Revved Up Over Car Art

By Chris Howell, NewsOn6.com

"It's like every car's a canvas." That's why people from all around the world send their hotrods to Mike Willey in Claremore. Mike is one of the top custom auto painters in the industry.

"We have cars shipped in from everywhere in the United States," explains Willey. "We've had stuff shipped in from London, Japan, quite a bit of work from over in Japan."

And with people having up to a million dollars wrapped up in a custom show car, they can afford another fifty-thousand dollars for one of Mike's paint jobs.

Besides the endless hours of prep work and multiple layers of paint to achieve a deep glossy luster, people pay Mike for his ideas and artistry.

"Once we've sat down and talked, and I take their ideas that they've kind of come up with, I take that set of ideas and then I do it as if I were my own, using that set of rules," says Willey.  "And that's basically what I tell them, so now I'm going to take it and do it as if it was mine using what we talked about. They're usually always happy, like I say it's just like kids at Christmas."

Mike and his exotically painted cars have been featured in countless hotrod magazines, and have won numerous awards. He doesn't need to advertise, word-of-mouth frequently keeps him booked years in advance.

Revved Up Art