Sweatin it out over color is very common. As simple as it seems from the outside lookin in, it's the most important choice you'll make on any build. I'm nowhere near ready yet, but I already went through the maddening amount of 'net pics, old mags, later mags with pics of the same car, and countless other sources trying to decide what color to paint the 61 Belair. It's an all blue OEM interior that can't be exchanged and that narrows it down. I heard from at least a dozen friends and associates to paint it Ermine White. "Best color for those cars/Can't go wrong/My favorite..." etc. But then there's this "thing" that I have a hard time with. This is all me, and perhaps to a minor degree offensive to some, but my theory is that the last thing the car world needs is another "Plum Crazy" Mopar, another "Cigarette Cream" 40s Packard, and another "Ermine White" Chevy bubbletop. Some colors are used so often because "it's correct", when correct might be the LAST thing you wish to accomplish. Had I been able to exchange the interior for the OEM white/grey/black combination, "Hugger Orange" was the direction for it. I can see the car with polished TQ Thrust wheels, lowered, and a vintage white in the center of the trim. That would suck with a blue interior! IROC or Shelby Blue would look so out of place. Dark blue would just get lost and turn it into a total yawn. Black with a blue gut would look like you bought an interior kit at a discount for your black car. Silver? Nope. The lines tend to get lost, even though it's a metallic, and they just look tired. Jubilee Blue Poly. Not a real popular color these days, not too bright and silvery, not too dark and boring, the right vibe for an early 60s car, the last choice of the average modded bubbletop. But if somebody got this car as a hand-me-down for school or as a graduation gift (albeit used), that color and interior might have been "just the way it came" in that scenario. Everything being the same except for the wheel choice, that color should look like what I want it to, a warmed up stocker that was affordable to the average guy in the early/mid 60s. I thought I'd add the pic that finished the choice, but you need to imagine it lowered, and now with OEM chrome wheels:
50 Fraud, you mention greys, but when last did you see a non-metallic grey on a late-model car? I think I saw something on (I think) a Fiat recently, but it's rare. Noticing that led me to consider a thick, glossy mid-grey for the Morris Minor, though I'm vacillating between that, burgundy, black, and something like the BRG that's on it now. This is the sort of thing I mean: I've been surprisingly constant on the '31 A project, however. It's always been black, except for the fabric body; and that has always been a sort of plum-purple-burgundy that came out as a "fashion" paint colour here some years ago, and named for Pinotage, the local Pinot Noir/Cinsaut hybrid grape cultivar.
Sometimes the most interesting colors appear just before a car company implodes; probably because that's the only thing they can afford to change. SAAB had a non-metallic battleship grey in the last few years. I have only seen one, but it stuck in my mind because it was so different from everything else in the parking lot. In the early nineties, the Isuzu Amigo appeared in re-popped fifties shades of aqua and coral and yellow. In the fifties, Kaiser had some of the most beautiful colors of the period. If I recall correctly, they hired color consultants from the home and fashion industry to make their cars more appealing to women. Their market research indicated that while the husband usually selected the car, the wife decided on the color. Dodge followed suit with their LaFemme models.
Great thread....!!! I am currently pulling my hair out trying to decide on a color for my 49 chevy fleetline....looks like primer will be next week. I love the new metalic green on the Subaru's...it is such a classy color but will be spraying this paint myself outside....been told spray a single stage solid color. Dark red is it so far....my 68 vette is dark blue and I love the blues but 2 blue cars?
cool thread, let me see if i could put a different spin on it that might make some sense. i don't think alot of new colors are boring, they just put some cool colors on boring cars. what might not look so cool on lets say a "square" bodied honda, might look awesome on a early 50"s car, with all the rounded fenders and bodylines. the metallics and pearls dance around differently when applied to cars with curved body panels. if you see a color you love on a scion, chances are it'll look even better on an older car. my 0.02 cents.
Your post reminded me of another color I always liked and thought would look good on a custom: 1973(?) Triumph TR6 French Blue. It's a "smokey" color that looks great in person, but doesn't always photograph well.
Interesting observation. I'd read about the wife-oriented marketing strategies before. Only thing, despite what it might look like from Pennsylvania, Fiat aren't going away any time soon. They've always been big in Europe and, having got a lot of quality-control issues sorted over the past two decades or so, are an established mainstream option. Not that I'm any great fan of the Agnellis ...
