Trendy paint and graphics treatments fade faster than an unprotected lacquer job in the Sahara, but a hot set of flames on the right vehicle never goes out of fashion. Flames have been lickin’ at hot rod hoods since almost day one, and a feast of fire screams “hot” louder than anything else that comes from a gun or brush. The problem is that painting flames is like painting any kind of graphics—you have to be Rembrandt to lay ’em out and get ’em right. HOT ROD’s story on how to paint flames in the May ’95 issue (“Pyro-Technique”) took some of the mystery out of the deal, but since then we’ve discovered an even easier way to set a hot rod on fire. We ventured to Chris Wood’s Air Trix in Santa Barbara, California, to learn how we mere mortals can cast fire and brimstone upon our steel. One note: Ignore the vehicle that was used in this example. Wood was laying the flames on a tow truck. The truck isn’t a hot rod, but the flame techniques are the same no matter what you’re working on.
