Mitch Lanzini Lanzini Body Works
Hot Wheels
Then and now
By Eli Greenbaum
When it comes to pinpointing the source of car artist Mitch Lanzini’s remarkable talent, one has to look no further than his family tree.
The co-owner of Lanzini Body Works – his partner is his wife Tara—Mitch hails from an impressive artistic pedigree. His grandfather Angelo Lanzizni was an accomplished fresco artist, church muralist, and renowned portrait painter—he painted commissioned portraits of Senators Robert and Ted Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey, and President Bill Clinton as well as the official portrait of Pope John XXIII, which now resides in the Vatican Museum.
Angelo inspired two of Mitch’s uncles to carry on the family’s artistry and time-honored traditions through his California-based company Lanzini and Sons.
Angelo’s genes also passed on to Mitch. A proud product of the 1960’s, Mitch took his natural talent in a slightly different direction: he applied it to all things with wheels. As a kid in Whittier, Calif., Mitch played with Matchbox and Hot Wheels toys. He assembled whole bikes from scraps and pieces he found and, of course, sprayed them with paint. Then came the impact of The Munsters and Batman television shows. The Batmobile and the Munster Koach, TV creations by the radical “King of Kustomizers” George Barris, caught Mitch’s imagination. Barris subsequently had a huge influence on a young Mitch. Later in his career, American elite hot rod designer-builder-painter Boyd Coddington was a major influence. Mitch followed them closely as he developed his own talent.
As Mitch got older, his interest in all things automotive expanded. Hanging out with friends who worked in nearby body shops, he was educating himself about the work and was soon customizing motorcycles. He continued to try his hand at bigger projects and converted his own brand-new 1977 Datsun pickup truck into a dramatically modified custom “walk-through” vehicle that was so jaw-dropping it made the cover of Mini-Truck magazine.
Mitch’s interest in customizing reached a high point in 1993 when he decided he wanted a custom ’32 Ford Highboy Coupe built to his specifications. When he found out how much that would cost (a lot!), he decided to build it himself. He did, and with the money he saved, he and Tara set up the business that would become Lanzini Body Works in Huntington Beach, Calif. And they’ve been turning out great-looking work ever since.
Where some customizers specialize, Mitch likes to think of himself as a generalist (although he does love his candies and pearls) with a specialty for high-quality work. This versatile painter readily admits, “I’ll paint anything, and I have—surfboards, skateboards, bikes, helmets, guitars, even high-end artwork for a local artist—you name it. I rarely say no. I love to paint.” That love is evident as Mitch himself paints every project and job that comes into his shop. You just can’t tear the spray gun out of his hand.
But there is one aspect of car artistry that Mitch especially likes: Hi is a big fan of using tape to create special effects on the cars he customized. One in particular is this unique Classic Tape Shading Effect that’s reminiscent of a 50’s or 60’s lowrider or hot rot type of look. (To see how Mitch does it, please turn to page XX.) As Mitch says, “Tape has come a long way, and offers plenty of creative possibilities.”
Mitch’s versatility extends toward specialty paints and projects. Aside from customizing work, the shop does collision repair. He has also worked with military paint on commissions for government airplanes and a handful of top-secret armed forces projects. (Don’t ask, he won’t tell.) But it’s the picky customers that present Lanzini with the greatest and most satisfying challenges.
“As painters, we’re faced with so many variables that experience and knowledge become key contributors to turning out a successful project,” Mitch says. “We have to work with different kinds of surfaces from fiberglass and aluminum to steel and carbon, and all types of paint, a wide variety of materials, and the right support staff. These are all challenges, and customers’ expectations, I know they’ll be happy, and that’s the greatest compliment they can give me.”
Mitch has painted with lacquer, acrylic, enamel, urethane, and now water—all PPG products. In fact, he has been using PPG’s ENVIROBASE’ High Per system ever since it was introduced. He finds there’s a lot to like with the system. “I like that the number of components needed to create a quality finish is kept to an absolute minimum. I love the toners’ anti-settling properties—no agitation required, and the clearcoats are incredible. The DITZLER’ Custom Clear VC5700 is the bomb! It gives you a show car finish. I wouldn’t use anything else,” he enthuses.
