FINISHMASTER CROWNS HOODMASTER 2021 CHAMPS
BY MAX REID
When you get your car back from the shop, refinished in that dangerous beige you like, the phrase ‘work of art’ might not necessarily always come to mind. Sure, there’s work that goes into making the paint even, and they have to mix it to get the shade correct, but it’s just spraying a big piece of metal one colour right?
If this is something you have thought to yourself before, you’ve clearly never seen the talent that FinishMaster has put on display for the last two years for its annual HoodMaster painting competition.
In a celebration of the marriage between art and innovation that has always been present in the autobody industry, FinishMaster assembled more than 30 of the top automotive painters in North America to compete to see who can paint the best mini car hood.
Judges pored over a multitude of hoods done in the historic auto painting styles of airbrushing and pinstriping, though prizes were awarded for Crowd Favourite and Wild Card as well. The painters, along with friends and family, were treated to a gallery-style night at the Bullseye Event Center in downtown Indianapolis, Ind. on October 15. Drink and raffle ticket proceeds were put toward an educational grant for a collision repair program in need, through the Collision Repair Education Foundation (CREF).
When all was said and done, Chad Henslin and Adam Paul came away with top prizes for their exceptional work, winning the pinstripe and airbrush categories respectively.
Notably, Stratford, Ontario’s Josh Dobson came away with second prize in the pinstriping category. Dobson is a product specialist at Axalta and finished near the top of the pack with his pinstriped “Frozen” hood, featuring bold blue lines and an icy silver flake finish.
Crowd Favourite and Wild Card prizes were also presented to Zack Hampton and Kevin Campbell, respectively, whose hoods went outside the box, but still landed them in the winner’s circle. The HoodMaster event was held in tandem with the first ever PinMaster challenge as well, which pit graduating high school and college collision repair students from across the U.S. against each other to see who could paint the most impressive bowling pin.
FinishMaster is hoping to make HoodMaster and PinMaster yearly traditions that bring together the collision community and celebrates the artistry and ingenuity that is inherent in this industry.
