Last month, Transtar was featured in an article on the front page of the Journal Inquirer, a daily newspaper covering most of north-central Connecticut.  Transtar worked with Kar Kare in Ellington, CT to help restore a 1986 Iroc-Z Camaro for Staff Sgt. Shaun Thomas.

The article explains how Sgt. Thomas was redeployed back to Afghanistan last November and before he left, he asked his mother to sell his ’86 Camaro. His mother, who looks after his two young sons while he’s away, didn’t want to sell the car he had  had since he was 20 and was rebuilding himself (it had been in an accident before his deployment).

Sgt. Thomas’ mother called up every shop in town until she reached Brian Deschaine at Kar Kare who found the story so moving, he and his crew decided to give back to a soldier who had given up so much for his country. When Transtar heard about this story from our local rep in the area, Mark Smith, we jumped at the chance to help out. We donated paint and primer so Kar Kare could give the soldier’s car a custom paint job.

Completely redone from the inside out, Sgt. Thomas’ old ’86 Camaro looks brand new thanks to the hard work and determination of his family, Kar Kare and everyone else who pitched in to help give something back to someone who has given us so much.

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Ultimate Finish System™

Transtar Autobody Technologies is proud to introduce our Ultimate Finish SystemTM to the compounds and glazes market. This easy-to-use, three-step buffing system is composed of a cutting compound, machine polish and swirl remover.

We are also introducing three new foam pads to go along with the three steps in the Ultimate Finish SystemTM. The Orange Foam Compound pad, White Foam Polishing pad, and Gold Foam Swirl Remover pad are all designed to give an optimum finish when used with the Ultimate Finish System.

As part of the Ultimate Finish System line, we offer an All in One Detailer. This spray detailer works on metals, glass and chrome and  has a fresh cherry scent  (it is only intended for use in shop detailing areas).

Check out our video to see how Transtar’s Ultimate Finish SystemTM works!

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Over the past few years, Seth Boldman and his team at Aggressive Designs have created seven custom bikes for magician Criss Angel. However, this year alone, Aggressive Designs created four one-of-a-kind custom painted bikes for the superstar.

The guys at Aggressive Designs used Transtar’s Glamour Clear and Factory Pack Empress Black Basecoat LV-905 to finish this latest bike for Angel. Seth says he likes to use Glamour Clear because it’s “forgiving, doesn’t wrinkle, and covers well if you have to cover over a burn from buffing.”

To make these custom designs, Angel brings ideas to the table from t-shirts, sketches, drawings on napkins, etc. and then gives Seth freedom to run with it and create incredible designs. Each bike takes about 1-2 weeks to complete, depending on the complexity of the graphics.

Click here for more information about Aggressive Designs.

Aggressive Designs

Seth Boldman, owner and designer at Aggressive Designs, recently painted a one-of-a-kind microphone and microphone stand for Christina Aguilera’s 2010 MTV Movie Award performance. Made from start to finish using Transtar products, the stand and mic were finished off with Transtar’s Glamour Clear (#9461) to give it the perfect shine on stage.

The candy apple red stand is composed of ‘lips’ stacked one on top of another with an old race car steering wheel as the base. The mic matches the stand’s candy apple red and reads ‘Xtina’ in a tattoo script. Though the mic set was made specifically for the 2010 MTV Movie Awards, Aguilera was so pleased with Boldman’s work that she is taking the mic set on tour.

Boldman took two days to finish the product and said that Aguilera was looking for the mic set to ‘match her red lips’. This is not the first time Boldman has created a unique design for Aguilera and does custom work for other celebrities including Lady Gaga and Tom Cruise.

Aggressive Designs

For more information about Seth Boldman and Aggressive Designs, visit www.aggressivedesigns.com or call 562.789.4900.

Click here to see pictures of the mic stand in use at the MTV Movie Awards from Radaronline.com.

Located in Compton, CA, Customs by Lopez has been specializing in the repair and refinishing of automotive car bodies for 10 years. Owned by Ricardo and Monica Lopez, Customs by Lopez also does notable work in the customization market. Lopez’s extraordinary custom work has been featured in multiple magazines as well as on TV. Though a modest shop, Customs by Lopez produces high-end, extremely impressive custom cars.

For the past seven months, Lopez and his team have been working on the restoration of a 1969 Camaro and plan to have the project finished in about three months.  For this unique renovation, Lopez has decided to use several Transtar products.  Lopez has been using Transtar products for the past 2 years and says he likes the precision of No Mix’s color matching and how easy Transtar products are to mix and spray. Most of all, Lopez points out, he uses Transtar because of the high quality of the products.

For the 1969 Camaro, Lopez is using Transtar’s Low VOC Speed Sealer (#6091), No Mix ® Basecoat, Urethane Grade Reducer (#6711) and Signature Series Glamour Clearcoat (#9461). Stay tuned to see how Lopez’s finished 1969 Camaro turns out!

To find out more about Ricardo Lopez’s work and the Customs by Lopez garage, click here.



