Choosing the “right” Colour for Your Ride

The colour is what everybody sees and a beautiful one can certainly add to and create the image you want to project. Most of us will go through some colour chips and agonize over what to pick as it is very hard to imagine what our car will look like from something this small.

When the car makers started paying attention to fuel economy a few years ago, cars started looking more and more similar. To combat this there was an explosion in colour formulations with many new tints and pearls starting to appear especially as base/clear became the norm. This has certainly given more choice and there are some really awesome factory colours.

House Of Kolor has just introduced a software package that let’s you select your body style (most popular pre-49 bodies) and select one of their kustom colours to see what it looks like (I hope to be demonstrating this at some of the indoor shows soon). Certain colours photograph well (bright yellows, oranges, reds) and these are what you will see on the cover of most car magazines, in fact, when doing a race car or show car this is what I recommend and for this reason.

We have all gone to a car show or event and seen a colour that we really like. When this happens, make it a habit to read the show sign or talk to the owner to get the info on the colour (if he will, as a custom painter, I would often try to create one-off custom colours to set my work apart from everyone else). One thing about colour that is interesting, most people are predisposed to certain ones they like and dislike, so definitely choose something YOU like and not someone else’s opinion (unless you’re married to them).

Two tone paint schemes have made a huge comeback and are a trend seen on most of the custom builders’ high profile projects. The preferred mix is to use the light color on the bottom again to enhance photo appearance (light colors contrast the ground better in pictures). There are definite trends in certain “in” colours - remember metallic browns in the late70’s –ugh, or teals in the late 80’s and the pastels in the 90’s? An unusual color can certainly give a refreshing outlook to a common body style, (look at the impact of Warren’s lime green deuce). The trend with the automakers of late has been with earth tones and white for the masses, but with cars like the Viper getting the really bold colors more suited to street rods.

Custom colours don’t necessarily have to be expensive. In some of my previous articles I have outlined some ways to get eye popping colours for relatively low costs, and I will list a few ways here. You can spray a pearl mid coat over a bright solid factory colour for a new and custom creation. Spray a couple of coats of Kandy over a bright factory pearl or factory metallic colour in a similar shade for a much more deep and intense colour with extra flip. A drop of pearl in the first coat of clear over a black base will give a very deep custom look. Eliminating the black and white toners out of factory colour match formulations will clean up the colour significantly but use a white base as coverage will be reduced. Applying the straight toners used as paint mixing bases over white will give you very bright and clean solid colors (make sure any binders needed are added). When ever doing a custom colour – do some test pieces first to make sure it is what you want but use your imagination and set yourself apart from the crowd!

John