It's been almost a year since I've posted one of these design opinion/historical reviews, and I've been thinking about this subject for a while, so.... CAR COLORS ON THE ROAD TODAY As I drive around and look at the cars that share the road with me, I'm struck by the boring sameness of the colors on all the daily drivers. These days, it seems like the great majority of late model passenger cars are silver, white, champagne, cream, grey (often dark and metallic of late), or black. There are a modest sprinkling of red cars, and a tiny minority of All Other: blue, green, yellow, brown, etcetera. Now this is Southern California I'm talking about. When I was a teenager in the '50s, cars in SoCal were wildly diverse by comparison. Red, yellow, blue, aqua, and even purple were available as stock colors from dealers, and people bought and drove them! Of course there were a lot of hot rods and customs with custom paint colors as well, but I'm really talking about the colors you could get on your new car from the dealer. A BRIEF HISTORY OF FACTORY COLORS On to the historical part. Nothing in this piece is verifiable fact; it's merely my observation and opinion over a 60-year period, and I'm talking specifically about factory colors on US-made cars. My earliest critical recollections regarding automotive paint colors started in the 1950s. The decade started off rather conservatively, and continued with the same kinds of colors that had been offered in the '40s including blues, greens, maroon, tan, yellow, black and white. Two-tone schemes were offered by Buick and others even in the early '40s, and some of these still look quite handsome today: Metallic colors, which first appeared around 1940, became particularly popular during the '50s. Multi-color schemes picked up with the introduction of the "hardtop convertible", which offered a particularly useful boundary for a color break: By the mid-50s, bright colors and metallics were being offered in two- and even three-toned color schemes: CUSTOM PAINTERS During this period, custom car builders like Barris, Bailon, Ayala and Cerny were blending custom colors including imaginative shades such as "burple". By the mid-50s candy, pearl, and (a little later) metalflake provided even glitzier options. I won't attempt to illustrate these, given the limitations of screen reproduction. Toward the end of the decade, those same custom painters really turned up the volume with scallops, flames, panel painting and more. I won't attempt to detail these trends either, as I'm not expert about them and they really aren't my thing. I'll just say that Larry Watson enlarged the universe of custom cars dramatically with his innovations, and use just one picture to represent the whole enchilada: I won't attempt to cover vans or lowriders at all, except to say that they should be grateful to Mr. Watson. LATER HISTORY To my mind, there wasn't a lot that was newsworthy from Detroit from the '60s through the '90s, and the selection of factory colors remained fairly stable. There were occasional flights of fancy: Of course there have been improvements in materials, and factory paint techniques have evolved to include clearcoat, pearl, and multi-stage paints that emulate custom candy colors. In the last decade some of these pearl paints have displayed really nice "flop", or variation in light-to-dark on various paint surfaces according to light reflection. And the cost of materials has skyrocketed! MY OWN STUFF Repainting a car is a really big deal to me, even when I'm paying somebody else to do all the work. I have only had six cars painted in my life, and there will be only one or two more. I notice that my taste in colors has calmed down dramatically with age; I did a couple of red cars long ago, but my more recent choices have been pretty conservative greens. The next one is likely to be dark grey! I agonize over color choices, watching cars on the street and looking for promising colors. It's usually several years for me between choosing a color and actually getting the car painted; a familiar frustration is seeing a color that I like, and then watching as the next 50 cars I see repainted are my color. Grrr. Carmakers are steadily working to cook up interesting color varieties. The hot rod and custom community has certainly kept its end up, and any car show today is likely to have a lot of cool colors to see. I do have a gripe with Joe Everyday, though, in that the majority of drivers that I see on the freeway are BOOORRING. There are usually some interesting comments and responses to one of these rants. Whaddya think?
Awesome, Carla and I had this discussion on last weekends road trip. Lots of cool Browns these days but damn, GM must own stock in dark metallic maroons, our current Buicks color. It is the second one we have owned.
I really like my friends new VW Jetta. Its a really nice shade of maroon metallic. Not sure what they call it but it has really made me second guess the paint on my mother's Cadillac. The maroon looks really nice with a gold accent.
Nice observations 50, and color is a topic near and dear to me. Most of my living has involved color selection and consultation. However, the portion I quoted from you needs correction. Metallics hit the automotive market in 1928. It was rare, but as we got into the 30s it was used more often. In the mid 30s some of the coachbuilders were using genuine pearl finishes made from ground fish scale and oyster shell. One Lincoln KB cabriolet was done for the show circuit in a combination of red and grey pearl. Just thought I'd share a slice of OEM finish history in your topic, and again I appreciate the content and your observations.
I agree about the late model cars. I think that when some body buys a late model car, they tend to stay on the safe side of the color selection. That may be for resell or to try and stay a less attractive color, eg: write me a ticket red. A coworker had his just finished nova painted a VW red, a real nice color. My car pool partner has his F1 painted a purple color, that my wife calls Barney.
Like you Brenda & I agonized about trying to remain true to the era without repainting the "Ranch Wagon" the original pale green & white. We discussed the boring colors of all the cars around us today as we drove the wagon to our friends July 4th celebration,it seem the car industry while striving for better fuel economy,creature comforts and safety features totally forgot about how important a color can be. HRP
I was looking at The "Mini" for my wife and I was impressed with what looked like monochromatic colors of the 40's/50's, including two-tones. I see some of the same on the new Scions, Colors that wood look period correct on a Shoebox or a 49-52 Chevy.
