Edith d' Plymouth wasn't always green. After much stripping I discovered her shameful coat of original maroon. Argh......MAROON! Pardon me while I yawn myself to death! That hue was from a life to me unknown, and perhaps better untold for various reasons (some personal to Edith herself.) But when Edith came into my life, she was custom with a C, and she was green. Glorious metallic green with both gold and silver flake. The seller described it as 1969 Cadillac FireMist Green & I have no idea if it was true, but it sounded good to me at the time. The interior was lime green crushed velour and avocado naugahyde trim, (now long faded to pale near yellow.) So green she was and green she shall remain, but exactly what green remains to be seen. I've been dreaming about new color schemes without inspiration, but while outside today I discovered this hulk of a once proud scarab-green beetle. Now THIS is a color scheme I could get to love. Scarab green blend with metallic mustardy yellow to subdue it a bit from the electric lime green of Edith's 70's upholstery job. Some subtle complimentary greens for detailing and striping. It's not too far from "what was" as to be unfamiliar to my progeny and friends, and yet this would be such a change as to say Kustom with a K. Edith even had the mustard in the pinstripes, where I'd put the lime instead. It's almost like I'm really just re-arranging the colors already there... Hmmm I'm just not sure I could stretch it all the way into the purples and make it work for me. But I'm seeing the inspiration for a very cool blended paint job, with maybe purple reserved for some minor pinstripes. I've seen all the cl***ic Kustom green cars here, from Hirohata to Voodoo Larry, but I'm hoping to see some interesting green Kustoms I've never seen, owned by the members here. And please show the interiors too!
At least it wasn't the Municipal connection-box sage green that had been the original colour on my Morris, separated from the current BRG by a layer of bright yellow that refuses to stay hidden. Hopefully the lot is to come off before I die, in favour of a soft mid-grey. Even my wife is on board with the grey; her tastes are usually, shall we say, more playful. But be that as it may. I'd been playing with early Art Deco colour schemes a while back, and I found myself repeatedly doing the same thing. I wonder how well it would translate to a '50s Custom idiom. What I was doing was picking a main colour pretty much at random. Then, because we want something not quite predictable, I found myself going for a second colour about 90° off on the standard colour-wheel, in either direction, and a third which is the complementary of a shade precisely between the other two. At this stage the three colours still look like ****. The trick is to play with unexpected combinations of lightness and saturation. It works even if one of the first two colours is lightened to white or darkened to black, though I'd say it's stronger if it's just off black or white. For instance, if we start with that scarab green, with a slight bluish shift, and keep it a strong, bright metallic: about 90° from that is a yellow-orange, but more yellow than orange; in fact the mustard you mentioned is just about right there. But, what about washing the colour out quite a lot? Then we've got the sort of pale champagne so beloved of Japanese carmakers. But why not? It should work well with the scarab green. The third colour is for accents and should register strongly against the other two. The complementary of a shade halfway between the green and the mustard would be a purple-red which slightly favours the red - in fact your very dreaded maroon. But what about deepening it to a dark burgundy or oxblood? It might be a good colour for the interior, but then it needs to be picked up very subtly on the exterior, perhaps no more than a few pinstripes. That seems believable on a '50s Custom, but going the other way with lightness/saturation probably wont. But I can see something like a 1928 Packard with (non-metallic) pale blue-green fenders on a deep chocolate body, with the little fillet on the doors and the undersides of the fenders a bright pomegranate ... Thus any colour is redeemable, even my sage green. By no means the only way to devise a colour scheme, but something to think about?
For years I was all about Blues but, there have been so many cool Greens lately, I am darn near converted.
Thanks Ned. I can't fathom oxblood or any form of red as a major componant of a green car. In fact at one point I was very much against re-painting Edith green, because the taillights simply must be red, and I dislike the whole idea of green and red together. I guess I've decided to ignore that fact though.
The Jalopy Journal
