1977 Chevy Silverado - Van Demon Flamed

3rd Annual Truckin' Nationals State 2 State
No Truckin' Nationals would be the same without the raffle-winning custom-flamed masterpiece created by well-known custom paint guru, Steve Van Demon. This year's 2003 Truckin' Nationals was no exception - Van Demon and the flamed all-stars, Kent "Tremor" Garcia (pinstriper), Nick Di Credico (clearcoat), and Recardo Flores and David Engle (prep), were back by popular demand. The flaming demonstration was a major attraction all weekend.

To be eligible for the free flames, you had to participate in the State 2 State Poker Run Cruise, which commenced at Bob Kashata's Dealers Sport Truck in Los Alamitos, California, early Friday morning and ended at Joe Morrow's AIM Industries Open House in Mesa, Arizona, Friday night. Local guests at AIM Industries were also eligible. At the end of the AIM Industries Open House festivities, the raffle hopper was stuffed full of purchased raffle tickets, but only one would be drawn as the lucky winner. After all the anticipation, Primedia's Truck Group Advertising Director, Tom Catone, drew this year's winner's name, Temo Marquez from Mesa, Arizona. Marquez had the perfect truck to receive this custom flame job, a '77 Chevy Silverado painted in a solid Hugger Orange.

To start, a makeshift spray booth was erected using a swap meet-style canopy, with a portable fold-up subframe supported by a pair of exhaust fans and work benches, designed and created by Di Credico. The canopy was enclosed using transparent urethane sheeting, so spectators could observe the entire procedure from beginning to end.

After Van Demon and crew arrived, it was discovered they had inadvertently forgotten their accessory box, packed with a variety of masking tapes, knives, blades, a pounce wheel, chalk, and many other trick custom painter's stuff. Fortunately, Drew Brothers Custom Body and Paint was only about a mile from Firebird Raceway. Both brothers, Rich and Rob, opened their immaculate shop to Van Demon, letting him experience a painter's borrowing spree - it was cool. Thanks, Rich and Rob, you guys rock.

As Van Demon, Garcia, and Di Credico performed their own specialty, they answered a few questions from the curious audience. Seeing a flamed custom truck blazing down the road is one thing, but getting to observe the entire flame-painting process helps settle many folk's curiosity. From the flamed 1/8-inch masking tape layout, patterns, transfer patterns, masking, weeding, painting, highlighting, de-masking, and pinstriping, everything took approximately four hours. Then, Nick Di Credico buried the flames and pinstriping with four coats of clear. To show his dedication, Di Credico applied the clear at 6 a.m. Sunday, way before any spectators or participants were even awake. The urethane sheeting of the temporary spray booth walls were taken down. Then, the perimeter of the spray booth was taped off to keep curious fingers from touching the still-soft clearcoat. Marquez's orange flamed '77 Chevy Silverado was exposed for spectators and participants to admire.

Later in the afternoon, Marquez rolled his freshly flamed Silverado through the show-'n'-shine area, receiving thumbs-up from spectators and participants on his way over to Firebird Lake for some overall beauty photos.