I'm building my 1947 ford coupe 50's hot rod style and was hoping to get pics of flame jobs of that era. Can you help out? Thanks
I guess you got to think what color to put where the flames start. It depends what color is the build.
What's needed are pictures from the 50's not later day interpretations. The ones Squablow posted are getting closest. These all came from HAMB flame threads
I'd say that a majority of the so-called traditional flames shown on these newer builds are not true to the form. Not always bad, but not really as they was back in the day. You need to look at real pictures or magazines, and resist refining when you tape them off yourself.
Early flames? You mean the flames that are SO bad looking they are kinda good looking if you squint a little, cover one eye, turn you head to the side and cough? To me they all look pretty goofy. As a kid in the 50's I even remember the dumb *** looking flames they put on the decal sheets that came in model car kits (inadvertently, these might be a source of art work for you, too). Of those posted so far, this one stands out, IMHO as a design that has got more going on in it than the average vintage designs. I've never seen this photo before. Wonder who did them? Gary
Depending on which time in the 50s your looking to pattern after early 50s would have been more the early Von Dutch style like the Barris 51 woody which where brushed on . Jefferies started to refined the look by masking and spraying like the ones on his girl friends new 56 chevy above and Watson took it even further with the black 57 buick we have all seen pictures of . But these examples would have been after 1956 and would still be a thicker stubbier style than what we see today. Bob McCoy's 40 ford sedan pictured above was done late 54 early 55. And the Gull wing was done by Von Dutch in 57 for Earl Bruce to cover up a candy job that went south along the bottom. Larry
I don't think there was ever any mention of who did the flames on Bob Brown's '40. http://www.kustomrama.com/index.php?***le=Bob_Brown's_1940_Ford http://www.customcarchronicle.com/hot-rods/colorized-flames/
You might notice that the early multicoloured flames had a more distinct division between the colours as opposed the the fine blends of the ones done later on. I believe this "harder" blend was usually due to the rubbing/polishing of the paint after spraying which tended to eliminate much of the blended area.. Note the McCoy sedan in the pics above. I think the use of a thin outline stripe became more common around that early '50s time-frame as well. The early images shown here show the frequency of single colour offerings during that time. Dave