Interesting history lesson and perspectives on paint. It's too bad that the new cars don't have many "breaks" in the roofs and body lines to do two tones much anymore. Maybe that's another reason for the boringness. It's funny each color I think of painting my truck I seem to see on every other car that passes. lol I have put much thought into my color choice for my build. I have narrowed it down to two. One is a light light blue metallic and the other is a light gold HOK color. I get twisted up and obsessed because I am thinking about shooting the body, frame, and cage the same color and it's a fenderless truck. The color could totally make or brake this thing in my opinion. I am shying away from doing a custom mixed color because I plan to drive the doors off it and run it at the track. Those two points make me think I will be doing many touch ups.
"Only thing, despite what it might look like from Pennsylvania, Fiat aren't going away any time soon." I didn't mean to include Fiat in that group and Dodge is certainly still around. I'm well aware of Fiat's presence in the world - they now own Chrysler, after all. Being Italian, Fiat, Alfa, Ferrari, Maserati, et al are in my blood, if not currently in my garage.
I love that brown. i have seen a non-matllic grey on some the Scions. good lookin grey also. out of curiosity anyone know the name of the lime green color used on the mopars in the 60's,70's?
It should not be surprising that people are having difficulties in deciding on a color to paint a project given the unprecedented number of colors available today. Back in the mid to late 60's a paint shop mixing machine used only 8 to 10 toners and maybe two different sizes of metallic. On the mixing rack today I counted 51 toners ( and I need to buy a couple of new ones ) and 22 powdered pearls and every year they add or discontinue several toners. With this being the case you need to use a process to find the color combinations that work together for you car. The interior , exterior and accent colors should be considered as the whole color package. At the very least the interior and exterior . Color is viewed differently by everyone and women have a superior eye for color. Remember color blindness is a primarily male dominant trait. So sometimes consulting with "Sweetie " could have an advantage. The shape of the vehicle has a lot to do with what color works best. Certain colors hide body lines and shapes and others call attention to them. Think about why a brite white Model A just doesn't quite look right , yet dark colors make you want to buy two.. Light pigments reflect and dark ones absorb. Having a good understanding of a the color wheel and how it works can be especially helpful in coordinating colors. How a color wheel charts color can be a long drawn out explanation and I will need to see if I can find an article or two to post for your reading pleasure . As "Paint " stated colors follow fashion and you can almost determine the date a car was painted by its color . Colors say things about themselves, reds and oranges tend to be aggressive, blues calming , black elegant . Our personalities and creativity are presented to the world through our choice of color. This can explain why a very conservative person tends to go with the plain blue shirt instead of the loud print a bolder individual may desire. Maybe one of the sign and letter guys can speak up on how color is paired together to create interest.
Ever notice how today's car colors are "moved over" to the newest house colors...most new houses built these days are painted "earth" colors...very boring to me... Of course, boring colors make it easier for "design professionals" to "design" interior colors...what do you see in today's cars: tan leather, gray leather, black and a very dull blue (or fabric of similar colors)...such a selection it's mind boggling...no wonder people are cranky these days...there is NO choice in car colors (or house colors) that are exciting...!!! R-
Coincidentally, yesterday I had some fun playing with paint colors on the Morgan website as I fantasized about one of my (non-hotrod) dream cars. It's interesting to see how much the color choice effects a car's personality. Check it out. Click on the "paint" option. http://www.morgan-motor.co.uk/mmc/carrange/roadster/roadstercreator.html#
Heres a reality check for you guys.......when I am writing a check for a new car I always pick the boring exterior color and simple interior...........they don't charge EXTRA for those choices I'm not dropping 800 extra so my paint has a little oomph to it.
Thanks for the responses. Lots of good input here! Thanks for the correction; I didn't realize that their first use was so early. I was really thinking about colors offered by the major manufacturers, and I recalled that Ford offered a few metallic colors shortly before WW2. I remember seeing a couple of factory purple-and-white '55 Fords, but they were rare. Detroit has offered shades of purple and violet several times since the '50s, but they've never been very popular. Cadillac in '54 and Chevrolet in '65 offered pale violet-tinted blues that sold fairly well, but those were exceptions to the general rule. Undoubtedly true for lots of people. I'm glad I'm not them. I think you chose well. If you told me that your car was a factory color scheme, I could easily believe it. I like doing "plausible" modifications to my cars, that look like the factory might have actually done it that way. I completely agree; almost any car looks great in glossy black, but it's a double-edged sword. Like all very dark colors, it shows dust and dirt quickly, and details of the body surface are often lost in photographs (sometimes a good thing). The upside is that a shiny black car is much like a mirror, and reflects all the colors of its surroundings, which can look spectacular. There are plenty of great colors available on new cars; it's just that they are not frequently chosen. Agreed again about the need for a good painter. I've always chosen factory colors on the assumption that they would be more easily matched for touch-up, but I've learned that even the factory blends sometimes need adjustment for a perfect match. I don't think I'd choose a custom color for a driver. That's certainly true for me. I have even regretted adding striping or accent colors to some of my cars after a while. I spent a lot of time thinking about more flamboyant color schemes for my '56. I nearly decided to do this, based on the old Coast Daylight steam train, but I knew that I'd eventually be embarrassed by it. The pale green has worn well visually: Exactly. Good for you. Looks nice.
