Hry everyone, I have actually one question, I am wondering what high school kids did for paint on thier hotrods back in the 1940s and 50s? I just imagine kids not worried about paint on thier 32,33,34 Ford. How was the paint on those cars in the mid 40s and 50s? Do you think they would just paint them cheap black or primer only? Or was it all about speed?
I would expect that it's just like any other time period...some guys were into having a car that looked like a hot rod, others were into having a car that went like a hot rod.
I've heard plenty of stories from my dad and his brothers, you could spray a car with a vacuum cleaner in the driveway, or brush paint it and polish it flat. My dads brother had a guy in Los Angeles paint his cars for cheap in the 60's
Mid 40"s and early 50's the cars they were building were not that old. Many probably still had decent to good paint still from the factory.
Borrow Gramma's "Electrolux" or "Hoover" and you would find this little paint sprayer that worked actually like a HVLP (high volume low pressure) spray gun does. I bought a couple old "Hot Rods" that were done post WWII and they both were painted with a brush. Hardly anybody had air compressors or paint guns back then if you were a young guy with very limited funds.
Hole lot of stuff made up,to fit ideas that were not even close to how it was. Much of it made up by those who want excuse,so they don't have to do the work it takes for shiny paint. Fact is not every car got finished,it's a lot of work<Most wanted there car to look good=Shiny. Primer is a perepertion for shiny=is not a finish. Today there are BS names to appeal n sell to lazys "HOTROD BLACK" = no there never was any of that in 40s n 50s. As a teen in mid 50s,I helped a few buddy paint there cars { had a part time after school job at a paint n body shop;to learn. Picked up some used stuff cheep. Painted in the gr*** out back my home [pick a day with out rain n as little wind as pos.. Some pretty good looking shiny came out of that fun n games,biggest thing was a bug or two. One time a cat ran across a fender {redid that a week later } You can pay a lot for fancy high $ paint,but low $ high gloss is around {Enamel is great n low cost,just give it a month or more set real will,then buff;that what I used. Even today a QT is under $20,so add thinner ,tape,sandpaper an work; The prep work is by far number one thing { not the cost of paint }dose not matter if you blow big $ on the paint;if the prep work is not smooth=it will not look good. One thing that happens a lot now,is some lazy use a old pic. of a car not done yet { thinks it was that way a long time=often in real life may of been shiny in a week after pic. Pictures are one sec. in time only,all kind of stuff happens later. For most kids,speed was made,just by using an fairly stock v8 engine an as few lbs of car as they could,still being nice enough to take pretty gals for a ride.. Mixing stuff up,happen too much{ See something n copycat,with out knowing why!, Look foolish to those who do know= Moon tanks in front of street drivers,big old factory head light used on rods that have Overhead Valve V8*by the time OHV v8 were being used in rod,7inch seakbeams were the thing. Engineering know how became fairly common by the end of WW2,lots of books. Less foolish things like cowel steering,wrong rim off set{ high scrub} wrong ackerman,less mistakes:::: Tell going into the 70s,when the copycats of stuff,the new guys,had zip understanding of,but fell in love with stupid thing done wrong. Telliing those who don't know,comes very close to,talking to a wall. I'm 84 yo,was building hotrods in the 50s,did a lot of racecars too.. I still drive my hotrod on clear days now.
I have one of those vacuum cleaner sprayer things, never was brave enough to try it though. Have seen plenty of old hot rods that were brush painted, some of them quite crude, and others that were sprayed with real body shop equiptment. I suppose it was all down to what you could afford or cared about most.
The first car I ever bought was a 57 Chevy turquoise and white. it was brush painted and sanded flat. It had dulled out over the years, it wasn't a recent paint job. I had no idea it was brush painted till I got it home and started working on it.
Painting by brush was also common using paint mixed to flow or lay down as it dried. My dad did a car like that in the early 60s when he was stationed at Guantanamo Bay Cuba. He bought it back to Illinois and I drove it to high school now and then. No one ever noticed the occasional brush marks.
