Buried in several coats of clear, the true candy-apple-red stripes are brilliant in the sun. This modern take on the popular Ramchargers design offers a unique look for Vaughn Armstrong's '65 Dodge.
When you think about drag racing in the '60s, the Ramchargers team often comes up. The paint scheme and the performance were both unmistakable, as the Super Stock cars were aptly equipped with go-fast parts and quick-shifting drivers. And while the traditional Ramchargers candy-stripe paint scheme will live on for years to come, Vaughn Armstrong wanted something different for his '65 Dodge Coronet. With a 535ci Ray Barton cross-ram Hemi and a four-speed manual, it's not a wimp, so when it came time for paint, his plan called for a contemporary version of the Ramchargers paint scheme. This modernization consists of a silver basecoat and a healthy dose of true candy red on the numerous stripes.
Armstrong took his Mopar to Troy Byrd at Specialty Collision Center in Dayton, Tennessee, who also runs a restoration shop on the side. The car rolled into the shop coated in black primer, but it wasn't quite ready for the shiny stuff, so the crew spent a few weeks straightening all the panels and preparing it for a coat of silver. Had this been a conventional Ramchargers scheme with solid white and red colors, the taping process could have begun after the basecoat was applied. But with metallic colors, it's a good idea to lay down some clear first. This allows for easy cleanup if any of the candy-red paint bleeds through the tape; when you see how much taping is involved, you'll understand.
After a few coats of clear, the car was ready to sand once again using 600-grit on a block to make sure every square inch of the Coronet was straight. The entire car was sanded, even the parts that would not receive a fresh basecoat when the stripes were masked off. Then it was a matter of measuring out the stripes, which is a very time-consuming process. It took a while to determine the exact measurements, as these stripes need to be uniform and true to the original paint scheme. Although Byrd and the crew altered the Ramchargers design slightly, the Dodge definitely has the desired look.
From start to finish, the taping and painting process took three full days of work for three men, but that also included sanding and buffing, which makes a huge difference no matter what you're working on. Armstrong actually considered lettering the car to match the vintage race cars but decided against cluttering the sides of it when he saw the finished product. Now that he is driving the Coronet, he can't help but draw attention, even from the uninformed. Maybe it's the 800-horse Hemi, or maybe it's the new paint job--either way, it's just plain cool.
With the car complete, Armstrong loves the contemporary Ramchargers design, and he's glad he went with the bold paint scheme. It definitely attracts attention and pays homage to the legendary Super Stock racers of the '60s.
