History Traditional hot rod paint colors

I think that you ay be onto something here. I thought for the longest time that "The Fly" was primer. Then I was looking at a picture I snapped of it and saw that it was silver. I actually didn't believe my camera and had to get a closer look the next time we were in the same place.

We painted a '40 Ford a color that was called Ghost Grey (gray?) when I was in high school. it was so pale that it looked white to me unless it was parked near a white car. Of course you have to allow that you are hearing this from a man that gets confused a little bit by some colors.

 

it is just to my eye maybe and don't get me wrong i like silver, and i have a silver convertible but my "eye" sees the blue top and interior and the silver as a negative space. on the silver corvette posted i see the white concave. the car would look just as good if the concave was any other color........except silver.

 

We did silver cars here for a couple of years. Not all cars look good in silver, for me it just depends on the car.

Seems like Ford had a tan in the '30s that looked good.

 

I love all these colors, I really do. But if I'm going to build a car that I get to choose the color, and I've got one shot to make me love it, it will probably not be one of the trad colors like Washington Blue, or others mentioned here.

There was a 32 4-door in a magazine 10 years ago that was calle "Copper Candy". That color was awesome. It was like a orange/copper metallic. I think a Ford Ranger color. There's also a Lexus color that is a metallic baby blue.

I'd probably order a HOK catalog and look in there.

But, at the end of the day, do whatever floats yer boat, like painting a 35 pickup brown......

http://www.hotrod.com/articles/0301sr-1932-four-door-sedan/#0301sr_kandy01zoom

 

Silver and grey scare me, because if it's not just right, it looks like primer. There's a recently painted roadster around in a very light bright silver and to me it looks like they wanted it to be bare metal.

It can be done, but silver and grey are trickier than many other colors.

And I personally don't care for modern urethane base/clear paint on a period build.

Lacquer and enamel have a look that can't be recreated. Enamel is my personal preference on old cars.



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I am with you 100% on lacquer and enamel. I like lacquer because it is forgiving, but enamel is easy enough if you just get a little practice before hitting it on the real project. They just look right.

 

Almost any color was used. In the sixties, we would just look at the color charts of the regular car manufacturers. ... and choose one. Not many folks could afford custom colors.

Red, black, and maroon were all popular. There was a Chrysler Midnight Blue metallic that was one of my favorites.
Mine, Midnight Blue, painted in 1963

 

Chicle Drab Stock 1928 colour. Not my favourite, but it suited the car at the time.

 

The Produce Truck was painted in my head long before the project started. I remember the looks I would get when I would mention, Dark suede brown, Tan and orange.

 

From Rik Hovings site:

 

You were right. It looks good.


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When I was a pup.....
my recollection is that the majority of rods and customs spent more of their life in black primer than they did in mega-thousand dollar paint jobs.

 

I'm pretty sure that you can buy a red Toyota .[/QUOTE]
Yes, you can buy a red Toyota. However, this guy with the A RPU has the credentials to sustain his choice. Obviously, his ride has been the same color since it appeared on the cover of that mag. I decided to go out on a limb and squirt my Deuce roadster Victory Red. Just on a whim! ! !

 

This '34 just screams this is the right color for it.................subtely. Couldn't be any better.

 

Beyond color, the cars of the era did not seem to have the "high sheen" produced by the new clear coat paints. While you can cut and buff a single stage and make it shiny, to me, it just has a different "glow" than the newer two stage paints.............

 

Most of the original cars had a nitrocellulose lacquer on them, I believe.

 

Color choice is something that changes for me just about every week so I decided to just go with Henry's favorite, always in vogue...BLACK.

 

My cars are never nice enough to be black.

 

I think this sums it up. Unless you use Joe Boccuzzi's Green!


Joe Boccuzzi's 49 back in the day Dark Green (Joe Boccuzzi's Green) RIP JOE!

 

Black with apple green pinstripe.

 

Shamus, you got a color code to go with that perfect maroon?

 

I don't do paint. My money goes into the conversion of a stocker to a Hot Rod with go fast parts
I try to find them with already "good enough" paint on them.
So far, Henry Ford green seems to be my color!
Isn't that traditional?

 

"Traditional" is a synonym for "non-metallic".

 

That's correct for me also. In the sixties you would remove the door handles and prime and then drive. Then you'd take off all the chrome do dads and just prime the spots, then drive. Do some repairs, prime and drive.
The key for us old guys was just drive, primer was to show it was a work in progress (and we couldn't afford a paint job, unless it was Earl the Pearl)

 

Though I am partial to blue, I recently read a blog by Pat Ganahl where he wrote:
"hot rods are supposed to be red, yellow, orange, or black with flames (yellow/orange/red flames, of course). Straight glossy black was good in certain cases: 3-window coupes, ’32-’40 sedans, and anything built by Bobby Alloway.... As exemplified by Alloway, Gray would probably allow that the right bigs-and-littles wheel/tire combination in concert with a killer stance might override some other color choice–or even lack of color–but ultimately hat rads (again, Gray’s term) should be bright, shiny, loud and fast."

 

One day I was at the local AAA office meeting with my insurance agent, when I came out there was an older guy checking out my pickup. He said to me "we was always going to paint them next week". I guess I looked like I didn't understand him, and he explained himself. "Next week, we were always going to paint them next week when we got paid. But next week would come around and the money would go somewhere else, so it was NEXT week. And we just ended up driving them around in primer".

 

No. IMO.

 

My avatar was painted in 1956 and the color is 1956 Chrysler Mediterranean blue. To me about as traditional as you can get.