Custom paint on a small car is the most public form of amateur bodywork, and it is judged on preparation rather than colour. The finish that survives a season comes from stripping to sound metal, filling and blocking until a straight edge sits flat, priming, and then spraying in thin coats in a space without dust. The paint itself is the last and least decisive step.

Novelty schemes add a specific difficulty: masking. Every hard line between colours is a place for the edge to lift, and complex artwork means many masked edges on panels that flex. This is why promotional paint jobs are often vinyl wraps rather than paint — a wrap can be removed and the shell returned to standard. This entry is kept as an archive record.