For the record, Mitch’s mentors used PPG’s Ditzler paint and the high quality was always evident in the finished product. Respecting his mentors, he stayed with PPG. And his mentors respected him: Paul Stoll, PPG training instructor (now retired) and highly regarded in the custom world as the master of color (and proponent of taping), once invited Mitch to work with him spraying panels for PPG’s SEMA booth. A testament to the confidence PPG has in Mitch’s abilities.
Although Mitch doesn’t chase the top-tier industry awards (“A happy customer is more important than an award,” he says), they seem to find him nonetheless. Featuring Mitch’s shimmering gold paintwork, “Stella d’Oro”, a ’33 Speedstar coupe from Alloway’s Hot Rod Shop won Best in Class at Detroit’s Autorama in 2010. And his love of customizing and painting came through clearly on television when Mitch showcased his talents in five seasons—35 episodes—of Overhaulin’, starting in 2005.
Today, Lanzini Body Works takes up most of his and Tara’s time, but when Mitch gets a few minutes of his own, you may find him in his home recording studio. That’s where he might be playing one of his many guitars, two of which he built. A talented guitarist in his own right, if he wasn’t painting cars, Mitch would be playing guitar full time in a rock or blues band. For now, though, Mitch is keen to keep on painting and gets a huge kick out of the fact that Hot Wheels and Jada Toys have turned some of his designs into collectibles. Boys and their toys, eh?
Street Rod Builder 2004
It’s often said that you can’t keep a good man down. It holds true for cars as well. You see it all the time when projects falter and fall by the wayside, only to be reborn into something special. Such is the case with the ’66 GTO built by Jerry Maletich Jr. of Lancaster, Calif.
Jerry’s story is typical gearhead. A 25-year-old father of two, he was kept busy with the necessities of life and engaged in his hobby of turning wrenches as time allowed. It was late in ’04 when fate stepped in and gave Jerry a chance to turn his car-building hobby into a career. A work injury prevented him from returning to his regular duties, so he took the opportunity to start his own hot rod business. With the support of his wife, Brandie, Jerry was ready to go. All he needed was a suitable project.
It wasn’t long before Jerry spied a potential project lying very close to home in the driveway of Byron Devries, his father-in-law. The ’66 GTO was a completely gutted shell that had been painted and for some reason left to languish in the elements for almost four years. Jerry told PHR: “One day I asked him what was going on with the car and he said he was pissed off over the deal and didn’t want to talk about it. A few beers later Byron finally talked to me. He said he was in the middle of building the car when the shop painted the car without his permission, and not even in the right color.” Seems the shop stuck him with the bill for the mis-painted GTO. This made him so mad that he lost all interest in the project. This was Jerry’s big break and he wasn’t about to let it slip by. After a few more beers he was able to convince his father-in-law that he could build him the car of his dreams. Byron had wanted to restore the GTO since he thought it was numbers matching, but later found out his ride wasn’t so rare after all. Jerry eventually sold him on the idea of building a custom ride rather than a fully restored car. Now that Jerry had a platform to work on, he just needed the right plan.
His first stop was Pro-Machine Engine Building in Placentia, Calif., where Jerry’s friend, John Beck, helped figure out what they could do with the 428 Poncho they had. What they wanted was a tri-power set-up, but unfortunately nobody makes an intake for this. Luckily for Jerry, John was good friends with Chico over at Moon Equipment. Moon was able to set them up with three polished two-barrel throttle bodies that would give the look of the old school six-pack setup. John then had a one-off aluminum sheet metal manifold fabricated to fit the throttle bodies. Seems the guys at Moon Equipment dug the GTO build enough to sponsor the car for the ’05 SEMA show. With this, the Mooneyes “Moonshine” GTO was born. Besides making the three-deuce fuel injection work, Pro-Machine also went to town on the rest of the engine. They started by boring the 428 .060-over and then gave it a 4.00-inch stroke. The now 439 cubic-inch mill was internally balanced and filled with SRP 9.0:1 pistons, Eagle connecting rods and a 244/254 (.510/.533 lift) 116 LSA bumpstick. The cam works Manley valves, COMP springs and Magnum roller rockers. With a pump-gas friendly tune, the 439 was able to lay down 384 horsepower and 455 ft-lbs of torque on the engine dyno. To keep the retro-cool theme going, the bullet was painted Pontiac blue and the throttle bodies were topped with period correct six-pack air cleaners. “There’s no school like the old school,” says Jerry. MSD lights the fire and headers by Doug Thorley route the exhaust through the MagnaFlow crossover exhaust system. For a little extra get-up-and-go, the engine is equipped with a NOS Sportsman fogger series nitrous system.
