Technical Colorizing old B&W drag pics

I knew the Moose would eventually come to the rescue!

 

NICE!!!!!!!!!!

 

All that aside did he come out of this unscathed...as you said there was a hell of alot of shit going on in seconds here...

Double Like @themoose...

 

He lived !!!! While his undies died, a cruel and unusual death ...

 

I've always liked this car, thanks all for the colorization. The color reminds me of the Wisteria that Lincoln used in 1956 and 1957.

 

You can see him looking down probably wondering if his Bag was still intact yipes...

 

OK, back to the color. I'd call it light purple or pastel purple.....maybe even eggshell purple. Point is, some shade of purple IMO. Where mauve came from I have no idea. BUT, if you must put a girlie name to it, maybe some version of lilac(?) LOL

 

I own the Magic Muffler Blown Fuel Altered here and maybe I can help some of you folks..

The original color was from the Magic Muffler stores here in Southern Ca. The first Fiat ( early car ) was a much darker color purple. I believe Howard Hudson changed the color of the stores 3 times during its 50 year in business.
There is really no name to this color as it was custom mixed to match the original in '65.

The first colorized pic you see was from me when I decided to play around with it a little on the computer because it's such a famous photo of the car and it has always been seen in b/w only. I wondered what it would look like in color so I played with it for about an hour and came up with what you see.. I tried to get the color of the block during its early version in yellow, the Nitro colored oil on the ground, the color of the helmet etc. I tried to get the blue in the blue streaks as well and the fuel lines and their fittings.

Again, there was never an actual color based on this body and it was custom mixed until we got to the closest version of it and was told that it was right by Jim Miles who ran the car originally. Also others agreed on the correct color who actually remembered the car when it ran from '65 through '68.

If you have seen the cover of Rodders Journal then that's pretty close to what the car looks like in real life.

There are times in the shade it looks darker and in the sun it lightens up. It's actually very beautiful in person though.

 

Co car no matter what color.

 

If ever interested in a colorized version of the whole pic, or of something else, it's what I do for a lot for folks and myself. I use hand applied photo oils to B&W vintage photos, no computer except to clean up the picture first if needed. @colorvintiques on Instagram if interested. That Fiat letting loose is a pretty cool shot that could be done justice. A sample attached...