Dana Barlow described it how it was for me 1962, age 14, I started painting my Dad's Midget racer in the driveway, some dirt. a bug or two, fish eyes, runs, over spray, just like the paint work I've paid for. The reducer/thinner made for different temps, perfect no, but shiny it was, paint was cheap, later years I sometimes painted my race cars. Seems I remember Car craft magazine, Rod and Custom and other car magazines had tips on bodywork, paint prep, block sanding, etc. Follow instructions with the paint, I asked questions where I bought the paint. Back in the day, counter guys actually had some knowledge. The racer body parts are all small, made painting easier, my first full paint job, my 58 Impala rag top turned out pretty good 20/20, had to wait for paint to cure to redo below the side trim, taught myself about about better, filler, block sanding. For me I learned early to spend more $ on a nice car, then do the mechanical stuff, I did/do not like the rust repair part, bodywork, paint in general. Some years back after 8 years. 20K miles, my mild kustom 51 Merc had developed road rash in front, I had decided to sell, so I got body shop quotes, $3000 and $3500. So I did the sanding. very minor bodywork, painting, it turned out Great. The modern day paint, primer/color/clear, Very easy to work with $ 500 total primer, color, reducer, clear. misc paper, filters for air line, have a good respirator, I was told the new paint will kill you. I made a plastic spray booth in my garage, covered everything in garage with plastic, a box fan to **** air out a window, heated and a/c so I could get the temp and humidity within the instructions. Never again, the mess, PIA it was, I had forgotten how much I dislike paintwork.
A big part of how it was back in the day was the money involved, It was such a different world, I had my first car 1964 ( my avatar ) I and most anybody I knew worked their *** off to make something out of nothing. I do not see that in the youth today in general. When in business I stopped hiring young men to train in the 90's as at***ude, work ethic was so bad I would not put up with it, It was bad enough hiring adult journeymen, that sometimes was like dealing with spoiled children. A short story, a fellow car nut had a beautiful 32 roadster pro built car., in conversation he always talked about his T hot rod he built in the 50's, went on a quest and found it, borrowed a trailer and went and got it. It was an event, we all gathered at his place to view it, cookout, etc. AS we were checking it out, He states, I'd forgotten what a POS it was, we all laughed and that was what most of the hot rods were like that I saw late 50's pretty crude. I enjoy following the old pic threads here, we have come a long way. The HAMB, AM coffee. All is Good here in the Nort Woods, more snow, c'mon spring, summer
Earl Scheib would paint any car for $29.99. There were Deluxe paint options that cost more, if you wanted better.
Paint spray cans became commercially available and started to become common in the early 1950s, shortly after Edward Seymour invented canned aerosol paint in 1949 to easily demonstrate his aluminum radiator paint. By the early 1960s, they were widely distributed, becoming a popular, reliable, and common tool for various applications. I looked this up, I used spray can on the roof and side inserts on my 57 (avatar)back in the day, also with a friends help painted a 51 Ford coupe I had for a short time, flat black. our fingers hurt for days. LOL a 30/40 job at best. I used JC Whitney for stuff, local parts auto store,(Red Adams) my personal hot rod shop (junkyard) Hot Rod speed shop, Milwaukee, I think flathead guys used Granatelli bros. speed shop Chicago and California was producing speed parts in the beginning before WWII and booming after the war Again, such a different time, today on the internet we can purchase anything and have it shipped tomorrow, I've used Speedway motors for years, 0 problems, also Jegs and Summit. Squirrel said it all, go fast or look good, and as Joe Friday said, "Just the fact's Ma'am" Speed Costs Money, How Fast Do You Want To Go ? Yesterday,Today and Tomorrow that is a constant.
In the 50's growing up in Minneapolis lots of cars would be nosed and decked, painted with red oxide primer covering the bodywork. A good portion were never repainted in color. Most paint was lacquer and solid colors could be put on with a brush, sanded flat and buffed. This method did not work with metallic paint as it would get tiger striped or blotchy with brush application.
My dad painted his 36 ford with a powder puff. Kept dabbing until it was finished. That way it had the Henry Ford orange peel look.
My dad went all out on the paint on his’57 in 1961/62. He told me that it was 27 coats of hand rubbed lacquer sanding between each coat. He said the paint job cost almost as much as the pro built motor he put in it. A week or so before he was headed to Tiauana to get leather interior put in he rolled the car 7 times wheels to wheels out running the cops when they tried to pull him over for drag racing.