Very cool thread and well put together. Not only are a lot of today's color's boring, they all seem to have the same boxy look to all cars. There are some nice greens and dark to light red to orange metallics on some of the new cars. I like the light green on your Ford Hard Top and the dark green on the shoe box is very nice. I'm thinking of the darker green on the shoe box for my new ride. Solution to the color problem, a good painter and a custom mix. CRUISER
Wonderful post, and a topic that is also near and dear to me. Not counting my roots(model cars), I've been painting stuff for over 40 years ....I'm drawn to color, and agonize when it's MY car and I have to spin the color wheel and decide what's right for the project de jour. One thing that has remained a constant--something I advise my customers, and personally live by----the wilder it is, the faster you get tired of it.
Good point. I look back at cars I owned and painted and wish my first car (71 Cutlass at 14) would have stayed lime gold. We did it up in Caddy Autum Maple Firemist.............yes, similar to teh burgundy we have had on many late models the last few years. I sold that car due to safety in the HS parking lot and bought a beater 79 Mustang (we spent a couple years looking for an AD pickup, that was the plan to replace the Cutlass) . Dad and I were building cars and painting stuff my first year of college and we squirted that stang ROYAL CESSNA MAROON. One of the classiest solids I have even seen. I guided a couple customers to paint their cars a similar solid since then.
I Agree. I work as a painter boing mostly collision work and I spend my days painting variations of silver, gold and black. Most of the new car makers have some cool colors but they just dont sell like the boring ones do. I just painted my car blue and gold, a new Mini and Toyota color. It took me a while to decide to do it but I wanted something that was a little different. And its only paint so why not do something fun.
There are some really stunning burgundys, maroons and burnt maple colors out there right now. I guess if the cars all look like shit, you at least have to come up with some great colors. I also keep seeing this late model suzuki sh*tbox parked by my work all the time, ugly as a mother-in-laws kiss, but it is a light blue metallic that REALLY pops. Kind of reminds me of '55 Cad Bahama Blue but a tad lighter.
Color choice is why I have a hard time getting anywhere past patch panels and spot primer. I agonize over it and have periods where I'm set on a color combo and then see a bunch of cars with it and go back to the drawing board. I've always wanted loved looking at old magazines and seeing what colors were big in certain eras, but it always leaves me wondering what the majority of quality but not magazine grade cars were wearing in those eras. Like titian red in the late 50's, it's all over magazines but were tons of average joes doing it?
Slammed beat me to it. You can see more pics here. http://jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=697996
We keep looking at new cars for ideas to paint our projects. There is a really cool rootbeer color we have been looking at on a new Dodge Ram pickup at the local Dodge dealer. I could see that one on a hot rod..........maybe mine. Don
I've read from several sources that somber colors are popular during tough economic times and brighter colors when times are good. http://www.pcimag.com/articles/link-between-color-use-and-economic-trends-discovered I've seen some interesting new colors lately but rarely anything bright and flashy. Mainly greens and browns. Who knew brown would come back?
I narrowed mine down to lime green metallic, burgundy metallic and the purple i chose. Went with the purple after a week of watching every car on the road.....no purple cars....
50 Fraud, your cars are perfect in my opinion. I have worked for 20 years in OEM color design working with designers on future colors. A lot of it is driven by clothing and the economy. It all goes in cycles as far as factory color goes, the same basic colors but new pigment technology makes the colors better (sometimes) It is fun when a young designer thinks they have invented something brand new, and then you show them the same thing on a 50's or 60's car. The only really new thing lately is all the orange metallic / copper colors that were made possible by a new coated aluminum pigment that has only been available for about 10 years.
Hey, most of what the "painters" have written, could have been exactly what I was going to write! I also fret over color choices, combinations, etc. Even doing custom cars, I find that most "regular" people have no idea of what they want, and refuse to be adventurous. I wind up experimenting with colors on the rare few that let me, or on my own cars. I love playing around with candies, experimenting with differetn bases, pearl topcoats, blending my own pearl colors. On one 48 Chevy I did, for a friend who trusted me, I must have painted over a dozen gallon cans with different versions of Candy Eggplant, different bases, shades, mixes, with different pearls added, etc. before deciding on a color. My own cars, going back a few years, have been Porsche Red, Candy Cobalt and silver, Lavender Pearl and Candy Purple, 2 Tone Candy Brandywine, Fuschia Candy and white Abablone flake. Painted my GF's car pale Pink Pearl and Candy Burgundy. Have painted about 20 other cars in various shades of Candies and Pearls. Besides the regular BC/CC colors. I think there are a lot of factory colors that are exciting, but you dont' see many on the road. The Copper/bronzes just had their day, while bright Golds are pretty popular, as well as some interesting Lime Greens right now. I try to steer guys who don't want Candy or pearl paint, to some interesting factory colors, exp. if they are worried about touching them up, or damage repair, as on regularly driven cars. While most of the public is pretty damn boring, there are bright lights a-burning out there!
It seems we are all in the same boat. Good thread topic. As I too agonize over committing to a color. It's such a big decision and can make or break your hardwork. My wife laughs at me, cause one week I'll do spray outs and of a few colors and say "oh this is the one" then the following week it will be a totally different color. Sucks when you narrow it down and then see the color you were planning on painted on something else. eerrrrrrrr
I've been trying to pick a color for an OT project for a couple months now. It really keeps me up at night. I have to cut it in next week and still have no idea on color after I saw one yesterday painted close to the color I had picked. It's not so much about being different it just looked bad in that color. It's going to get sold so I should pic some new hip, popular color and be done with it.
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