History Dwayne's (DD) 60's style 1963 Impala custom

Dwayne (DD) asked me if I could help him get some different paint idears visualized for his 1963 Chevy Impala. He was looking for a early/mid 60's style paint job. something that could roll out of the Larry Watson or similar custom body painters paint shop.
The idear was to go with only a minimum body mods and a killer paintjob.

For me it was a real chalange since most of the time I do the early style customs, but Dwayne liked what I did on Kirk's 1960 Starliner.
My first goal was to find a suitable donor photo. Since Dwaynes car is in parts right now he could not get a photo taken from his onw. My own archives only have pre- 1960 cars so the internet search was on...

I finally found this photo to start with. A nice rather large photo of a good angle showing enough of the body to show some paint samples.




Dwayne showed me some colors he liked and that he wanted some reverzed rims on wide whites (or narrow... but those together with the wheels will be fine tuned once the paint has been decided on)

Version A simple one color paintjob (pearl)




Next came some nice outlining and faded panels with gold or orange outlines. The door handles are still on it and are actually accentuated by the paint.

Version B




Next up is a differnt color and some lace paint to fill the panels.

Version C




Version D same as above, just different colors.




Next was to try some scallops. And with this I decided to shave the door handles.
Dwayne does not care for the long scallop running halfway the body so I will be doing some shorter scallop versions later this week.


Version E




vesion F same as above, different colors




Version G same as above, but now some more contrastig colors




And last but not least some Gene Winfield inspired fade paint jobs.
This time I also removed the gas door to have some super straight canvas.

Version H




Version I, same as above but a little toned down.




What do you guys think looks best so far.

 

You have some great skills there. Man, the choices are tough. They all look sweet. I'll have to have you PS some different paint schemes on my bus when it gets that time. Nice work

Oh, I like the dark and gold the best

 

Great work Rik! The first fade away looks the best and that Gold and cream (F) is the best of the scalloped jobs.

 

wow, impressive photoshopping! any of those look better then it does now, haha.

do you do graphic design for a living?

 

rock on...

shop some wires or cragars and thin whites and you gots one bad to the bone boulevard bomber!

 

Great work as usual. Version B is my fave. Love the subtle variation in colors. I can even see it in a much lighter champagne tone. Love the Winfield fades as well, but that's really gonna depend on the painter. I fear splotches and heavy handed fades unless you go to Gene himself. $$$.

 

Rik, is the man! I cannot get over how much different the car looks. I was having doubts about doing it 60's style, on what it would look like, But rik has pulled it off. You are the man Rik.I really like the fade, but like you road apple,finding a painter here in BFE would be tough.

 

The fade job, and the black and gold panel job look great. How about shortening the side trim?

 

Eeeeeeeeeeee

 

b and h are great!

 

c !

 

Not sure why, but the simple one A, is my favorite. I like the panels and fades on the others, but on that car the simple clean look could go a long way in my opinion.

All of them are great, but I don't care for F or G too much.

 

I love fade paint jobs....but on that car it doesn't look good.....and WWW's on a '63 doesn't do it either......

Version A is my favorite......paint the roof a lighter color....maybe white pearl or microflake.....

 

Did you really just photoshop in lace????

If I had your photoshop skills I wouldnt mess with real cars at all! Thats amazing!

They all look great btw.

 

How about G with chrome reverse?

 

IMO, option B or C, sans door handles and with clear parking light lenses takes it!

 

Version E!! E all the way!!

 

<h1> H!!!!!!!! </h1>

 

I'll take version A... I liike read and cragars.

 

H then C please.

 

Evel, I really like the fade on h and the toned down verison is my fav. the only thing that has me scared is someone painting it. they could really screw it up if not done right. Thanks for all the comments. I am just waiting for the ball busting on the wide whites. but tires are not in stone yet. Once again Rik is the man. he is very easy to work with and has a great vision, of what works.

 

I like the colors of C. But no lace. Just darker accenting on the panels. Nice and clean. The chrome wheels will pick up alot of blue tones, which look great with that nice aqua/green.

The wide whites and orange color combo screams "creamsicle". I don't like wide whites on '63 Impalas at all for many reasons. But since every image has it, I'm assuming you've made your mind up about that and I'll leave it alone.

 

I haven't made my mind up yet on wide whites. I will admit I like them. chrome rims will stay,but might run pinner whites. where I live everyone would run L60 raised white letters and air shocks.

 

c or g

 

Thanks for all the comments.
And like DD says.. the wheel tire cobo is not set. I worked with the reversed rims and wide whites because I like them and so does DD and they came from a car that was shot at about the same angle as the 63 Chevy.
We wanted to have a good paintjob first, once that has been picked then it will be time to pick the right wheels/tires to go with the rest. And then ofocoars another 100 variations can be made with that!!!

And yes I'm a graphic artist by trade. And the lace was found on the internet. Use google search for images of lace, then pick out one that is large and has a nice contrast of fabric and background.
copy and past the lace multiple times so that it will cover the body (at a realistic size) and then use various blending techniques in photoshop to make it look right.

Here is another set of tires/rims I worked with.

 

Dude, you are amazing!

 

I like the "C" version, guess it's the Irish in me!

 

F or H hands down.

 

Holy Shit!!

I'd take 1 of each. You can't go wrong.

Rik, You're incredible!



BloodyKnuckles

 

D or F.....and if you have any spare time, I will shoot some pics of my car over to you.....