How did you decide what color to paint your ride?

Denise, I'll try to explain to you how we picked the color for our '48 Caddy convert. I really feel your angst on selecting color for "Big Olds" as it is something that you will have to live with for a LONG time and if you pick the wrong color-YIKES! Anyway, my wife and I drove around to every new car dealership in our area and scanned all the cars on the lot. We had narrowed our color selection to either a dark metallic green or an egually dark metallic blue. And then we saw our favorite color ever for the Caddy. It was, and you know this already, royal orchid! The best color for a custom Caddy possible. It was perfect and we both knew it immediately after seeing it. Your late lamented Chev looked great in that color and so would "Big Olds!"
We did the same procedure when we painted our '34 Olds. The color came from an late 80's Pontiac Bonneville and was very candy red in flavor. Again, we knew immediately after we saw the color that it was THE one.
So, I guess the only advice I can give you is that you should go with the color that makes your eyes flutter and your heart palpitate when you see it. And, if that is still the color that you had on your Chev, go with it. You won't regret it.

 

For me the color selection process is more than just body color. I always like to have an accent color in mind for the drive train interior trim and pinstriping. Every time I walk through a parking lot I'm checking colors on the cars. I've always been disappointed selecting a color from a paint chip book. When I see a color that I like, I ask what accent color will go with that? If you see something you like, get the 10th digit from the vin code in the drivers side windshield for the year. What color is your top? your interior?
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I really wanted to use Fords Apple green for my accent color, so the truck will end up a dark metalic green. Black would work too but I like the green. Bass-akwards huh?

 

"What color is your top?"
Hmmm. What matches blue plastic tarp and yellow rainsuits??

 

The car will tell you what it wants to be. You just have to pay attention when it's talking to you.

Bet you think I'm joking too...

Make it something you can patch the rock chips on later.
Big Olds will never be happy staying home.

 

Denise,
I'm still holding two sheets of Bronze Glass for your copper color. Not to worry I have Grey, Green, and Clear glass also.
I think you should you should change "Big Olds" to" Bruiser Da Cruiser" then paint it black and blue or black with a blue pearl tutone

 

Hey Artiki, do you have any more pictures of your coupe? Looks great.

 

Since you and I talked, Denise, everytime I see a copper car I try to picture that colour on Big Olds. I haven't come up with one I think would work (what the hell do I know?! ).

Copper seems to be the flavour of the month these days, and if you're going in that direction may I suggest pushing it more towards dark rootbeer? Like the Kopperhead Ford perhaps? Big Olds needs a strong deep colour.

The only car I've ever had painted was black. Most of my cars have remained in the crappy condition I bought them in, Dead Red, Baby Shit Brown, and now flat black. If I do paint the Shoebox it's going back to it's original gun-metal grey, but more metallic and deep candy. Shiny black steelies with chrome trim rings and lugs. Black and grey T&R interior. (I'm a monochromatic kinda guy).

No help at all, I know. Just my 2¢.

 

Well since you asked...I have always liked wild colors probably because I grew up on my dads used car lot and when I was a kid all the wild muscle car colors were on those cars. So I have never been color shy and I think it is because of that.

My first merc was maroon...and I kind of liked it but for some reason mercs to me have to be black. I don't remember what stage my car was in when the show came out, but when "Private Eye" hit the TV and and the detctives side kick was driving a black merc...a Winfield car I think built for the show with kickstand exhaust...black was it for me. Besides, the car was black when I got it and black always looks good!

Ever since I was a little kid I have had my dads and his best friends from grade school (that still runs around with him and doing the car thing) hot rod mags and little pages. A certain gold famous T was on the cover of one of those lillte pages with a good looking girl standing over the engine. That cover has been in my head for a long long time. Gold was always a show rod color to me, and when Franco built a certain clone I got reinterested, and when that certain car ended up in Austin I was really sold on gold big time.

I wanted a different kind of gold because so many guys were doing a House of Kolor gold...and one day one of my students showed up in a gold 98 f-body at school (a 'maro 6 banger with TT II's on it). The gold on it was one of the two I had it down to (the other was 98 volvo or saab color that was more of a orange gold going into copper). Seeing how the light hit that kids car and seeing how different that color looked in different conditions sold me on it.

