Viva Las Vegas: Turn On The Sparkle

There was nothing subtle about the many sparkle tops on display at the Shifters show, and modern paint technology was really showing off this old-school design trend to its best advantage. Some of them, like this big, bad ’58 Buick and this blue-on-blue Impala, had been sprayed just days before driving out to Vegas, and the fresh metal-flake really popped. While some kept it to a clean two-tone, others had additional design worked into the roof, adding pinstriping, patterns, or layers of color like this Country Squire Wagon. A drop-dead gorgeous ’59 El Camino ran its upper metalflake right into its pickup bed, with stunning results. This Caddy provided a fresh twist on the sparkle top, foregoing metalflake and instead machining an amazing flame pattern right into the bare metal of the roof before layering translucent candy and clearcoat over it. See them all plus a few more examples after the jump—and don’t worry, you’ll get to ogle the cars these lids belong to once all the photos are processed for the Events section!