Mick’s Paint

Born just west of London, England, Mick completed a 4-year “City and Guilds” apprenticeship on panel beating and paintwork, while serving his time at a Jaguar dealership in his hometown. Through hard work and attention to detail he quickly climbed the ladder up to a management position at the ripe old age of 24. Eventually working up to managing a staff of 65 at the collision shop of a major Ford dealership group, on England’s South Coast.

An avid motorsports fan and car nut, Mick followed his dream to California in 1995 and immediately found a niche in the Southern California car culture. He opened Mick’s Paint in Huntington Beach and soon gained a reputation for excellence painting an impressive portfolio of high-profile projects for Buick, Toyota and aftermarket companies such as So-Cal Speed Shop, Budnik Wheels, Hot Rods by Boyd, Dan Fink Metalworks and GMT . His work culminated in painting and preparing Chuck Svatos’ 1932 Roadster, winner of the America’s Most Beautiful Roadster award and the 2000 Grand National Roadster Show, in conjunction with Foose Design.

In 2001, Mick was invited to join the award-winning team at the SO-CAL Speed Shop, as Hot Rod and Race Car shop Manager. Where he applied the paint on numerous customer’s cars as well as overseeing the day to day running of the operation. The customers cars included such creations as Gene Olsen’s 50 Merc convertible, Jim Green’s “Assassin” Top Fuel dragster, Billy F Gibbons Thunderbird, Dennis Higginbothams “Spencer II Roadster” and Bill Lindig’s blown Ardun Deuce Roadster featured in the popular international TV show: Hot Rod Build-off.

Most recently Mick and his team of highly skilled craftsmen has continued to turn out exemplary working including cars for Billy F Gibbons of ZZ Top, which included a recent repaint of the famed CadZZilla. Other projects included assisting “Twins Custom Coaches” with a fleet of custom painted show trucks for Freightliner and Western Star. In 2012 he and the team again painted the winner of America’s Most Beautiful Roadster award, the “Indy Speedster” for Bill Lindig.

Mick’s Paint is not confined to the hot rod and custom world. An avid motorcyclist, Mick has painted everything from a Porsche Speedster for Pebble Beach, to a rare 1931 Alfa Romeo 1750 Spyder, and a 1941 Packard 4 door convertible. Not to mention a “hot rod” concrete pump, a pair of back ground walls at Disney Land, a Semi truck covered in chrome plated nails and a few motorcycles too.

Steve Strope of Pure Vision Design is another fan of Mick’s Paint and Steve has had no less than 5 cars painted by Mick, with at least other 4 of their stunning works of art on the schedule for the coming year. Indeed, the Pure Vision, The Lazich 1969 Mustang won Ford Motor Co Design at the 2010 SEMA Show, 1965 “Martini” Mustang owned by Karl Williams won the Ford Motor Co Design at the 2012 SEMA Show, The “Halo” 1972 Camaro won the GM Design award at the 2013 SEMA Show, and the 1967 “Chalupa” Fairlane won Ford Motor Co Design at the 2014 SEMA Show. That is 4 Best of Show award for Mick’s Paint and Pure Vision. The Martini Mustang also garnered an award from Mother’s while Lindig’s Indy Roadster picked up two more awards at the 2012 SEMA Show.