before hauling the car off to Auto Specialty for its rebirth, we added a 4-inch cowl-induction hood from Cervini's Auto Designs. The extra-tall hood gives the car that racy look, yet remains under the 5-inch legal limit for Real Street hoods. Cervini's gear isn't the lightest stuff around, but the fit and finish are excellent.
From there, we had an illustration created so the painter would have a better idea of what we wanted. Of course, having a skilled painter working on a custom job such as ours was key. One of the guys in our sales department turned us on to Abdullah Baker and Auto Specialty Custom Paint & Body in Longwood, Florida. There, Kevin Busby and Patrick Daharm of Bermuda's KP Custom Design do high-end work for many of the athletes and entertainers who run their SUVs and sports cars through Auto Specialty and its sister car stereo shop, Audio Excellence. With the illustration in hand, Kevin and Ernie came up with a wild combination of paints to make our car stand out-and keep the paint in great shape for years to come. Then we replaced our worn-out exterior gear, and beast became beauty.
Horse Sense: As you can imagine, the Real Street class features a strict rule set. The body section of the rules begins as follows: "Must retain original appearance and body profile. Exact original OEM body shell type and dimensions required. This is a zero-tolerance area. Chopping, channeling, sectioning, or any other alterations to contour, lengthen, shorten, widen, stretch, or modify any area strictly prohibited. Only allowed lightweight body panel permitted is a hood..."
To get Project Real Street from Lakeland, Florida, to Longwood, Florida, we borrowed a now-extinct Lincoln Blackwood from the Ford press fleet. It proved a fine tow vehicle, especially with our light aluminum trailer and stripped chassis. At this point, Project Real Street was our version of a body in white. We stripped off the lights, the fenders, the nose, the trim, the interior, the drivetrain, and anything else that might hamper a quality paint job. | 
Auto Specialty painted every removable body panel of the car so every nook and cranny on it would reflect the color change. House of Kolor is a huge proponent of using its entire system of products to achieve the best results. Here our Mustang's nose had its nicks filled in, its surface sprayed with Epoxy Primer-Surfacer (KP-2CF), and the primer sanded to a paint-ready finish. The entire car received this prep treatment by Larry Hansen. | 
With the prep work finished, Kevin, Patrick, and the Auto Specialty crew began laying down the brilliant Lemon Yellow basecoat. As you can see, we stripped the car down to the bare essentials before the painting began. If you want a top-notch color change or custom paint job, you'll have to strip your car down this far too. |
The same goes with the interior. We wanted our Maximum Motorsports rollcage sprayed to match the primary Lemon Yellow on the outside of the car. As such, we removed the dash, the seats, the carpet, and the trim panels before taking the car to the paint shop. The cage received the same priming and prep as the exterior of the car. | 
You can tell our custom job required several different House of Kolor paints. This is just a sampling of the list. Kevin sprayed our ride with Lemon Yellow (SG101), White (BC26), Sunrise Pearl (PBC30), Sunset Pearl (PBC31), Raspberry Pearl (PBC34), Intercoat Clear (SG100), UC-35 Clear, and UFC-35 Flow Clear. Kevin sprayed project Real Street with multiple coats of clear for durability and shine, but the clears on the flames were laced with HOK's Ice Pearls in Gold and Red. The Ice Pearls add a multi-color glitter effect to Kevin's flames. | 
Once the rolling chassis received its basecoat, it was time to hang the doors, the fenders, the hood, the nose, and the rear bumper cover before commencing the final paint work. |
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