Just because Jerry wanted to keep a retro look, it didn’t mean he would have to stick with the antiquated suspension. The frame was separated from the body and after a trip to Primo powder painters for a coat of sparkle silver; it was treated to a host of hard-turning improvements. Global West upper and lower control arms work hand-in-hand with the Hotchkis TVS rear suspension system. QA1 billet adjustable coil-over shocks combine with 1.5-inch front and .75-inch rear Hotchkis sway bars to help the Goat flatten the curves. The steering was tightened up with the addition of all new suspension parts from Original Parts Group along with a close-ratio Saginaw power steering box. Up front, the tall B-body spindles got a set of Baer Track Plus disc brakes, while the rear axle ditched the drums in favor of more disc brake parts from Baer. Power assist for the brakes comes by way of a whiplash-inducing Hydra-boost system. Rolling stock consists of Foose Nitrous 18×8-inch front wheels and massive 20×10-inch wheels in the rear. Wrapped around the billet hoops are Falken TRV tires (285/30R20 rear and 245/40R18 front).
With the frame done and rolling, Jerry could now set the motor in place and work on the rest of the drivetrain. A Tremec TKO-600 five-speed tranny was chosen with a McLeod flywheel and Street-Twin clutch. This combo reliably shifts all that torque back to the Currie 9-inch nodular rear end complete with 3.89 gears. While the frame was being updated, the body was at Lanzini Body Works in Huntington Beach, Calif. The neglected paint was stripped away and numerous mods were done to the vintage tin. The door handles and locks were shaved away along with the drip rails. The firewall was smoothed and all the gaps were made just right. Once everything was perfect, the Mooneyes theme was carried forward with the application of PPG Chrome Yellow and a custom mixed “Moonshine Metallic” black by Mitch Lanzini. To jazz it up a bit, Bob Iverson laid on the unique turned white-gold-leaf accent stripe down the side of the too cool Goat. The body was once again bolted to the frame and it started to look like a car again.
With SEMA looming on the horizon, the GTO still needed an interior. Stitchcraft in Huntington Beach, Calif., was tasked with sewing up the Honey and Black Suede in keeping with the Mooneyes theme. The heavily modified front seats started life as off-the-shelf Sparco units. Outlaw Products milled out the custom billet dash then filled it with a slew of gauges from Mooneyes. The Budnik wheel keeps the Goat pointed in the right direction and cruising tunes come by way of the Alpine sound system. The end result is a comfy place to enjoy romps around town. A/C is there anytime you want to roll down the windows, which has the added benefit of letting in more sound from the mill thumping under the hood. The GTO made it to its SEMA debut and Jerry was thrilled at how the Pontiac came out. He told PHR: “This was a great way to start my new hot rod shop and at the same time give my father-in-law the car of his dreams. I would say that I’ve been so lucky to have been able to build this car and make it so different from every other run-of-the-mill GM or Ford. I know there will be those hardcore Pontiac guys out there who absolutely hate what I’ve done to the GTO, and believe me I met a few of them at SEMA, but this is what I think a ’66 GTO should have looked like all along.” Don’t get the idea that this ride is done. Jerry is already hard at work on it for the ’06 SEMA show and is working on more power from the 439 by way of massaged heads and maybe a bit of forced induction. You can bet the Moonshine GTO is going to be around turning heads for a long time to come.
If Mitch Lanzini’s smiling face looks familiar, it should. In fact, you may have spent hours with him already. He appeared in over 25 episodes of the Overhaulin’ TV show. While completing a custom in a week is not something he’d recommend for the daily grind, he is proud of the work he accomplished on the show. “When you have the pressure on, it’s amazing what you can get done,” he says.
Like many in the business, Mitch’s love for all things automotive started in childhood. He collected Hot Wheels and built model cars for contests.