I had planned to mention these exact two colors. They were two stock GM colors from the '50s that really caught on with car guys, and I recall that many rods and customs were painted with them in the day. The only color I can recall from the recent past that has been tremendously popular on customized cars is Porsche Guards Red.
That's interesting. I hadn't heard that, but I can believe it. Mattel did some research when I worked there in the '60s that said war toys (toy guns, GI Joe) sold well in peacetime, but when there were real conflicts the demand disappeared. That's interesting news too, and an AHA for me. I chose this color for my new '57 Olds, which was quite similar to Chevy's popular Sierra Gold: Those bronze-y colors disappeared for about 40 years, and then came back in a rush -- no doubt because of the pigment that you describe. I seriously considered using one of them for my '56, but by the time I was ready to paint, the roads were lousy with copper colored cars! What fun! I wish that you were in my neck of the woods; I would love to have access to that kind of experimentation. Agreed. You can lead a motorist to candy brandywine, but you can't make him drink. I feel your pain. I'm not much interested in faithful restoration, or having to choose a factory original color for the cars that I cook up. Choosing a color that suits the character of the car, and my personal taste, is really one of my favorite parts of the process. Can't recall seeing one on a late car, but this Fiat 8V Zagato was done by some friends of mine a while back. The color scheme is original to the car, but it's striking just because it's such an understated color for the zoomy style of the car: I like metallic colors, but I agree that sometimes a non-metallic color is at least as distinctive, and provides a different view of the reflective surfaces of a car. This sounds really interesting. Can you post a picture of this color? Absolutely. Both of my Victorias are factory green colors (not Ford factory, but GM & Nissan), but both colors appeared very different on my cars than on the "donor" models. Good point. The '41 Buick in the first picture of this thread has a feature line on the body that is the perfect break for a 2-tone, and the hardtops that appeared around 1950 used a stainless molding around the belt line that was an ideal color break. It's certainly possible to do a nice 2-tone with a color break that's not built into the body, but it requires skill in both the design and the execution. Around 1977, GM downsized their product lines in response to gas shortages and resulting higher prices. To ease the pain for American consumers accustomed to oversize cars, they used a color break a little below the edge of the body line, visually reducing the height of the side and lengthening the car. I think Chevrolet and Cadillac did this brilliantly: The same technique could be used effectively on other cars with tubby body sides, like shoebox Fords -- a color break a couple of inches below the fender line. I tried to accomplish the same result on mine by choosing a very dark color, so the long reflections in the body side would break it up and lengthen it.
I never have to decide on just one... One thing that does come into consideration when it comes to picking a color for a daily driver... especially since I'm in my late 40's... Do I really want to drive a bright yellow, purple, red car in a funeral procession? I don't have to bring the one above, but if grandma is in big black station wagon up front, do I really want to be in Corvette Yellow PU truck?
With the advent of photo shop getting the right color on the car is much easier. You only then need to fine tune it. One thing about solid colors . If you get the shade/hue right it can change color just by under a different light source, accent color or interior color . The dark black cherry color I painted this one was a custom mix but it was called black , purple or dark brown by many different people . Even when standing next to each other or in a couple of instances by the same person. Bobert"s Olds was done in a solid gray and the sun can play off a solid color as well as a pearl or metallic. You can have some great results with solid colors.
Astounding! I don't think I can even name 51 colors. My Sweetie has given me some bum advice on car colors. She did a great job choosing colors for the rooms of our house, but I no longer ask her help with cars. True. Gloss, flat, and metallic paints also reveal body surfaces differently by changing the way that light is reflected. Flat paint shows basic contours very well, if it's not too dark, but the reflections in gloss paint tell you if the surface is perfect. The fuzzy highlights of metallics can soften sharp creases, and even help disguise imperfect surfaces unless the gloss gives them away. I got enough of that during my training at Art Center, thanks. Could be very interesting and instructive. I've known stripers and sign painters who had a great eye for color combinations, but I haven't met many who can articulate how they do it. I'm apparently in a rut. After painting 2 of my cars green, I painted the house green too. That is a GREAT toy. Thanks for pointing it out! We see things very differently, Frankie. I don't have your Photoshop skill, but now I know about the Morgan website! I'm not too concerned about looking appropriately somber in a funeral procession, but I definitely don't want my car to be a clown costume.
