Leaf,Lace,Scallops and Cobwebs.

[Dan Bennett]

Originally Posted by Charlie A

Well, at least someone broke the ice as to the...."why".....most of the paint jobs were so crazy!

I remember a local guy who asked us to leave the booth before he started painting since he wanted to be "one with the car".

When we returned, the air was thick and it wasn't from overspray.

Unlike the masters of the time like Oop, Circus, and Jim Hooker it seems like the local guys all bounced around quite a bit. The painter I mentioned earlier had been a bartender before his paint career and later became a minister.

We quickly learned though the guy was good he absolutely didn't know when to quit. After he ruined a friends cars with way too many "fish scales" we learned to stay close and make him put down the gun when the time was right.

Along with lace and scallops, he was also later known for "mountains". Like fish scales, he used a cut piece of cardboard to spray the outline. I remember a friend paying big bucks for "ribbons" on his B/HR Corvette in 71 or so. I didn't notice many of those in the photos so far.

Gold leaf lettering was admired and pricy, but I remember when ChromaGlo was released as an alternative. It was the first "stick on" graphics I can remember.

I was told years later by a professional drag racing photographer that the one thing you could do to insure your car would NEVER get photographed was to use leaf or other shiny lettering as it just wouldn't show up well in the photo.