Flat Paint is in at SEMA – BMW to Rolls Royce

Posted by pikesan on Nov 11, 2010 in Featured, Shows & Events | 5 comments

SEMA 2010 Trends – Flat Paint Jobs

Cruising SEMA, certain booths draw a crowd. The serious business people (eh..) who attend SEMA still like a model here and there to add some beauty to the mechanical toughness of the rides or parts in the booth. I gotta be honest… I don’t mind it either! This is not a new trend, but flat paint jobs are! (for some rides)

I searched around about the car above and found it’s an NSX? That’s what I’m going with. Whatever body kit it has, it’s working to make me think there’s some Italian heritage at play. Note the paint though… not the bold red or even the other trend I’ll bring up, “Black”, it’s a suede yellow that fit perfectly. Tip-of-the-hat to the lovely Standard Suspension model shown here. I think she was my favorite.

I wrote about this Lexus GS in the Custom Cars of SEMA day 1 story. It’s cool that another car style has fully embraced flat paint jobs or call it satin, suede, matte, whatever. Traditional style hot rodders have been reviving (or maybe inventing?) flat painted rat rods and hot rods for years. In fact hot rodders, is the style fading? So flat paint jobs aren’t new, but how many Lexi (plural of Lexus smarty) have you seen wearing it? Note the shaved rear door handles on this SLAMMED Air Runner Suspension Lexus. Except for the hot colored accents (is that orange?) there’s a definite nod to rat rod or nostalgia hot rods here.

This is a 2008 BMW 335i aka the E90 BMW. I don’t think M4 Sherman Flat Green was on the build menu? Either way, builder George Ciordas has one of the funnest cars to drive on the road looking ready for the Vegas Strip battle field here at SEMA 2010.

The next few pics blow me away.

Pictured is an AMG SL65 in gray flat paint in the Continental Tires booth at SEMA. Now the trend’s getting serious! I gotta respect someone who’s willing to drop close to $200k on a V12 equipped 600 horsepower drop-top-monster, then take what the designers, engineers and factory slaved over and customize it. Yea! Isn’t that what SEMA’s all about? For more from the builders of this and other sick-suede-exotics, check out Platinum Motorsports website.

I’ve never worked at AMG, Mercedes or Rolls Royce, but I’m pretty sure their factories can throw down a fairly nice paint job. Better find out for sure, so I went to the Rolls Royce website. Here’s a link to info on the Rolls Royce Ghost pictured here.

This car is a statement everywhere in the world. This is a Rolls Royce!

I found out exterior styling of a Rolls Royce isn’t taken lightly. From their website, I found out:

Ghost is the essence of Rolls-Royce in its simplest, purest form. Every inch delivers on the power of simplicity.

The classic Rolls-Royce proportions are all present and correct: the 2:1 ratio of the height of the wheels to the height of the body; the long wheelbase and bonnet; the short overhang at the front and long overhang at the rear.

Exterior Designer, Andreas Thurner says “…it looks natural, not styled”. Its powerful presence leaves no doubt that it’s cut from the same cloth as the rest of the marque – exactly what we set out to achieve.

Got that? There’s a tried and trusted formula to the design and I didn’t see where it said, “At least a 24″ wheel shall be used to preserve the baller heritage.”

And for the paint, you’ll love this… again, copied from the Rolls Royce website:

We don’t just paint our cars – we create an incredibly deep, flawless shine. So when you look closely at a Rolls Royce’s paintwork, you’ll see a perfect reflection of yourself staring back at you. – Lisa Tandy, Paint Associate

So paint it flat black!  Hey Lisa, what do you think? That’s My Ride is Me!

Like it, hate it or what?