Art & Inspiration Why'd You Pick That Color?

American Racing red...

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I wrestled with the color choice for my cars for very long periods of time. Last choice was made for me by a fellow HAMB-ER who had a full gallon of PPG paint left over from a build where he over bought. One down. Many more to go.

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Pick a color you like. It's your car and everyone is going to have an opinion but if it makes you happy that's all that matters!

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And the color was Coral. But my indecision continues: now I have to wrestle with which car gets the color.

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This illustrates the problem with picking a color without thinking about how it will actually look on the car. Picking a color that's 'hot' at the time without taking that into consideration is what leads to poor color choices. By the same token, by limiting your selection to 'traditional' colors or black you can again shortchange the car.

The right color choice can convert a 'really nice' car into a stunning car, that will have that 'timeless' look that most strive for but few attain. Generally speaking, if you can imagine the car in a different color, that wasn't the best choice...

 

The colours that the guys on the HAMB like to pretend are "traditional" aren't. I NEVER saw babyshit brown or babyshit green hot rods until about five years ago. NEVER. Just more history revisionist bullshit. This place just swims in it. In fact, if you look at the colours that were really popular on hot rods in the early-mid fifties ( I look at colour photos in old books and magazines, not what's "trending" on the HAMB) they are the most hated and reviled by the current crop of "traditionalists". Pale yellows, reds and baby blues were everywhere, just check Andy Southards or Pat Ganahls books. Medium metallic blues were popular as well. Black was nowhere near as popular as it is now and babyshit colours were unheard of on hot rods. Oh, and that photo of the olive drab '34 roadster in TRJ about ten years ago? It's a fake, it was colourized.

 

Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say they weren't ever 'traditional', but you're absolutely right that by the early/mid fifties those colors were pretty much long gone. Yet another case of 'era smearing' by the revisionist running dogs... er, 'traditionalists'... LOL... They did make a brief comeback in the late 60s/70s during the 'resto-rod' craze, but the blowback from that was the billet/pastel excesses of the 80s/90s.

The turdmuckle brown '16 AMBR winner is the singularly most ugly car ever selected. It would have been laughed out of the hall anytime during the 50s/60s...

 

Ohhhhh! Thought that so many times, but wouldn't say it, well not on here anyway! Those babyshit colours weren't even popular on hot rods in the forties, its total bullshit. Guys also always want to smear the line between what was used on hot rods, and what was popular on new stock cars of a given era. Like windshield
Visors, swamp coolers and "Blinky the cats".

 

Several coral hot rods ( more coral cars than black) in Andy Southards book, I was just looking at it. GREAT choice. And the rod-abillies will have a collective seizure! Me, I'm going with metallic pink!

 

...................Hey man, easy on the "Blinky the Cat".

 

I still want one for my S10!

 

Im glad this was finally said. You guys right two paragraghs of philosophical bull $h!t about how you pick the color for your car or you go with what your wife wants. WTF. Get a pair and just paint the friggin' thing and DRIVE IT!!! My ol'lady can pick the color of the bathroom..... Thats it!!!!

 

I hope you aren't thinking that my wife decided that I should paint my car pink. Because you would be really, REALLY wrong.... read your post several times, I GUESS what you are really trying to say is "fuck the history", I guess thats the gist of it?

 

Funny how you can tell when someone has had a few drinks on a Sat. afternoon.

 

To quote Colonel Sherman Potter "COW COOKIES".
Thought it, said it, you got the T-shirt George.
Maybe I should paint my car "shit brindle brown" while it's still trendy.

 

traditionally, hot rods were built by kids/teenagers. just ask someone under twenty [4?] what color they would paint something. very few would pick brown. i would guess there would be a lot of "flashy" colors. of course only the cool kids would pick green.
for that matter, let someone of that age make all your decisions for you. think: cold pizza for breakfast, spool coffee tables, $6 latte, $150 preworn jeans etc....

 

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When picking the color for my 41 I knew 3 colors it would not be, black because it will never look clean, red because every other hotrod is red and yellow because there are few cars that to me look good yellow. At the time (2006) there wasn't a lot of green hotrods. My friends and I were at a car show that had a road that ran near by with a lot of dd traffic and I saw a ford focus go by that looked like a cool green color. A friend that mixed paint for a body shop looked it up and it was called kiwi green. After it was painted I wasn't too sure I made the right choice but once the stainless and chrome were on I liked it. At shows everyone always comments on the choice of color, women seem to really like it. The wife likes it too!

 

Funny thing, today, I was looking at a Kia Soul and thought hmmm.
The color, the color!

 

Love this colour. Cascade Green (almost the same as this) is neck and neck with Roman Red as the colour I want to use on my T sedan. I really need to make up my damned mind, because I want to paint the engine body colour, and I plan to build it in the next month or so!
I am seriously thinking red because 1) it's not trendy anymore and 2) it will REALLY upset the HAMB at large... oddly enough, Classic Cream, which is a pale yellow, is running a close third...

 

Just think how much fun you will have trying to sell a car painted this colour when this trend noses over, which should be in 5.....4.....3

 

You sure about Hello Kitty pink?
Resale would be hindered.

 

I picked the color on my car because I liked it and this is the color I would have painted if I had built a hotrod back in the 60's when I was in high school.

 

Well, I wouldn't call it "hello Kitty" pink, but, yes, resale will definately be hurt. I figure the filled and peaked hood won't help much either, but so be it. Still thinking about tuck and rolling the dash, man, that should REALLY do it!

 

Yeah, it's interesting to look at the AMBR winners '50-'65, the 'traditional' period . Only one black car, several reds, with blue, yellow, purple and other 'non-traditional' colors represented. Even more interesting is the car models; 5 model As, 8 model Ts, one 'custom' (Casper's Ghost, '65) and only one '32. It would be 23 years before another '32 (1978!) made the cut...

 

very interesting but i bet a "wrong color" would be a bigger factor in a car not winning than the "right" color making a car a winner.

 

Ted, I don't know if you are somehow responsible or not for the popularity of Green, but here in the Midwest it has become used much more lately on both Customs and Hot Rods. Evidently your Dad was a trendsetter.

 

Check your spelling.

 

No, that ain't it either...

 

That sir would be hard to improve on.


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