Kimble’s new book celebrates airbrushing and the automobile

By Mark Glover

MARFA – In celebration of 30 years of airbrush art, Car Tech Publishing has just released “Cutaway – The Automotive Art of David Kimble.”

“It’s selling well in Detroit,” Kimble said from his Palace Theatre studio in Marfa.

The book, written by Kimble and Chris Endres, features a cover with a glossy color cutaway of a Texas phenomenon: the Chaparral 2E race car.

“The most aerodynamic car in the world at the time (1966), and built in Midland,” Kimble said. “Saw it at Riverside. Looked like a UFO.”

Duisenbergs, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Cadillacs, Cobras, Offenhausers, Porsches and Kimble’s bread and butter muscle car, the Chevrolet Corvette, can be found in color cutaways throughout the book, including tidbits of information, like the weight of a 1961 Ferrari 250 LM (2,100 lbs), the compression ratio of a 1930 Duesenburg (5.2:1), number of cylinders in the 1931 Cadillac (16) and the cylinder block deck angle (74) of the Beach Boys’ favorite mill, the four speed, dual quad, positraction 409.

Kimble, who has lived in Marfa with his wife Ellen for 19 years, starts his art with photographs and math data from geometrical 3-D architectural files. He then reformats to a jpeg file, prints the drawings in stages before he starts the manual process of airbrushing.

“This procedure makes it possible to go into a totally electronic system and use traditional methods,” Kimble said.

Airbrushing has been around since the 1890s. Kimble took it up a notch in the 1960s but didn’t get serious until  1976. Today, other than T-shirt prints, fingernail painting and tricking-out motorcycle gas tanks, the art form may have seen its heyday.

“I may be the last man standing,” Kimble said.

The airbrush gun is about 6 inches long and has a trigger to feather paint and air through a nozzle. Kimble can paint lines to perfection as thin as 1/32nd of an inch and as wide as half an inch depending on his distance from the canvas. He uses an automobile touch- up paint sprayer for backgrounds.

Kimble’s biggest customers are GM and Chrysler but he’s also been directly contracted by Bridgestone Tires, Ferrari and Lamborghini.

“I believe in driving what I draw,” Kimble said. “Not only drive, thrash.”

He recalls a trip to Modina, Italy where he drove a Countach.

“They named it after the 1971 Italian Car Show,” Kimble explains. “Countach is a Belonese expletive. They’re damn fast!”

Kimble’s history as a driver includes his post-college days racing a 1968 Camaro at Riverside and Willow Springs in southern California. At 47 he started racing motorcycles.

“Kawasaki ZX7R 750, it has an 80mph 1st gear,” Kimble said, hovering over the 20-year-old motorcycle that now leans in the auditorium of the Palace Theatre.  “It’s like flying next to the ground. Little hard to drive in town. Got to slide the clutch to 30.” His face twitches a little as he shows a helmet with a deep gash and a set of racing leathers with horse bites out of the leg and shoulder. “Got a closet full of ground up leather.”

Along with contracting his precision illustrations to the big car makers, collecting cars and writing books, he also prints calendars.

“The 2011 calendar featured classic Chevrolet V-8 motors of the 1950’s and 1960’s. Next year will be anything but Corvettes and 2013 will be all Corvette in celebration of its 60th anniversary,” Kimble said.

Marfa Book Company will host a book signing of “Cutaway – The Automotive Art of David Kimble” by the author this Friday at 6:30 pm.