Nope my dad is standing next to it a few days after it happened. He did say that he was tossed out of the car about halfway through the ride but it rolled over on him and made sure that he finished the ride. It was upside down when he saw the hood drop and the 3x2’s on fire and started crawling out when it blew up and threw him away from the car. He said the deputy came up and kicked him on the ribs to see if he was still alive and pops told him that he didn’t need to do all of that. But my granddaddy had to pick him up in the county lock up so he could go home. They didn’t charge him because for one he lost his car and he outran the new cars the state gave them that they said couldn’t be out run. They were certified @135mph and he left them like they were old folks driving. And he made the front page of the paper which was funny they made him out to be some speed demon hoodlum, seeing what’s on the front pages now.
Years ago, I took my Roadster to a small town car show and the best in cl*** and paint award went to a 40's Ford farm style flatbed truck, nicely restored. I'm looking at it and noticed it was brush painted, ***umed it was lightly sanded and buffed. The builder and owner an old timer observed me checking his truck out. We a had a nice conversation and told me the story, he Did it All, Everything, ask me what I thought, my reply, you did a hell of a job, Nice truck. He was a farmer, 3rd generation, his GrandPa bought that truck new and He did paint it with a brush, a skill he learned and used on other farm equipment. and other cars, told me it was not sanded or buffed, just skill from experience with a grin. I enjoy the people at the shows/cruises, the experts not so much.
Your Dad was a Lucky Man. If you believe in 9 lives like a cat, that event used 1 for sure. I joked for years, I have 9 lives like a cat, But I did use all 9+ up, pretty careful now and in recent years. I am a Lucky Man, Thankful and Grateful.
I’ll have to dig around and see if I can find where I put the paper and I’ll post some pics of the article. It was pretty big news for the little town of Covington Tn
In the early ‘60s I watched an older neighbor kid paint his T Bucket bright red lacquer using spray cans. I was on my bicycle watching from the end of the driveway and he waved me up. I said that it looks like it’s hard to cover up the primer and he said I’ve got a lot of paint. Sure enough, he had about two dozen spray cans in a box in front of his workbench. I didn’t stay for the whole paint job but a week or two later he was out on the driveway waxing it and it looked great! I couldn’t believe it, no stripes no blotches. As a little kid in the fifties I seem to remember most hot rods were factory paint with primer spots, very few in our area had custom paint jobs. Seemed like every other weekend my Dad was out on the driveway waxing the factory blue on his big ol’ Hudson.
In 1954, I watched my Uncle, a teenager at the time, paint his '39 Oldsmobile Business Coupe with my Grandmothers old powder puffs. To a four year old already car nut, it turned out a beautiful bright red. The Grandkids named it "Ol Red". My Uncle went on to become a Doctor. When he got out of Med School in 1963 he bought a new red '63 Pontiac Bonneville Convertible. He offered the '39 to me for free. My Dad said "He's 13 and don't need a damn car." Uncle gave the car to his mechanic and I never saw it again.
My '31 Model A pickup ($49.90) had 3 colors on it. I got a gallon of red primer at Standard Brands and a 4-inch brush and it looked a lot better. (Don't remember washing it first.)
I was born in the mid 50s, so I don't have much knowledge of what teens did with their cars back then. I was pretty involved with dirt track racing back when I was an early teen through my late 30s. Almost ever car on the track was probably painted with a brush, unless it had a body shop as a sponsor, I know every car I ran was brush painted. With enough practice, a guy could get pretty good at brush painting a car. The enamel paint available at the local farm store spread out pretty flat, if the paint day was not too hot. Most of the lettering on the cars was brush painted by some pretty talented guys. If the brush paint job was done well, you had to get up pretty close to see the brush strokes. I brush painted several of my old street beaters, with a bit of filler & sanding, they looked much better then the rust.
Can’t show the other ones, too new. These are both 37 Chevy bodies. Steel wheels, wide 5s and Buick aluminum drums! And white enamel paint. Appliance white. Done by our sponsor, Casella Autobody before the start of a season. Touch up during the season, rattle cans of appliance white. And you couldn’t tell the difference between the two. BTW, most race cars start out white these days, the wraps are what makes the difference. And also easily replaced
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