What I liked about this project is that everyone knows a Matt Hotch bike is a complete one-off from the frame up, which is what I always strive for in my own hotrod builds. Hotch is also known for being a notorious perfectionist like I am. So, without question, the metal finishing, body work, custom paint and custom graphics were going to have to be absolutely flawless.

     The metal finishing was nothing outrageous, but before prepping and bodywork, it was necessary to get the metal itself as smooth as possible. The frame, tank, and fenders were ground down with 36-grit to make everything bite down on the metal. Most of these bikes take a hell of a beating, so extra attention must be paid to the prepping process to prevent chipping.
    The tough part about these custom bikes is that the frames have an endless amount of odd angles and hard spots to reach. The rule has always been to use a squeegee when applying your filler. With the frame, however, I used the squeegee as much as could, but ended up using my finger for most of the areas where one bar meets the other. When applying the filler to the tank and fenders, I used one of my usual tricks.
    Rich Tip: Before the filler was completely hardened, I used a flat razor to sculpt and shape the piece. Doing it this way has always saved me countless hours of sanding time.
    When the duraglass hardened, my usual sanding procedures applied – block sand with 36-grit sandpaper, followed by 80-grit, finishing with 150-grit. Using my PCL Polyprimer, three good coats of grey primer were sprayed over the frame, tank, and fenders, followed by the same sanding procedure as with the duraglass. I used a black guide coat before every change in grit of sandpaper. Once the 150-grit was finished, I smoothed everything out with 400-grit wet sandpaper.

    With most bikes, I’m usually only required to paint the frame, tank, and fenders, but with this particular bike there were a lot of extra parts to paint, such as the handlebars, headlight, and strut bars. The prep and bodywork for this bike took longer than usual, but it was finally over.
    Now for the fun part. The booth was thoroughly cleaned out and then all the parts were hung from our racks with wire so I would be able to reach every angle with my spray gun. For this bike I used nothing but House of Kolor basecoats, flakes, and kandies. The entire bike was sprayed with three coats of House of Kolor Solar Gold basecoat. To make sure the bike would really sparkle from under the kandy, I mixed some SG100 intercoat clear with House of Kolor Gold Mini Flake and gave the bike another three coats.