THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 8, 1994 TAG: 9407080623
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
Michael Boyce is a Leonardo of auto decoration whose wildly colorful paint jobs are considered by four-wheel-drive connoisseurs to be worthy of museum display.
They don't say what museum.
But custom color styling for pickup trucks and ordinary autos has become an epiphanic lifestyle experience for uninhibited car buffs, and in northeastern North Carolina the 33-year old Boyce may be the hottest airbrush coming down the pike.
What Boyce does is far removed from the painted landscapes and stylized cartoons that were all the rage a few years ago on vans and panel trucks.
``Nowadays, the more outrageous the better,'' said Boyce, who is a valued paint shop expert at the Courtesy Ford-Lincoln-Mercury agency in Elizabeth City.
How outrageous?
``Well, a national off-road magazine recently sent down to make pictures of a 1986 Suburban that's owned by Kevin Bernard, of Moyock.
``Kevin wasn't sure what he wanted when we started with the Suburban, so I sketched some ideas and pretty soon he decided to make the Suburban look like a battle-damaged B-52 bomber.
`` `Put in some bullet holes,' Kevin told me when his car really began to look like a B-52. So I painted in a line of bullet holes; then we painted in some peeled-back sheet metal that looked like damage from antiaircraft fire.
``That Suburban really stops traffic.''
It should. Even without the Mike Boyce custom paint job, the vehicle stands tall on 38-inch wheels and under the hood there's a Ford 427 cubic inch engine that can climb straight up out of the Grand Canyon.
``This new car decorating style is really big on the West Coast, so that means it'll eventually be big here - here we're just ahead of the curve,'' said Boyce.
Boyce's reputation is reinforced by the fact that Kevin Bernard's father is Frank Barnard, who owns Courtesy Ford and is Mike's boss.
The elder Barnard's admiration for his car painting expert is such that he encourages Boyce to do his custom work in the Courtesy paint shop facilities. ``After hours,'' explained Boyce, who emphasizes that any resemblance between one of his paint jobs and a standard Ford appearance transcends coincidence.
Another Boyce admirer is Joe Sanderlin, of South Mills, a Norfolk machinist, whose motoring style is envied by the swamp-buggy set. ``Joe Sanderlin drives his pickup like an Army tank,'' said Boyce approvingly.
A few years ago Sanderlin was going 'cross country when he finally found a ditch that his '89 pickup couldn't manage - not even with those 44-inch wheels and a transmission that could qualify a road grader at Indy.
``Joe turned it over and when he brought it in it had $8,000 worth of body damage. We fixed it up and Joe decided he wanted a special paint job,'' said Boyce.
Now that gorgeously striped magenta, purple, red, blue and chrome pickup truck is still Sanderlin's shiny pride and joy. On each side of the pickup box is a painted blue explosion, signifying not much of anything. The mere sight of the Sanderlin vehicle is enough to wilt the collar of a Lexus owner.
Boyce only has time to custom-paint about a few vehicles a year.
``It's mostly for my friends. Nobody around here could afford to pay me what this work is really worth. I guess I actually make about 50 cents an hour when I figure my time and materials,'' said Boyce.
And what does Boyce drive?
``A dualie, of course.''
A dualie is an extended cab pickup with dual rear wheels and a special transmission. ``They're real big as street cars on the West Coast,'' said Boyce. A serious car guy wouldn't be caught dead in anything else.''
The Boyce dualie is an '88 Ford, now painted an appallingly conservative shade of brown.
``Someday I'll get around to decorating it to please Tiffany,'' said Boyce.
Tiffany Robertson Boyce is the auto artist's 26-year-old bride of a few months. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
DREW C. WILSON/Staff
Michael Boyce with the Chevy Suburban he painted to look like a
wounded B-52 bomber. ``The more outrageous, the better,'' he
proudly proclaims about his artistry.
by CNB