Paint!

Here's some process photos showing the actual paint process. I'm using all AutoAir colors, starting with Dark Red, which is cut with 10% Flash Reducer. The reducer is a thinning and reactive additive that lets the paint dry faster and flow a lot more smoothly. The first step was a few coats of straight red.

After a solid red coat and 24 hours of curing in my hot-box shed it was time to add the magic - a blended, wine-colored shimmer paint combined with the red. Here's the paint being mixed.

Once I put a few coats of the shimmer paint on it was looking really purple, like a pimp moped or something. But after a few hours the brightness faded in to the base color, just as I had hoped, and produced what I call "Shimmer Blood." My low-quality iPhone camera and the poor lighting in the shed doesn't really do it justice, but the glittery maroon is going to look so awesome with the brass accents - I can't wait!

Also, a tip for anyone painting with an HVLP gun for the first time: I keep a big can of thinner nearby and run a tablespoon through the gun between every cup of paint to keep the nozzle clean. I also break the gun down every night and soak it in thinner to clean out any residue inside. I clogged the gun pretty bad the first night of priming and this seems to have fixed it.