On April 18, Transtar products were showcased on Two Guys Garage on The Speed Channel.  The three-part show covered the build of a 1933 hot rod by the Factory Five. Transtar representative Scott Hanshaw takes viewers step-by-step through the entire coating process including prep sanding, primer, sealer and finally basecoat. To see this and other videos from Transtar, go to www.youtube.com/transtarauto.

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Bob McCall Company

At the Bob McCall Company in San Antonio, Texas, we refer Transtar primers and clearcoats for our custom built show cars and street rods. We use Transtar Epoxy because of its versatility. It may be used as a non-sanding DTM primer, a medium build surfacer or a tinted sealer, which may greatly enhance your final color. Euro Kwik Clearcoat is easy to use, repairable and provides a beautiful high gloss finish that maintains well.

Bob McCall Company


We have successfully used Transtar primers and clears with Du-Pont, PPG, Sherwin Williams and House of Colors systems to provide show quality custom automotive finishes. It’s nice to have the flexibility to use whatever color system my customer wants with user friendly and predictable Transtar primers and clears.

Bob McCall Company

To learn more about the Bob McCall Company, check out their website or Facebook page!

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This past Wednesday, May 5, Transtar along with Levine Automotive hosted a No Mix Clinic in East Windsor, Connecticut. About 130 guests including body shop owners, technicians, painters, hobbyists, students and teachers attended to learn about Transtar’s No Mix and Low VOC product line.

Held at Lincoln Technical Institute, the clinic showcased Transtar’s full line of Low VOC products, focusing on the No Mix system.  With three full-sized spray booths available for demos, guests were able to peruse the garage and see No Mix in action. Transtar representatives and other volunteers displayed No Mix’s ability to easily color blend on demonstration hoods as well as a full Crown Victoria. Guests were also shown the superior metallic control, coverage, and hiding of No Mix.   Using a new factory fender, guests were shown how 7300 Series Euro Primer can be used as a non-sanding sealer.  The hoods were finished off with Glamour Clear (#9461) or 2.1 Low VOC Euro Clearcoat (#7311).

Transtar and Levine representatives were spread around to room to answer any and all questions.  Food and raffles were also part of the clinic and the winners walked away with prizes ranging from spray guns to cabinets filled with Transtar products.

Each guest will also receive a certificate in the mail verifying that they were at the clinic and participated in the clinic.  Overall, the event was a huge success and we’d like to send our thanks out to everyone who took part.

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As summer approaches, certain things come to mind: baseball, BBQs, picnics and usually, coping with the heat and humidity.  This heat and humidity can have a damaging effect on your paint jobs. To ensure successful paint jobs in the summer heat, it will be important to adopt warm weather coping strategies in the shop.

Here are some common paint issues associated with warm weather:

Solvent popping: trapped solvent that eventually pops out of the film leaving a tiny blister with a hole in the middle.

Air entrapment: compressed air used to apply a coating gets trapped because the coating skins over too fast.  The air eventually escapes the film but leaves pinholes on the surface.

Die back: a milder form of solvent popping that leaves a fuzzy appearance in the coating.

Orange Peel: poor flow due to fast solvent evaporation.

Proper choice of product(s) can greatly increase your chances of avoiding these issues and protecting your paint during the warm months.

For example: A shop uses Max Clearcoat (#7761 MTR) with 6800 Series Extra Solids Activator, Spot and Panel (#6874) in the winter and finds that they can do almost an entire paint job with no problems at all.  However, as the temperature increases, they find they’re getting more orange peel, jobs ‘die-back’ a little and they’re starting to see pinholes, especially on horizontal surfaces.

The remedy: The strategy in warm temperatures is to slow down the solvent evaporation, slow down the reaction or slow both.  In our example, the shop could move to 6800 Series Extra Solids Activators (#6894 or #6894HT) to slow down the solvent evaporation of the coating.  They could also use some slow reducer like Zero VOC Urethane Grade Reducer (#6721-F). To slow down the reaction, they would need to change clearcoats to something like Kwik Gloss Acrylic Urethane Clearcoat (#6841).

Because no two shops are alike, no one solution will work for everyone. The process will always be a little bit of trial and error, but eventually, each shop will determine what combination of products will work best for them in the summer heat.

Have some tips on painting in the summer heat? We want to hear them!

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Aggressive Designs

Here at Aggressive Designs, we are currently finishing up some bikes for the show, “Sons Of Anarchy” on The Speed Channel, HD. We used Transtar’s No Mix Low VOC Factory Pack Empress Black Basecoat and Transtar’s No Mix Low VOC Basecoat in white with the Self-Etching Primer and topped it all off with Transtar’s Glamour Clear: the results…wicked.

Seth Boldman, owner of Aggressive Designs, has been a bike designer and the painter for Big Bear Choppers custom bikes for the past seven years.

Anybody who has ever seen a Big Bear Chopper will notice right away the quality of workmanship and the excellence in creativity.

Aggressive Designs

Now you can have your bike or helmet custom painted to be uniquely yours by a world renowned artist.  Join celebrities like Criss Angel who rely on Aggressive Designs to custom build a one of a kind machine.  Or if you just need a repair from some road rash, give us a call.

Visit www.aggressivedesigns.com for more information.

Aggressive Designs