I had a 69 GTO Judge in my jr high/high school days...so orange has always been a color I like and I have not had the chance to use it again...it has to be on the right car but I bet some kind of orange could be in my future again. Hell, I bought a comp orange 04 Mach 1 because I saw when the 03's came out that orange was going to be added in 04 and I wanted a orange one.

I also have a green jones...I am a huge Bullitt fan and had a 01 Bullitt...the dark highland green metallic they had on those is a nice color...I like high metallic greens in certain shades...but green is a color that can be ugly. I want a green 32 roadster maybe someday.

So what it boils down to is I think about colors all the time...

Long winded, but you asked

 

Denise,

What you are asking is a complex question. Everyones taste is different and I know that what I liked at 18 is different than what I like now.

One of the things I see happen is that most peoples cars are extensions of their personality. I tend to be a more monotone, non flashy type of person. I like simple, non-busy types of paint. I tend to live my life that way as well. My house is mainly neutrals etc.

I try and visualize if I would hate the color choice in 10 years because I tend to keep the ones I likike for a long time.I look at trends a lot and try to see if the scheme I am putting together in my mind is "trendy" or if it will stand the test of time. I avoid colors that seem to hit the new car market....they will flood the market then everyone is sick of that color in 2 years. Remember the teals in the late 80's early 90's?
Go with what you like and what makes you happy to look at, narrow it down to the 5-6 colors you have chosen. Keep those chips with you at all times and eventually one of them will become the most tattered and worn....that's your color.

 

Hi Denise --
Lot of good info here, especially Tommy's post. You've got to be thinking about ALL the colors involved: the interior, the dash, the engine and accessory stuff, and most importantly the top. The top is such a major part of your equation that maybe you ought to look at it first. You don't have nearly the range of colors from which to choose. For the body, I'm going to be a contrarian here and suggest that instead of a "hot rod" color -- the candies, flakes, etc -- you consider a classic solid color from the 40s. My PPG shop has books that go back for all makes and models and can come up with formulas for just about anything. I looked at a LOT of cars before picking a color for my '38. (I had the wood color I had to compliment). I wound up picking a '46 Merc grey-green color. It's really different -- but I get compliments wherever we go and I've given the formula out to half a dozen guys over the last six years. (Not everyone get it...). Your car is pretty classic -- maybe you ought to check out a vintage car event (or a vintage VW or Porsche event -- they had great colors, too). Good luck.

 

I almost always saw the car as black -- looks smaller, shows off the curves, looks sinister. At one time considered a very dark jade-green metallic.

But -- the cookie monster is blue. Maybe that's your cue.

later,
Steve.

 

Well you see, I'm a Winter....

 

Hey Detonator, what do you show for a navy from your old books?

 

No lie. When im forced to stand in a dress shop ,(for my wife that is), I always entertain myself looking at all the different color combinations, coming up with some wild combinations. yup, thats how i got mine.

 

Denise....what about that dark highland green from the 01 Bullitts...it is dark and sinister, not black, and not often used.

 

Denise....what about that dark highland green from the 01 Bullitts...it is dark and sinister, not black, and not often used.

 

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01 Bullitts..

<font color="purple">I'm not fimiliar with this, is it a car? </font>



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Thanks to everyone for all the how's, why's, suggestions, idea's and info. I'm still digesting it all but not any closer to a decision.

I do know a couple of things that are a forsure, because I really want to run WWW, a white vinyl top is a no brainer. I can picture Big Olds painted copper and the exact interior I would do including dash but when I picture him in purple I can't see a interior in my head.

If anyone needs me tomorrow, I'll be at the paint store eating my lunch ..... again

 

It'll come to ya....when it does you'll know it.

 

The 01 Bullit was a latemodel Mustang
inspired by the classic Steve McQueen movie,
if I'm not mistaken.

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-- the cookie monster is Blue.

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Hard to argue with logic like that.

