After the blues are set and dried, the second color is sprayed.

The boat sparkles like a diamond after six layers of clear coat.

After some finishing touches, all this boat is missing is the open water.

Start by laying out the left side of the boat. When all the graphics on that side were exactly the way we wanted them, we covered that left side with masking paper - aligning it with the centerline and making it contour to the body curves as neatly as possible. If the paper folds up anywhere, make it a clean crease. Cut off the fold with a sharp straight razor blade as close to the body as possible. Be careful not to cut into the fresh paint. Then use tape to piece it back together.

Next use a piece of colored chalk or crayon and rub over the flame layout, revealing the image on the masking paper. After removing the template from the boat, perforate the template by following the chalked design pattern with a pounce wheel - a small spiked wheel with a handle and can be purchased at arts and crafts stores. A better and faster tool is an electric pouncer that can be purchased at most sign shops.

Okay, it is time for the second half of the layout. Flip the template and place it on the other half of the boat, making sure to align it with the centerline, the previous layout, and any body panel markings made. After back masking the boat, wipe down the open layout and tack down.

Painting the graphics

After the first graphic is painted, we peel off the masking and the blue vinyl tape for the graphic just painted. The second graphic is already laid out, but it's not ready to paint. It's there to represent the next graphic, because unfortunately in this project, there is no pinstriping. So we have to lay down new blue vinyl and make sure it butts up evenly and smoothly to the second graphic. The good thing about laying out all the graphics on the first side at the same time, was not having to go through the whole time-consuming process of masking, perforating, and transferring each graphic. We just did it all in one shot to be sure to have a perfect mirror image on each side.

It was imperative to make sure that the tape was laid out as exactly as possible, because any overlapping would reveal white gaps between graphics. This is something that pinstriping usually covers up, but we had to follow the concept drawings we were given. If you take your time and pay attention, you should be fine.

The second graphic was House of Kolor Passion Pearl Basecoat. Follow all the same steps as the first graphic. The third graphic was a yellow dry pearl over House of Kolor Chrome Yellow. The last graphic was House of Kolor Tangelo Pearl Basecoat. Finally, we ended with airbrushing the Huntington Beach Bodyworks logo on the rear of the boat, as we do on all our projects.

Finishing up

Once everything was peeled, the trailer remasked, and any necessary touchups had been made, it was time to finish things up. I tacked, pre-cleaned, tacked again, and then gave everything a coat of intercoat clear, followed by six coats of clear. After the clear was dry, the color sanding and buffing began. I first gave it a quick cut with wet 600 grit on a block. Then I came back with 800, 1000, 1200, and 1500. With the buffer I used a 3M heavy compound with a #1 pad. Next I polished it off with 3M ebony polish and a gray waffle pad.

Patience is key

Through the spraying process for each graphic, I had to be very careful to not rush. Since there were no pinstripes going in this project, I had to keep the edges of the graphics as low as possible. There where a few very small spots of over spray to be touched up on the white, but in all the project went pretty smoothly.

Visit Huntingtonbeachbodyworks.com or Kustomshop.com to purchase the in-depth instructional 2-disc DVD of this project demonstrating how to proceed step-by-step to apply this type of graphic.

Rich Evans, owner of Huntington Beach Bodyworks in Southern California, is an award winning painter and fabricator. Currently he is offering workshops at his facility so he can share his special techniques to other industry professionals. For more information about Evans, visit www.huntingtonbeachbodyworks.com