By Anna Marco
Bill is as famous for his signature use of colors as was Larry Watson claiming, “there is White and then there is Bone Pearl White. It makes a difference how you
use it. Color is the frosting on the cake. You can overdo it. Don’t put all your tricks on one car. Paint tells a story, it’s like dressing a woman.” He has resolved many tech issues of paint application including modern waterborne formulas, which are unforgiving to mistakes. Although he favors earth colors, he always ends up using Magenta. He has painted so many cars that he can measure paint by eye and its consistency by the drip factor recalling, “Gene Winfield does that too. How it runs off the stick tells ya its right. I loved Nitrocellulose Lacquer. It smelled better, was sweet, I liked it and got inspired. It had transparency. Today paint is not the same, Don’t smell it… but I love color!” Bill has won dozens of awards for Best Paint and Best Use of Color. Once Upon a Time For Wild Bill Carter, his life has been a long colorful road from that first 1956 Buick started in high school and striped in the garage to Shirley Muldowney’s “pussy pink” racecars. Famous last words, “Striping is an integral part of a paint job. You need the right colors; it can make or break a final paint scheme. Don’t fuck it up. The End.”
Good advice from the man who broke the mold in the custom paint industry.