Tropical Rose isn't "pink". It's Tropical Rose - a very identifiable color that can be picked out from among a huge variety of hues called "pink". I painted my coupe that color - it's a factory '55 Ford color - back in the '80s, but soon grew tired of it and repainted it a more somber tone. But ever since then I've been sensitive to it being called "pink" when it just isn't. It's Tropical Rose. One either loves it or hates it, but should never confuse it for other lesser pink-ish colors.
Get back with Nick and let's see if it's his. Gotta chase these cool stories as far as you van. You know, inquiring minds and all that.
That was a nice car that would look good in any color. You didn't see that many frameless windshields back then. I've never seen this car and I like it, so thanks......
Cars are red, blue, black, white, beige, yellow, orange, green, silver, etc. You can’t tell me that car isn’t “pink” because you know the specific name for the color. It’s pink. And there’s nothing wrong with it.
@J.Ukrop - Thanks for featuring the John Weston Deuce Roadster. I've long wanted to do a thread on it ... but didn't know much more about it than what Rudy had told me (i.e., that Weston was a friend and that he took those 3 photos in the Summer of 1959) ... and of course, the 1956 Oakland Roadster Show photo (and captions) that appeared on page 67 of the Andy Southard Jr. "HOT RODS of the 1950s" book: image by Andy @AndySS Southard Jr.
On a side note ... Weston's son, John Jr. is a member of a Land Speed Racing "social media" group that I frequent ... and back in 2014, I reached out to him regarding his father's pink Deuce Roadster ... unfortunately crickets That said, he did post these "HAMB-friendly" pics of his parents trip to the 9th Annual Bonneville National Speed Trials in August of 1957 ... where Weston ran his 'Vette (in C / Sports Car class) to a top speed of 134.52 MPH: all images by John A. Weston
Really like that roadster. I'm wondering if it still exists as a complete car? In the mid 70's I bought a channeled roadster body out of CA that had similar rolled rear pan with 39 taillights. The body had been striped to bare metal and no trace of the original colors existed to my knowledge. Probably back then there were lots of roadsters with a similar rear treatment?
I totally forgot to include pink when considering what color to paint my car. That would have looked good.
I can't help myself. If it had a rumble seat we could call it "The Shocker" as Mr 3rd wheel would be out back. Don't make me explain plz, figure it out...
I asked a guy with a tough looking car if it was a chick magnet. He said "Hell no, it attracts all the cocks that want to race me." I've owned a Coral/Shadow Grey 55 Chevy for many years, and chicks really like it. I find it deeply disturbing that manly men that are hardly afraid of anything are so afraid of a colour. It's not that pink is an unpleasant colour, it's just that egos get in the way. They're either worried other people will think they're gay, or perhaps they're unsure of themselves? With that being said, that 32 posted above is a little too pink for me in the same way any other colour could be wrong, but it looks like a nicely built car and I'd buy it for my wife or daughter in a flash. And it's probably cheap. I really wish I hadn't googled "Mr 3rd Wheel".
I woulda thunk some of our more elderly didn't get "The Shocker" reference. 3rd wheel is that 1 guy you don't like much but he's around anyways. For 500 bonus points everyone, what's a shocker?
Last Friday, I reached out to John Weston Jr. via "social media" ... letting him know about @J.Ukrop's TJJ Blog & H.A.M.B. thread about his father's pink Deuce Roadster. This morning, John replied ... letting me know he only had these two photos of it (at the 1956 Oakland Roadster Show) hanging on his shop wall: He went onto explain that his father passed away in 2008 … so unfortunately he doesn't have much if any info on the car. John thinks there might be some more pics of the roadster in one of the boxes containing his parent's old slides ... and will keep a lookout for them. He also thought it was very cool that us HAMBers would show so much interest in his dad's “old car”.
