Color combos on a '55 Chevy?

Hey guys, I'm re-painting the '55 in a couple of weeks, and I need some opinions on color combos...

It's going to be one color, NOT 2 toned...

Keep in mind, the car's getting lettered (although my paint scheme is "top secret"), and the lettering's probably going to be red/white/black...


The car has gold/tan interior, and that's not gonna change.


I had originally planned to paint it gold, but I'm not sure how the red/white/black lettering would look on a gold car...

With the preliminary designs I have for the lettering (printed out on regular paper), it looks really good on a white car, and I don't think white would look bad with a gold interior, but white's pretty boring...

Then I got thinking it would look really cool painted a super light silver (think freshly brushed or blasted aluminum), but I don't know how the silver body would look with a gold interior...


What do you guys think?


Thanks!
Steve

 

White is boring, whenever I see an old car in white, with a few exceptions, I tend to think the owners were trying to cover up bad bodywork. Looks good on big Caddy's and Lincolns but not on a '55 Chevy. And the light silver looks really modern to me, all new cars seem to be silver. I'd go with gold 100%

 

Hawaiian bronze.

Popular color in the '60s and I'm assumeing you're after the gasser look with the red white n blue letters. Looks good on a tri 5 and it'll go well with your interior.

 

Black.

 

Google just brings up a bunch of tanning stuff when I search for "Hawaiian Bronze"!

I found ONE picture of a car, and it looked really dark brown!


I'm NOT going with black, because it's too played out, and just wouldn't look right on this car anyway...



The car has a mid-late 60's feel to it, that's kinda what I'm going for with the paint... Were there any cool golds as factory colors around then?


Thanks for the info so far guys!

 

Hawaiian Bronze is between gold and copper somewhere. go to the dupont store and have them give you a paint chip.

Come to think of it look for a picture of the funny car "The Hawaiian" if i recall it had some hawaiian bronze on the sides (panel paint job).

I'll give a quick look see if i can find you an example.

These are both robbed from the awful awful altereds site. I didn't ask permission so if a mod sees this use your best judgment please.

Both are not exact examples think a little lighter or more gold toned but these are close.

Look in this post @ abelugo's bike (scroll down) and think between these cars and his bike. it s actually closer to the color bot a little too gold from what I recall. Well that and its flaked.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=89544

 

Battleship GREY!

 

I say blue. Like a medium blue. Not dark or baby blue. Just blue. Maybe sorta like 1-Shot Process Blue.

 

Gold, and change the lettering colors to more of a chevy engine orange, black and white.

 

The 56 chevy color Sierra Gold is kind of like Hawiian Bronze....see if you can find a good pic of it, maybe in one of those tri-5 books at the bookstore.

 

Gold metalflake!

About the color of Rick Dore's '34, but with lots of #2 flake buried under clear. Get a matching 'flake Covico-style steering wheel.

It would look very '60's as well as blend well with the existing interior

 

Just my 2 cents but I find the darker colours will make the 55 look bigger and heavy looking. With that funky lettering running down the sides in those's colours a lighter shade will be the choice so the lettering jumps out at ya. Or change the letter colours as Joe mentioned and do the gold or lighter pale yellow or off white like alot of the 60's drag cars ran with the bright white engine compartment and drilled out A arms.........

You know me ......I like the light greens as that is the colour of my 55. Good luck with the build, look forward to seeing the beast on the road this summer!!

 

PINK

 

Mint Green !!!!!!!!

 

'60s GM gold and change your lettering colors to red/IVORY/black

 

Squirrel I forgot about that. pretty damned close, at least closer than what i've come up with.

 

Go with the Gold and keep the lettering simple with Black and White.

 

Check out this site. You can look at factory colors for damn near anything for damn near any year. That'll give you a good idea of what was available (and maybe stock) at the time.

http://www.autocolorlibrary.com/

 

body white gold or bronze flake the roof.

 

66 Ford Mustang Competition Orange. Little darker than Hugger Orange and it looks good on a single color 55. Friend of mine's Nomad was done in it and looked good. It's also easy to touch up

 

Silver with a small flake in it or maybe a darker charcoal color. I think that would look good with that color of lettering but Im not sure that would look ok with the interior. Probably not huh?

 

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...55+chevrolet&start=40&svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&sa=N

 

Sierra Gold is a sharp color (factory 57, 58 color also). Here's a couple of pics of my 57 in Sierra Gold and Adobe Beige. It would look alot better if it wasn't faded out 49 year old paint.

 

stay gold pony boy. maybe with a silver flaked top. my 2 cent now im broke.

 

I agree with Beatnik, Steve. Looks classic 60's race car...

 

If you wanna do white, go with a pearl white or an ivory.
My Star Chief is going to be Copper and Pearl White and its interior is kinda a goldish color..........I like it.

Fast Elvis my lil diddy! A 55? You just keep getting sweeter and sweeter everyday.

 

..........but not as "SWEET" as you my little poncho pussy kat!! ........plus my 55 is just a Chevy not a Pontiac!!

 

If it's a 55 BelAir 2Dr Hardtop, Gypsy Red and Adobe Beige 2 tone is the only way I'd ever paint one, just like the first one I ever rode in. It had a ManAFre manifold with four 2 bbls on a punched out 283 backed by a floor shifted Corvette 3 speed and was hot stuff to an incoming high school freshman in 1961. Warped for life, you might say.
For anything else, especially one sporting race car lettering, competition Orange sounds about right, although the project X magazine 57 has always looked good in yellow.
Had a friend back in Virginia back in the late 60's with a solid black 55 HT with molded in 68 GTO hood scoops and blanked side trim, sporting a red interior with just one veedub bucket seat (at least it was red) and a pushbutton shifted B&M Clutchflite behind a L88. Went high 10s in late 1969. Once the car became too well known to make any money on the street, he ran it at Suffolk Dragway to get a timeslip (10.98) and let people know how fast it really was.

 

Metallic gold w/siler flaked roof. Silver flake and black lettering.
Oh yeah, I have a bottle of silver flake I'll donate.

 

Thanks for all the options guys...

The only thing is, most of your ideas require super straight body work, and I'm actually just doing a "quick and dirty" paint job on it... I'm not doing ANY body work on it! (I can't even amagine how long it would take to straighten the 40 yr old 'glass front end!)

It's been a drag car since the 60's, and I want to take it back to it's roots, and while I'm sure it makes me an even gayer GMB, I WANT the paint job to look 40 years old... I may even try to "age" it...

The lettering will be fictional (my design - I don't even know if it was ever lettered before), But other than that, I want it to look like it's been sitting out behind a barn for the last 35 or 40 years...


So yes, the secret's out.... I'm a big poser...


Like I said though... thanks for all the ideas!