Jacks Caprice

Words: Daniel Allard | Photography: Jonny Smith

Videographer: Scott Pattenden | Owner: Jack Smith

I've known of Jack since the Edition38 forum days and finally met whilst pulling up in our MK1 Golf's into the Edition38 showground back in 2011, Since then Jack has gone on to build multiple pretty sweet dailies and "show" cars. If you were to scroll through Jack's Instagram you occasionally see the odd low rider pop up with either the word want or need in the caption of that photo. There was just one huge decision that needed to be made, does the MK1 Golf stay or go to help fund the lowrider dream?.

Like we all do, Jack was having his usual nose on eBay and noticed a light blue Caprice, not being in the right position Jack let it go. With the dream of owning a lowrider itching away, a few months later Jack tried his luck and messaged to see if the car had sold. It had not sold, and suddenly Jack found himself the owner of a Chevy Caprice Lowrider.

Jack's Caprice has racked up a fair few air miles, starting off in America as what he thought was a Police/Detectives car, the car was then imported to Japan in 1998 where it was turned into a lowrider. Fast forward to 2016 and the car was on a boat to the UK.

The Process.

So what does it take to get your paintwork to this level?

Jack is a painter by trade and over the years has built up his experience and skill level to what you see here. Getting bored with your normal contemporary paint job in March 2018 Jack started Forged From Flake specializing in Candy and Metalflake paint. Starting on boards, skate decks and car panels Jack self-taught the skills required and built his confidence up to take on a complete car. 

For those outside of the car paint industry and want to know what goes into a job like this Jack has given us a detailed insight. 

• Repair any damage to the panels.
• High build primer, leave to cure for a month, block then apply high build primer again.
• Block the primer down again and wet flat on a block and wet flat the edges.
• Paint the solid black sides and cleared them then masked for flake.
• Silver base then clear followed by blasting flake into the clear. Followed by 4 more coats of clear.
• Block and wet flat again.
• Use fine line to get the desired design while making templates to make it the same on each side.
• Paint with various colours, candy and techniques.
• Apply 4 coats of clear.
• Sanded with 500 on a DA.
• Flowcoated with three coats of a better Clearcoat
• Then flat back with 2000 then 3000 on a DA then buff with a three stage compound process

All that combined comes to an estimated 72 hours of work not including flatting and sanding! and we cannot include the 12 litres of primer and 18 litres of clear.  

All in the Details.

Lowriders are renowned for their eye-tantalizing paintwork but it's not just the body that gets all the attention. With the car being able to lift, it exposes all the parts we would not normally see. So Jack went to town and took the time to make the normally dull areas as good as the body. With the keys areas Raptored and cleared protecting his investment, Jack went on to powdercoat the reinforced rear axle and suspension components. That would be enough for some but not Jack, He went on to flake the lower arms and exposed frame rails.

The Next Chapter. 

Since we met up with Jack the paintwork on the Caprice has been flatted and another final coat of clear added. Once the paint has gassed off it will be flatted, polished and then finally the paintwork will be completed, then it's on to the rest of the car.

The navy crushed velvet interior is on the hit list but this is the real world, whilst Jack cracks on with his newly acquired S205 Mercedes and saves some pennies, for now, it stays. The interior will be repaired where needed and given a bloody good scrub. 

The brightwork has now been fully polished and where it couldn't new parts have been put in their place or have been wrapped in chrome by the guys at Vivid Vinal. Chrome work you ask?!? Getting parts re-chromed is hellishly expensive, we were also skeptical when Jack told us his plans to wrap but we've seen the results of Vivid's handy work and it looks awesome!

Homebuilt.

RollHard was founded on homebuilt cars and everything Jack has built including some of his old MK1 Golf has been in his garage or driveway. Jack's garage is littered with memorabilia from previous cars and of course a large amount of glitter from previous work on Forged From Flake projects. Jack is a no-nonsense sort of guy, rarely you would find him asking questions and asking what other people's wheel specs are, he just cracks on and lets the results speak for themselves.  

So there you have it Jack has done it again and soon to do it again with his new daily driver, the Mercedes. We do hope there is some sort of show season this year so you guys get to see the Caprice in all its rather large glory.

We hope to bring you another article of the finished car in the near future, post lockdown and for those who are interested in seeing Jack's previous work the links are below.

Jacks Mazda 3 

Jacks MK1 Golf and Lexus GS300