Art & Inspiration Why'd You Pick That Color?

When contemplating paint, I automatically go to the new-car color charts for the period I'm emulating. My Falcon came with a serviceable blue interior and I wanted to have a factory look, so that limited me to white or blue. I don't care for white on most cars and I find light and medium blue to be a pretty pedestrian color choice. That left dark blue. I'm cheap, though, so rather than have actual Oxford Blue Poly mixed up, I went and looked at late-model touch-up paint and found a color that matched (GM Indigo Blue Metallic). It helped that I knew what I was looking for thanks to seeing a plethora of S-10's painted that color.

If I'm starting from scratch, I like to dig up as many period images (both photos and illustrations) of the type of car I'm building and use that for inspiration. Hence I tend to like commercial green or red on old pickups.

I'm real selective about red paint. I'm planning to paint my '31 Chevy sports special 1940-'48 Harley Flight Red because it resembles the red cars and trucks seen in late-1930s/early-1940s Kodachromes, which is exactly the era I'm shooting for.

 

Here's my 2 cents. Color can make or break a car. It can change the scale and depth of the vehicle. Sounds crazy, but a brown 63' Vette gets no attention, pro street or stock. I built a 63' split-window for super gas about 20 years ago. Bought it out of Dallas, it was an old gasser from the 60's, complete with a homemade drop front axle with coil overs. Kinda scary when I first took it apart. Finally got to the color choice. Too many red, white, blue and black Vettes out there. So I got brave and painted it 70 hugger orange and 70 chevy white. Raced it for many years. Then made the street car you see below. Sure won a lot of shows and drew crowds where ever we went. Sold it now I'm building a 32' 5 window, getting near the paint color stage, harder to choose than the Vette. Maybe just red oxide- back to brown. A lot less difficult to take care of!

 

^^absolutely WICKED car.

 

Ditto. My T sedan project has a heavy C-1 Corvette influence and a circa 1960-62 feel, so I am looking at '58-'62 Corvette colour chips. Basically looking at Roman Red, Cascade Green, or Classic Cream.
Honduras Maroon is not in the hunt, too HAMB conformist. So hey, I guess even I can be influenced by peer pressure, just in the opposite direction!

 

I kinda like Cascade Green, considering I live in the Cascades and all.
It sure would fit in with all those green Kia Souls I see around here.

 

Not a lot has been said about YELLOW.....Done this on my sedan about 15 years ago now and still like it....

 

This is my 3 window and I went with a Washington blue that I darkened some from the original color as I wanted it to look blue in the sun and black in the shade. Turned out great as far as I am concerned...I like it can you tell.

 

Looks green. What mix or type is it?

 

How'd I choose the color? Complete and total accident.

 

I choose lighter colors for my cars because they better show the style lines of Henry's cars. Those lines are better seen in light shadow and light and can often be visually lost in a dark color.

 

I picked the "storm gray" on my Caddy, because everybody said "your not really gonna' paint it that color are you?".....BUT when it was painted, everybody said "good choice"......imagine that!

 

I saw an intriguing color today, wish I could show it but it was on a Tesla; I better not huh!
It's really hard to describe it, had a matte finish, like fine felt, kind of a medium gray or charcoal, no not hot rod flat black, think more gray (grey).
Tried Mr. Google but all the examples called it a "wrap".
Was I dreaming this?
I think it would look good on a deuce roadster if it was paint but I can imagine it would not be too easy to apply to louvers.

 

The original plan on my 56 ElCamino Conversion was satin black body, red wheels with hub caps, red dash, a Mexican blanket on the seat, drive it for a couple years then sell it. Listening to friends during my build who said my design almost looked factory and deserved a real paint job. I then decided they might be right. I enjoy driving my builds so I usually try to find colors that could be touched up if needed. I played around painting a toy model I built and came up with a two tone combination (Sunburst Orange and Dark Tarnished Silver) that are current GM colors but still have some similarity to colors that had been used on the Tri-Five cars.
Of course deciding to paint the car also caused me to do the interior, replace chrome and stainless parts and use a set of wheels to compliment the look I was going for. It also convinced me that I am having more fun with the car than I thought so selling it after a couple years never even crossed my mind.

 

God, that would be so wrong in flat black, and it's so right in the colours it's in!

 

I wanted a color that I wouldn't see everywhere and that I wouldn't get tired of so I chose a really dark green . Even though there isn't any black in the mix , most of the time it does look black although in the afternoon light it does get quite green . The other reason is that most people don't like green but it works for me

 

Everyone thought the same when they saw the chassis for dad's roadster...green??? But that's one of his favorite colors and it's a custom mix that is darker until the sun hits it.

 

My 55 is black, because that is it's original color from the factory. Plus I like black cars. No American Graffiti wannabe, here.

 

What can I say.I just like this color.We call in wet cement.Both my 40 coupe and 27 T wear it.

 

My pops wanted to shoot his 28 black, but I talked him into spraying it a stock A color. It was a great choice since our small community already has 3 others black A roadsters plus my pops doesnt like to keep his cars clean(black would have been a nightmare).

 

I did mine 16 years ago because I liked the colour and still do. I've never had a negative comment on the choice (until possibly now) even by people who aren't Holden lovers. Some colours suit certain body shapes.

 

You have to be careful about choosing yellow because it can look really dingy, dirty and awful when the paint gets old.
I painted this truck yellow and my best friend says he would never have used that color. The truck gets so many compliments from beautiful women that I dont care what my friend thinks!

 

For my shoebox, I wanted a very dark color that would produce long reflections to help break up the tubbiness of the sides. When I saw Cadillac Polo Green ('90s color) it just spoke to me, and I've never regretted the choice:

When I did my '56, I chose Nissan Mystic Emerald just because I liked it, and it wasn't too close to Polo Green. It's been an unexpected treat because it doesn't show dust or dirt at all!

I had a difficult time choosing the color for my '40. I picked a Lexus color called Meteor Blue Mica because it seemed to suit the car, but I wasn't able to get a formula for it that looked right:

In the end, my friend Bruce Schultz mixed a custom color that was intended to look similar to the Lexus color. It's much more intense than Meteor Blue, but I think it looks great:

 

I like it better 50, seems to fit the work quite well.

 

Transtar self etching primer.Olive green.


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Great looking roadster all around!

 

Falcon George, when you say this or that "Isn't traditional" and make statements like "I never saw this" or "I never saw that" and "more revisionist history BS" are you using that synonymously with "not period correct"? Because for guys in my era and area, paint was expensive, and even cheap wasn't as good as free. So, if a guy had a quart of this and a quart of that it often got mixed together and it was what it was. So, I don't think there's a color in the rainbow that isn't period correct for a hot rod. Of course I'm talking about solid colors and not special effects. Just like I often read on here that jacked up front ends and white wall cheater slicks aren't traditional but there are many pics of just that on here from back in the day.

 

My OT daily is a 944S2 in guards red. Part of the reason it pops so hard is that porsche put down a really good, thick paint job. Its single stage and its a lot more Orange than a lot of other reds. The original paint on my car is tough!

 

My color choices will be based on the fact that neither my Henry J or Dodge Panel Truck have air conditioning. I don't plan on roasting in a dark color.

I think contrast sets a car off too. Since wheels and tires define a car I try to think what color looks good surrounding the wheels and tires.

 

Well...spent several days mixing and testing and mixing and testing till I got it JUST right.

 

I bought my first car at 16, a yellow 40 Ford Deluxe Coupe, 4 years later, getting married, no money, no job I sold it, a year later I bought another yellow 40 Ford Deluxe Coupe.
Although I never saw either one shine that had to be my color when I finally got around to painting it.