Projects '59 Thunderbird Radical Custom build.

I couldn't stand it any longer. This is why it's good to let things set for months or years, the mistakes get noticed before it's done!

 

As the others have said. that is a good call. You would have kicked yourself later had you not fixed that detail.
Glad to see you back on the Bird.
Torchie.

 

LOL. I still have my first car I started to build in 1984 waiting to be finished. Good thing I didn't finish it in college back then, my tastes have "matured" quite a bit. It will turn out a much nicer custom now….well more correctly, one of these days.

 

Awesome to see you back at it, man!

Too late now, but another option would have been a "squared bubble" rear window that extended back to cover the sep line.

 

Thanks for the encouragement, it's good to be back on the car. I looked at it the other day when I went out to the shop and thought, "Dang, I built THAT?" I like it.

 

That's a good sign and a good feeling, isn't it?

 

So, out in the shop today cleaning up a bit after shortening the tonneau cover to match the shortened roofline, I thought, "Maybe it should be black." Thoughts?

 

Light blue candy over a white pearl base.

 

Throw it up on the Photoshop thread, and you can see it in any color .

 

Black would be best.

 

No black! It will make it look too much like the Elvira car ( personal opinion only of course). ;-)

 

Ford flip-flop gold

 

I tend to agree with Blownfuel. Black would make it look to much like any number of movie / TV cars. Adam West Batmobile, DeathMobile, Elvia, etc.

Look through the Larry Watson thread, lots of great ideas for paint colors there.

The car looks great. Keep up the good work.

 

i think it would look great in black, topless with the skirts removed

 

I know I'm a huge fan of satin black with gloss trim. There's a guy in houston that did a caddy like that and it is sick.


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It used to be candy black cherry, and it always irritated me when somebody would say, "Hey, it's the Batmobile!" Guess I'd forgotten that irritation... The plan since has been silver, although I like Lime Gold, I seem to always imagine somebody ELSE'S T'Bird that color, not mine. And, I'd have to have a white interior, and my wife HATES white interiors...

 

This afternoon I finished up the welding on the tulip panel and the new lip on the tonneau cover. The tape shows hoe much the top was shortened.


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Lime Gold would be pretty awesome.
Marlboro Maroon, Nassau Blue, an Orangey Copper, or a classic heavy flake Yellow Gold would also be cool.

 

Kind of a Bonneville-ish look. I know that has been in my head too. So many options, only one car...

 

Yeah, but she has her own car now! (If you get that one to work, let me know how!) ;-)

 

How about antique white paint with a blood red interior?

 

Pearl white with lime gold scallops/accents/whatever...

 

Black worked well on Doane Spencers Tbird, but I might go for a gold colour. You don´t have a chromed frontbumper to break up the paint, so I´d avoid anything too heavy maybe.

 

While your car is a 'radical' custom, many of the mods are more subtle reimaginations of the existing design rather than gross changes, so a subtle color will tend to blend these into the background IMO. A 'definite' color will highlight rather hide the mods. Or a 'mild' base color, with some mild Watson outlining would look good too. But some serious thought about where/how much would be needed to keep from overwhelming the body mods. For some reason I see this in a bright candy blue, or maybe a light base color with Watson striping in a darker matching color; like robins egg blue/medium blue, pale gold/gold, or pale green/green. Match the interior to the striping and you're home free...

 

Interesting suggestions. I never cared for scallops(sacrilege!), so that's out as long as I own it. Good observation on the subtle "radical" aspect, and a bright candy blue might be good, but our Riviera is going to be blue, so that's out . I'm prolly going to stick with the bright silver ( heavy metallic but not flaked) over charcoal, the Hirohata style tu tone. I may go with red/white upholstery, as I burned a spot on the drivers seat yesterday...


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I've been following this thread since pretty much the beginning but haven't felt I had anything to contribute. Until now.
Your mods are radical yet subtle. To me a Watson job, to hilight the changes, would be like hitting people over the head with a bat. Keep it subtle. If you want rich... a medium gold metallic/candy will catch the contours without being overbearing. (something lighter than Ynotta's gorgeous color.) I believe it is the Dodge truck commercial that has a beautiful Rootbeer/Gold that catches the light even on film.

 

Color choice is an intensely personal thing, but the fact still remains that some cars look 'right' in some colors and not so much in others. I would photoshop this a bunch before settling on a final color. Now, while I love the attention you've lavished on the bumpers for fit and shape, painting them just body color is going to send the message to most viewers that 'those are bumpers' and the next internal question will be 'why aren't they chrome?' This smacks a lot of the 80s trend of monotone painted trim in 'subtle' or pastel colors which never looked right to me. The illustration you posted uses brightwork to offset the mild color (notably a chrome front bumper). With the brightwork around the headlights, the lower front of the car may look too 'plain'. And I agree, 'scallops' would be too much on this car; I was thinking of something much more restrained, like the '57 Ford in the first post of this page...
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/larry-watsons-personal-photo-collection.573932/page-6
One other thought; how about a pair of chrome Dagmars ala' '57 Chev below the headlights on the front bumper? This would tie in nicely with the rear bumper, as well as the caddy headlight trim.

This is all personal opinion, I'm still impressed with the overall design and it is your car... LOL.

 

Good thoughts Crazy Steve, and I agree with most all of it. The bumpers being painted will be a huge turn off for some, but I happen to like them (on this car), they are an integrated part of the cars styling, and as such, I think look better body color than chrome. Lots of customs from the late 50's and early 60's had rolled pans painted body color, I am a child of that time, so it looks good to me. I am undecided about chroming the rear upper bumper(ettes) or just the rear Dagmars, but the front will be painted. In the bright silver color, chrome is sort of lost in the overall brightness anyway. The grill surround, and grill itself, will be chrome (OK, polished stainless and aluminum), so the front of the car will have some brightwork. Of course, the car isn't finished, and I'm free to change my plan in mid-stream. As evidenced by the fact the car has been almost 10 years in this unfinished, perpetual project state. And, as you point out, ultimately, it's my car

 

It took me a full three years to arrive at a decision. I think I drove eric black to the edge of insanity asking for different illustrations. The hirohata scheme was what got my project started and was my favorite. Almost every other month i changed my mind as I went thru damn near every color of the rainbow. I am now set on a gold tone on tone. Finally a decision, but do you realize how many shades of gold there are! After three months of being presented insanely expensive invoices at another paint shop, I am happy to say that it is now at a new paint shop and is moving along nicely. By march I should be able to show you what gold looks like.

 

It's nice of you to try out colors so I can see what they look like like on my low dollar project! Paint will be by far the biggest investment I'll make, I want to make a choice I'll be happy with. I was VERY disappointed to have missed seeing your car by a couple days when I was in Burbank. I'll be able to see it in green, like Eric's illustration, my friend Mike at Gas Axe Garage here in MI is building a chopped '59 for himself, that he's going to do in the seafoam green/green combo. So, I can't use that either...;-) I am tempted to do it in golds, but somehow the silver idea seems right for me.


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