Art & Inspiration Creatures of habit

Given enuff time (alone or with friends family) just staring at it, and if you listen very closely, sometimes the car tells you what it wants. My likes and wants have changed a lot as of late. As is known by some I play in the sandbox of big American Iron from the mid 30s. That's a venue where wild will seldom to never play. It also limits metallic colors somewhat. Fine poly and muted by medium colors for effect vs splash. Not shy to say I hate maroon shades, and I'm a minority because so many folks just swoon over it. I make very few exceptions to the use, a 41 Continental conv is almost the only one I'd have it on. Can't go wrong with black, almost ever, but then again how many do we need? I've backed off of reds. Used to love red, Porsche India Red, and imagine that color softened with PPG Frost Blue pearl. No, it wasn't purple, just had a radiance to it under street lights. My favorite of favorites is green. Not all shades, olive and old German car greens are pretty heinous. Bright. HOK Kandy green over a super fine silver or gold base. No flakes. Trim and firewall in dirty white like a gently aged tire. Pure 'wood' done right. Some colors never work on some cars. Bright red on a 39 or 40 Ford Tudor? For who, fire marshal Bill? My last venture before the 39 was a Model A pickup that I wanted to do in grey with the required black fenders, I was on the edge of going for a Henry Award winner. Lucky me I traded it even for my 39. Guess what tho, that fkn truck is in my shop as I write this. No ****. They left it bright red (yuk) but with the black fenders. Poor thing is a cliche', another red Model A pickup. Anyways...

BTW root, hope you're doing well, I just learned of your fall and sending all manner of good vibes your way for a speedy recovery.

 

This reminds me of the old guy I got my 41 pickup from, I walked out to this pole barn for my first look at it, he turns on the lights and everything in there was the same color blue, he must bought the paint in 55 gallon barrels !
He had 7-8 cars, a couple tractors, riding mowers, bikes, every damn one of them dark metallic blue LOL

 

@Roothawg

Backing up in our narrow driveway in 1958
Hello,

It took a long while to get used to doing daily work on the black Impala. Any time I left it outside in the driveway, it was automatically dirty with the afternoon winds blowing in from the ocean and harbor are toward our house. It was a guarantee that “something wicked is coming our way…” salt air. So, the horrors of corroded metal and paint swirled in my mind.

Out came the hose, chamois cloth and a clean black Impala was ready for action, sitting inside of a garage with the door closed. Minimally affected by outside environment. It got so bad that I used to wipe down the car every time I came home from school. If I visited my friends in Bixby Knolls, they got wind, too, but I told myself that it is just dust. And a nice clean white towel was used to wipe off the car before I closed the door.
125k miles of vast road trips and environments with still a nice shine.

So, from that moment on, the following cars were red, and a shade of blue, not black. They still got the same air infused wind and stuff floating in the air, but at least I could not see it as much as I could on the black paint. Even when we moved closer to the oceanfront and saw daily drives down the coastline for our surf adventures. Now, the reasoning was definitely salt infused air vs. the paint.

Jnaki

So, over time, daily usage and daily requirements in the cleaning our family of cars and the quality of the dust shield edges on the garage door, the dust issue did not affect us as much. Sure, in the angles of darkened areas or shadows, one could still see dust. But that was inevitable. So, less worry, but still a clean car for the next day’s uses. Still the colors were now silver and grey.

My wife still wanted a black car, so one day we bought another OT black car. That took up so much time for me to continually clean and keep pristine that now, even my wife said it was not worth having a dark color car. So, now, she drives a white pearlescent color that does not show much in the way of daily dirt.

I also went to a black car during her black car days and now my current car is a grey. So, for the last two cars we will own, there is little to do except for a clean windshield and windows as those two colors actually do not show the everyday dirt in the air.

Note:

We must not be the only folks realizing that same idea of colors in cars vs. daily upkeep. When we are on a local coastal drive, we have noticed that the majority of cars are white, all sorts of grey tints and silver always parked near a major tennis club and large fitness center. An occasional red car is thrown in the mix, but one out of 20 is usually the ratio. Yes, white, grey are the usual standard colors, but so is black. YRMV

Note 2:

For our granddaughter, the color is in her outfits. When asked about car colors, she chose white and that allows her to have a car that looks clean for a longer time between the rainstorms in the winter and foggy days in the summer. Plus, the car stays outside in vast school parking lots all day at most.

As most colleges do these days, the students are allowed to stay indoors in their dorms or apartments while those (current rainstorm hitting the Westcoast) water downpours come blasting the campus for days. They still get their lessons via online curriculum. Well, at least the colleges are thinking of the welfare of those that pay for the experiences. Ha! Dry and happy. While the cars are taking the brunt of the weather... YRMV

 

My first choice is almost always black, now next would be dark blue or green. Never white. I painted my first car orange (mid 70s), so I have a soft spot for orange on the right car.

 

I let the car chose the color.... to me the cars vintage, and/or build style tend to dictate the color. A sophisticated car with a lotta chrome and accessories push more towards a black, bronze, silver, etc. (albeit rich) color. Highly customized .....deep bright colors. Race cars.....flashy as you can get.

 

Every time I strayed from black, whether my ill-defined hot rod, motorcycle or daily...I regretted it.

 

I can't remember having but 2 cars in similar colors, let alone the same?
I try not to even consider the same color more than once as it just seems to take the imagination out of the build. My '39 is Wimbledon White, and I had an OT Camaro I had painted sort of an off white back in the early 1980's. That's about as close as I ever got.