Ok, I did a thread search and found two picture threads about root beer cars, of which maybe four cars were actually root beer. So I have a question: Whatever happened to root beer as a color choice? Puting metallic in (insert name) brown paint does not make it root beer, it makes it metallic brown. I remember as a kid in the eighties and early nineties there were sooooo many cool rods and customs that were root beer, an almost black in the shade and with an orangy glow in the sunshine. It was such a bitchin color. Did these cars all get repainted? Was this really a "fad"? The most famous one I can recall was the Butera T, and I think that one was root beer. The Doyle Gammel coupe also, but that is more brown than root beer. I ask because I recently got a 57 210 post and am planning on a root beer, torq-thrust street screamer similar to what I remember, and I am pretty set on root beer brown. This is not neccessarily a picture thread (but post pics if you want), just musings on whatever happened to this awesome sixties-seventies hotrod color. Thoughts?
The t-bucket is candy root beer over a blue metalflake base. Looks black until it's in the sun, then you can see the root beer. Don't have any good pictures of it in the sun, so use your imagination
Sorry the photos are imports, but I always thought Datsun nailed "root beer" in '81 & '82. Here are two versions:
i always thought of browns as an 80's resto-mod thing. you know, root bear and tan 2-tone. thus, i never really cared for browns. these cars have me re-thinking my position on it!
my mothers O/T Plymouth wagon was metallic brown and looked dynamite in the sun the new Lincoln Kodiak brown looks cool too
Something like this? http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrmean/8202986660/in/faves-23438267@N08/lightbox/ Also, Jim & Jason Smith of The Hot Rod Garage (Tulsa, OK) nailed a 32 3W Coupe year last year in Root Beer Brown. Heres a link to that car...http://www.hot-rodgarage.com/coupe.jpg Pinkees Rod Shop also built a killer '29 Ford Roadster pickup in your favorite color...http://www.rodandcustommagazine.com/featuredvehicles/0509rc_1929_ford_roadster_pickup/photo_02.html All very nice cars and an excellent color choice in my opinion.
I ran into a new brown buddy recently and took this pic. I liked the look of this coupe. Mine is the topless banana in the back.
I mean, I know what guys are saying, but none of these seem to strike me as the color I remember. They are all metallic brown, yes, and some come closer than others, but I remember root beer as being like black cherry, but orangy brown instead of the reddish. Maybe it doesn't photograph well? I had a Datsun in brown and it definitely was not root beer. Maybe I am crazy? Anybody have a pick of the Buttera T? Wasn't that root beer? Rod and custom featured a 40 merc recently that nailed the root beer thing. It looked almost black until the light hit and then, whammo! Root beer.
No. Just checked, the Butterra T was not root beer either. Maybe I should paint the damn thing black.
InstantT, you are exactly right. It is not metallic brown. and Yes, it is a pain to photograph. If we had any sun in Oregon, I would try to get a decent picture of mine for you. As it is, I have guys that have known me for years...and they think that the car is black.