When he was a little older, he painted bicycles and flamed motorcycles. Things took off from there. He earned his first cover in 1982 with a full custom Datsun pickup for Mini-Truck magazine. Tara, Mitch’s wife, shares his life-long passion for cars, and together they opened Lanzini Body Works in 1993.
At Lanzini Body Works, there’s always a custom project going on, but collision work is their bread and butter. “I treat it the same as a custom job. And I
use the best that PPG has to offer,” says Mitch, who is the shop’s lead painter. He stocks his shelves with the ENVIROBASE® High Performance
waterborne base coat system. “There’s no dieback. I’m doing more cars in a day. And the support I get from PPG is outstanding.”
Mitch is taking in more and more specialty painting projects as well, which fulfills his passion for expressive painting. He has done commissions
for surfboards, aircraft interiors, modern art displays and quick turn around prototypes. He has also painted a custom line of skateboard and roller-skating wheels. “I’m excited by painting things that aren’t cars. Something that’s strange, that’s different, that’s weird.”
Using an automotive paint on this wide array of non-automotive objects isn’t as counter intuitive as some may think. Mitch points out that Fender®
used car paint to finish its guitars as far back as the ‘50s and ‘60s. He says the Envirobase High Performance system and its latex technology works especially well for these projects. “The toners are very vibrant and bright,” he explains. “When blending in a flame, it’s so clean, so perfect. It’s not big droplets, it’s nice, fine droplets.” They never know what the next big project will be at Lanzini Body Works. But no matter if it’s a one-off custom,
collision repair or a cutting-edge piece of art, one thing is for certain— Mitch will always stick with a proven performer. “The last thing I paint will
be PPG,” he says.
Guitars and cars have always gone together. From Robert Johnson’s “Terraplane Blues” to Bruce Springsteen’s “Pink Cadillac” to Wilson Picket’s “Mustang Sally,” if you’ve got a six string, it’s not hard to link it to car culture. In the 1960s and 70s, a lot of this action was headquartered in Southern California, where hot rods and surf wagons tore through the streets, their big block engines rumbling all the way to Fullerton. Now G&L is cementing the link further with the R/T collection, featuring the ASAT Classic Bluesboy 90 and ASAT Special, painted with muscular MOPAR colors:
To ensure the colors’ authenticity, G&L turned to Mitch Lanzini, owner of the world famous Lanzini Body Works (featured on TV’s Overhaulin’ show). For Lanzini, the project made perfect sense: “Back in the day, Leo Fender would go to the automotive paint store and look at the colors, and that’s where your Sherwood Forest Green, Seafoam Green, and Fiesta Red came from. Those are all car colors.”
Surprisingly, Lanzini says he’s always been more of a guitar guy than a car guy. His connection to G&L goes back decades. “I was in a band in the 1980s with a guy who worked at G&L,” Lanzini says. “I knew that G&L were good guitars. That was as about as close as you could get to Leo Fender.” Later, he worked on a car for David McLaren, VP of BBE Sound (G&L’s parent company), and when the talk turned to guitar, they cooked up the R/T series.
The ASAT Special retails for $1600 with a street price around $1220.
The ASAT Classic Bluesboy (not shown) features a Seymour Duncan Seth Lover alnico humbucker in the neck position. Retail price: $1750. Street price: $1312.50
Shipping will begin in mid-March, so gentlemen, start your engines!
For more on the R/T series, head to G&L:
1970 was a golden year for muscle cars in America. Back then, it was all about speed and power. A Dodge Challenger of that year had a sticker price of just $4,056, and it came loaded with a 426 cubic-inch V-8, 425 horsepower engine. So what if it only got 10 miles per gallon—gas would always be cheap, right? Though we no longer live in those times, G&L is paying homage with their new Detroit Muscle R/T series. There are two S-types available. This model is the Legacy:
To ensure that the colors were accurate, G&L turned to Mitch Lanzini, owner of world famous Lanzini Body Works (featured on TV’s Overhaulin’ show). The project made perfect sense to Lanzini, who has been a G&L player for decades: “Back in the day, Leo Fender would go to the automotive paint store and look at the colors, and that’s where your Sherwood Forest Green, Seafoam Green, and Fiesta Red came from. Those are all car colors.”
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