What Your Car Color Reveals About Your Psyche With gas prices nearing $4 per gallon, are there any cheerful drivers left on the road? Well, if there are, chances are they're driving a green car. People who own emerald green automobiles, it turns out, have the most positive attitude about the course of their own lives. Dark blue and silver are other colors chosen by upbeat people. Red supposedly connotes an aggressive, high-speed personality, while yellow, theoretically, is for folks with sunny dispositions. But survey data show that people who drive red or yellow cars have below-average confidence. And black cars, supposedly a sign of power and elegance, are driven by the most downbeat drivers of all. The automotive color-coding comes from CNW Marketing Research in Bandon, Ore., which asked nearly 1,900 Americans about their attitudes toward their own lives at several points over the course of a year. CNW also asked each respondent the color of the car they drive most often, which allowed the researchers to develop a kind of color-confidence index. According to CNW, here's what the color of a car says about the person who bought it: <table><tbody><tr> <th>People whose car is:</th> <th>Have confidence that is:</th> </tr> <tr> <td>Emerald green</td> <td>5.5% above average</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Dark blue</td> <td>3.2% above average</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Silver</td> <td>1.2% above average</td> </tr> <tr> <td>White</td> <td>Average</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Sunny yellow</td> <td>3.7% below average</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Orange</td> <td>4.1% below average</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Bright blue</td> <td>5.5% below average</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Bright yellow</td> <td>8.3% below average</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Red</td> <td>8.8 % below average</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Black</td> <td>14.6% below average</td></tr></tbody></table>
Something like this: I read about other research that found a correlation between colour and speed. People who favour cars in what the researchers called "aspirational colours", i.e. black, gunmetal, silver, tend to drive faster than average. People who prefer bright, cheerful colours, e.g. primary colours - including red - or what one might call kiddie colours, drive a bit slower than average. In both cases correlations will be limited by drivers often having imperfect opportunities to choose their car's colour.
I am convinced OEM colors are chosen by which ones look best when dirty. No one washes their car anymore and OEMs don't do anything by accident. That is why so many offer those weird greys/tan/brown colors. My DD is silver and looks about the same clean or dirty.
I like 1957 Studebaker purple, I don't know what its called, and 56 Chevys has a good plum, these colors don't have any pearl in the metallic, but they still have a candy quality to them . They would be a good trad pick if you wanted the old metallic look. Deciding on a color is something that is hard as hell to me. Its like making a final and permanent decision,lol.
Some cars through the years by one of the coolest So-Cal Kustom guys ever! http://www.bobbosart.itgo.com/AG-PAGE1.html ever wonder who created the Hooker Header Logo?
Something that's been fascinating me recently is the weird Art Deco colour schemes some coachbuilders were playing with - especially in America - during the mid-late '20s: e.g. light fenders on dark cars, bright colours on the undersides of fenders, multiple bands, accent fillets, unusual contrasts, etc.
There's no doubt there. If the color has a Earthy/neutral/color of dirt undertone to it, its bound to go just fine with the dirt. Nothing looks better than a clean black vehicle, problem is that its nearly impossible to keep it that way for more than 5 mins. Not much looks worse than a dirty black vehicle and You'd be lucky to make it a whole day without getting it dirty. My neighbor had a 62 vette that was a two tone cream and coppery/goldish color that was really nice to look at.
While I get what you mean, my point was less about restoration vs getting to a certain look. Again, color choice might be the single most important decision made. In my example (examples), there's only so many colors one can use when getting to point "Z". Since I already have a several thousand dollar interior in blue, instant limitations on where to go. What I attempted to point out are "safe" choices with limited imagination applied. Like you (sounds like you at least) playing it safe has little to no value in my perception of the finished product. At the same time, different for the sake of different is the same as some of those gorped out cars from the mid to late 60s kustom era. Many were just horrible and lacked sense or symmetry. I call the color I chose "Grandma Blue" because I can imagine an elderly lady driving her minty-blue-plain-jane car around town doing errands and such. Just the type of low mileage building stock that a dedicated rodder would look for. If granny kept it clean and garaged (many did) then why bother with the paint. It's already nice and the $$$ can be spent on go-fast and custom stuff. Just my version of a specific "vibe" around something as simple as color. Any other blue would just about ruin that car's lines and appeal. Forget "correct", focus on how you see it in your mind, don't accept the safe bet (white in my case), trust your vision. I really don't like when someone has to paint their car "your color" because it looks good on your car. We presented a "Chatillion Grey" Packard last year. If I had a ten spot for everyone that said "That's my color! I'm paintin my Packard that color!", it woulda paid for my trip to Hershey.
The Jalopy Journal