This afternoon, John let me know that his found a "two page spread" on the car in the November 1956 issue of HOT ROD Magazine:
Like Dick Williams (builder/owner of the '53 AMBR), Johnny Weston was a member of Berkeley California's "ELMWOOD AUTO CLUB" ... and just like Williams, Weston modified his club's plaque to make the "Coupe": ... a "Roadster":
Hello, As a teenager, the color pink was a funny aspect of the color spectrum. The teenage girls loved pink, the families had pink bedrooms and bedding/furniture in all shades of pink, except for “Salmon Pink.” Being ingrained from an early age, "Pink is for girls and Blue is for boys"... what a concept. Society labels all of us from birth... The slightest of “midnight oil” mistakes in the mixture of custom paint colors has long term effects. My friend who built the 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery with a 348 motor had the right idea. A powerful motor in a cool hot rod that no one else had or had any inkling about what it was, other than for the milk man deliveries. His original idea was to get the paint color an orange/ red custom color. He told me later that he was trying for something in a “Racer Orange” was the name he had picked out for his creation. Not too orange and not too red was the idea for the mixture. We had friends with bright red Ford sedans and orange trucks, but nothing as cool as a custom color. So, after getting the sedan delivery motor/trans/rear end installed and running, he attempted to paint it before the big reveal on Friday night at the local drive-in parking lot. All of us were usually there at one time or another in our hot rods/cruising sedans and family cars for the car loads of teenage girls. Jnaki Well, he made a great impression on that Friday night. Despite the late hours the previous day/night finishing up the sedan delivery, he had everything in place. What an impressive moment when the red/orange 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery chugged into the driveway and slowly cruised by each of our cars and gathering. The rumble, the red/orange color with black rims and small hubcaps made it look mean, lean and mighty. The sound was like no other and when he drove through and around the block, he pulled into the back row for the details and gab session. The first thing he heard was that it looked like a pinkish color, not orange/red… The more people looked at it under the parking lot lights, the more it did look a pinkish color. Now, that was not what the owner wanted to hear. His build was fabulous and as the evening rolled on, he was fielding plenty of questions. He was proud of his build and painting effort. Until he heard one last the color reminded the teens of a salmon, "a salmon pink." So, he sold the 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery without the 348 motor to me for what I could afford. It instantly became the hit of the cruising scene and high school. The only people that did not like the sedan delivery were the teenage girl’s fathers that I knew and hung around during this time. When the sedan delivery pulled up to the curb of their homes and the dad came out to see what was going on with the “Salmon Pink” hot rod. I had gotten used to it and in the above roadster photos, tried to get the color of the pink to equate the “Salmon Pink” sedan delivery that took me to over 1000s of miles of So Cal Coastlines and into Baja, Mexico. As a teenager, the moniker of “Salmon Pink” was not lost on me, but I was the one having all of the fun that a sedan delivery could offer and more. Except to go up steep hills and into the local mountains during any season. PINK is just a color…YRMV When my wife and I bought our next hot rod project, it was not Salmon Pink. It was a Red/Orange color for the same style of 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery, but this time it had a 327 for power.
A couple comments . . . It's great that even back in the dark ages he knew to shorten the '32 grille. And in Hot Rod, letting Tommy the Greek "strip" the car was new to me. I guess he stripped the radiator cap, the running boards, fenders, etc.
Kinda fun to see color photos. With the huge amount of black and grey photos from the era it’s easy to get the idea that it was all black and grey hot rods
Well the “pink is for girls and blue is for boys” has an interesting history... On CBC there is a program called “Under the Influence” which a advertising veteran delves into the marketing strategies of various brands and so forth. The“pink” for girls came about from some American dept store trying to sell baby clothes. Traditionally all baby clothes were white and just handed down to the newest member of a family. So the store invented “BLUE for girls and PINK for boys”. This carried on for quite a number of years before another American dept store decided to reverse the colours to modernize (stir sales) and ever since... My dad drove a ‘59 Vauxhall Cresta up until ‘69. That car was a nice bright pink and white and I still love a bright pink. I taught for 38 years at a private boys school, gr K-12, with a very hardcore tradition of football from around the early thirties. So one day I wore a bright, melt your retina, pink shirt. My students questioned my choice and I simply explained that someone in the class had to be bright and I was it! In the staff room the macho coaches, especially the football ones, began to tease me about my colour choice. I replied that the grade 8 science curriculum explains that colour is just reflected light rays and that if they were sexually threatened by mere reflected light rays then they had bigger problems that they realized! The female staff members roared with laughter and reminded the macho crowd from time to time about their frailness... Have you’ve ever seen the ‘55 Ford Tropical Rose colour? Beautiful!
These surf industry “dress” shirts were a big hit in So Cal, at first, then spread all across the USA in the years to come. Hello, As progressive as So Cal is for clothing and styles, in the 1960 era, casual/dress shirts were a part of the surf industry. In the early surf movies in high school and college auditoriums, the presenter, usually, John Severson, Bruce Brown, even Greg MacGillivray or Jim Freeman, got on stage dressed up in “nice” clothes and proceeded to give an “on the spot” narration on what was being shown on the screen. Personal presentation was how it all started. (Similar to showing drag racing movies in our living room with a narration by me… a captive audience enjoying something different, but had the personal touch…) Driving to high school/college auditoriums for surf movie premiers and then stepping out of our 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery was a "Red Carpet" moment, as we were all dressed up for the event(s). Walking down the aisle inside was a dressy moment for those of us that wanted to make an "entrance." As much as “dressing up” in surfing circles was a laughable moment, the early shirts had no inclination of the color pink, or any shades close. The surf oriented blues and tropical themes prevailed on white or beige shirts. T-shirts turned into collar shirts… Jnaki Then, something happened to the whole clothing industry and the color "Pink" as well as the “Color Purple” made some inroads into the scene. Now, the surfers with multiple color t-shirts now had multiple color dress shirts. (Yes, even into the long sleeve button down collar shirts were part of the pink introduction) The El Camino era... So, as the pink color was becoming accepted form of dress shirts and clothing, the surf industry melded into the golf industry styles. The beach oriented lifestyle produced many different types of colors and patterns for the multi-million dollar industry. So Cal normal attire in the late 60s through the 80s. What would have been a laughing moment in the early 1960 era with Pendleton shirts and patterned shirts for teens, this Pink style and color was nowhere to be found. Today, it is called a Retro Shirt and is an acceptable mode of clothing for all levels of boys to men. So, now, it has found an acceptance all across the clothing industry from business, computers, normal big/little industry, casual days as well as dress up days… Times and styles have changed, for most... YRMV
The Jalopy Journal