 

Well for my shoebox,I pulled it from the junkyard,and it was the original pistascio green color,went with diffrent hues of green primer all its life.My dad had a '49 seafoam green. A lot 50 fords were painted deep metallic green throughout the years,Burt Hamerol's come to mind, a lime green metallic. The deep green's look best, but you have to keep them spotlessly clean. I did my fade in pastel,beacuse it doesen't show the dirt as bad,and at the time pastels were "in". I would like to do my model A sedan with a fade,like a Stratocaster. With a honey yellow base,with a reddish orange "center',and darker brown frosting around the edges,and high spots. (I'm weird) Anyone is welcome to "steal" my ideas,as I "stole ' mine from Gene Winfield. Look up some photos of Gene's JADE IDOL,which I think is my all time favorite paint jobs!!!! Thanks for asking. Glenn

 

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The 01 Bullit was a latemodel Mustang
inspired by the classic Steve McQueen movie,
if I'm not mistaken

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You are correct again Unkl Ian.







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I'm NOT asking for a color choice,
HOW, HOW, HOW did you choose

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SIMPLE really.........
I am in a rut.........all my stuff is the same color, same wheels and same tires.

And you know what color that is.

 

color???

I guess rust can be a color.

 

I think the primary colors work the best. But, when it comes to "pop", I like Beige and Black combinations, you know, the old 30's color combos. I also like colors that adorned Kustoms in the early 60's, but they are pretty expensive. If I were you, I'd stick with a primary color.

 

Sam Foose once told me that we should let the car decide what color it wants to be. His point was that it's not good to get locked into a specific color early on in a build. That's not your situation, however; Big Olds has been abuildin' for quite awhile at this point.

Dark colors are generally more dramatic than light hues, and the sensuous metal on '40s GM cars thrives on dark-color drama. In the day there was a West Coast color called Royal Triton Purple, based on the color of a super-premium motor oil labelled Royal Triton and sold by Union Oil stations in California. The color of the oil had nothing to do with its performance; that was all marketing hype. But the deep-purple color was astonishing as inspiration! Sharp painters were duplicating it in lacquer right from the start, and it looked its very best on wicked '50s GM boats.

In the early '90s there was a '46 Ford coupe featured in American Rodder that came as close to duplicating Royal Triton Purple as any cars of recent times. It was an absolute knockout, on a mildly customized coupe -- no chop, no radical cuts, front-to-rear level low stance -- the color just makes it all work. (I'd post pictures, but I have a few holes in my AR archives thanks to unreturned borrowed copies. I'll keep hunting to see if I can find a copy in my "extras.")

 

Gettin' back to you 14 HAMB pages later -- less than a week . . .

Found a cut-up copy of American Rodder (September 1992) featuring Jim Bouchard's purple '46 Ford coupe. This is about as close as one could get to the old Royal Triton Purple. Jim calls this custom mix Morado, which, coincidentally, is Spanish for purple. (Jim has a sense of humor, and when people persisted in knowing what the name of of the purple was, he would answer that it was "Morado," at which point they would wander off satisfied that they had a name by which they might order it from their paint dealer.

So, allowing for the shortcomings in the transmission of color images scanned from a printed page, here you go.

Mike

 

Easy.....I've never had the money to be trendy....black works forever......but be ready for mucho work...my new roadster body still took me roughly 300 hours of prep.

 

86 ford taupe and 40 ford maroon.. it looks like ford tractor grey and red in an old deteriorating poloroid pic. I think the old color potos often go through a phase in deterioration that looks richer than reality. A similar effect used to be used by American Rodder in good ol' days. You know, the pics where the headlights are on and have a dim yellowish effect.

 

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I'm NOT asking for a color choice, I'll be making that decision. My question is HOW you guys choose the color.

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I stay away from custom mixed colors.
And I dont really look at color charts either.
I look in traffic if there is a color or a shade that does it for me, and then I keep an eye on that particular type and brand of car over the next couple of weeks or months, so I can see that color in different types of light and weather.
If I still like it after that time, than that's the color.
If not, I start over...

 

Denise, you have been offered a lot of sugesstions.

here is one more.

When you narrow the field down to a few colors and can not make up your mind, I suggest buying just a a half pint of each color and painting a section of a panel with each color(what I did with the 62) and setting the panel against BO and looking at it in different light situations and from different angles and distances.

Then, when you make the final decision, it will be what you like.
It will be less expensive than painting the entire car with a color you may not be happy with,

The balance of the paint for the test panel can be mixed together and used for interior coating on floors or interior walls.