Thread: Who wants to follow along w/ my flame job?

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Ahhhhh.... flames....

Mine are over the louvers also. Yours is gonna look great when done.

I visited the shop today & Dennis has changed almost everything. Some are subtile- some are different- especially along the bottom of hood at latches.
He's going to make a few changes in the door area tomorrow morning & then begin the transfer to the driver side. I meet him tomorrow at 10am for the changes & approval. I'll upload the new pics when I get home from work (yep, still working).

Great thread! What a way to show off your finished rod! I'm a fan of solid yellow, flaming back, because it looks like a ball of fire up front. If I had the cash or the talent I'd paint my truck black with yellow flames coming back from the hood! I look foward to your progress.

Ok- round 2

Met w/ Ryan @ SoCal this morning to see what Dennis got done yesterday after I left.
Turns out he changed alot! He's finished off the bottom of hood area around the headlight & changed several of the licks & moved a few around. Doesn't look like too much change until you look at the pics side by side. I want to make a few minor changes in the door & will Meet Dennis at 10am to iron those out. Friday he will transfer to the other side & shoot several test panels for me on monday.


Here you can see some of the changes. He's looping the flame around the 34 headlight & added a lick between the latches. He also moved the teardrop & changed several of the lower licks so it flows all the way down the car.




Here I got on a stool to shoot the pic so you can see the overall design.




Close up from the front. He changed the line at edge of insert & moved the flame lick at top of shell.




Here you can see where I've applied a piece of tape on door where I want Dennis to look at. I want the flame gap to more resemble the ones at the bottom of door. There's a few others that will need a small tweak & I'll go over that tomorrow.

Looks even better!

Today's work

Met Dennis & his son Randy today to finalize the fine line lay-out. Mask tomorrow & paint discussion on Monday.



This pic shows 2 of Dennis Ricklefs panels to the left. The one on the right was done (badly) by someone else. Car had a fire under hood & Dennis redid the flames. Top of right panel is blistered.
I like the fade on the far left pic.




This pic shows Randy (a great flame artist on his own BTW) cutting the tape at louvers w/ a razor blade.




Here's a look down the hood w/ opposite side laid out. The 2 center ones running down the louvers have already had the tape cut at each louver. You can see several places where there's double tape. Dennis will lay down a piece of tape next to the old tape so he knows where the old edge was when moving a lick.




Opposite view of hood from driver point of view.




Close up of taping across the louvers.




View of flames on louvered hood side.





Dennis is starting to make changes



View of driver side transfer. He stopped at the door because there were lots of changes from rear edge of hood back. Some of this on cowl will be redone.




Randy cutting tape at louvers. You can see the tape flags on door that haven't been fixed yet.

Too many pics- had to make 2 posts out of it.




Flames are basically laid out, Randy is transferring the cowl changes between door & hood.
Note Dennis has flagged 2 more licks he wants to work out a bit more.




Transferring flame changes.
No pounce wheel or bag. He uses a white carbon pencil to trace the outline & transfer the flame.




Taping over the transferred line.
Panel flat enough for ya?





Final completed taping of the door area.

I cut and pasted the photos to another page where they worked. Intersting process. I like the way they use a trace paper to get both sides the same. The flame layout looks awesome. Looking foward to seeing this thread through to the end. Thanks, Steve.

Before pic



Completed pic w/ all the changes.

This is better than buying a book!

This is crazy great. I love all this and flames are fantastic. However for my truck I was hoping to go more of a mean "death proof" meets "maximum overdrive".

But all this makes me think about changing my mind!

Originally Posted by youther

Mine are over the louvers also. Yours is gonna look great when done.

I love this job.

I once saw a flame job using "happy faces" in San Antonio and have been looking for it ever since. Flame jobs that push the box are incredible!

I agree about flame jobs that avoid the "rubber stamp" look.

I believe that any job has to have some element outside the norm, or else many people don't even stop to look. This is all assuming that "norm" would mean any established style, and there are many. After 50+ years, we have just been looking at flames too long to be easily impressed. The only time I do something 100% predictable, is when the customer specifies that they want that historic look totally preserved.

It can be basic color or color combination, unusual change in basic shape, patterns, textures, shading, direction, proportions, placement, and so on.

Personally I won't go beyond what most people would describe as complimentary to the car, though I have seen some designs that are so far removed, that the general public will obviously not like the result. Attractive design should be a requirement.

Absolutely, HRP!!!! I was around when flames went out of style the first time, and I can't really say I was too excited to see them come back.... I'm not putting down flame jobs, just saying that they IMO are terribly overdone and unless very careful attention is paid to having something unique about the job, it's gonna be just another flamed Deuce.... Maybe I've just been at it too long and suffering from a bad case of been there, done that but the only thing that catches my eye anymore is something unique and design elements incorporated into the build process that carries a strong theme for the car all the way through, and stands out from the crowd..... A local guy here does some very high quality flame work....and other then changing proportions to fit the car, every one is just alike!!!!

Looks like you have a good man doing it and it will come out as complimenting the car and not just an add on.....