Your Thoughts on Today`s Vehicle Colors

[Bill D]

I’m not a fan of them either but it seems more and more these days if you want a new car, they come with them. My dad has them and so does my friend. The salesman said they have them so they don’t have to be cleaned. I said I’m going to clean them any way.

[Desertnate]

Ok, while we`re at it, I hate black wheels. There, I said it.

I associate black wheels with steel wheels without a hubcap (or police cars with steelies and the little pie-plate hubcap over the lugs). Wheels are supposed to be silver/gray/shiny metal color (chrome, etc.). Some of this thinking could be due to my advanced age as noted earlier in the thread, I know you young guys love your black wheels.

I hate them too! From more than a few feet away, it just looks like an empty hole in each wheel well of the car. If they don`t have colored calipers there is nothing to see but a dark void. Even with a nicely styled wheel, you can`t see really see it because it just blends into the black background of the wheel well.

And since I`m still going, not really a fan of the gun-metal gray...to me that`s "let`s get wheels that look like silver ones with brake dust on them so no one will know whether I keep my wheels clean" which is kind of antithetical to an Autopian mindset.

I can see that with some which might be totally matte, but with the shiny painted ones or the satin, they don`t hide brake dust at all. My current OEM wheels are a gunmetal satin and I had a previous car with aftermarket sating pewter/gunmetal gray wheels. Brake dust stood out pretty clearly on both of them. Nothing like silver, hyper-silver, or diamond cut aluminum, but it was very obvious when they got dusty.

For my current car I`m looking at some which are gray or brozne AND shiny clear coated! No hiding brake dust and dirt with those.

Since we`re having a confessions... I hate chrome wheels on any car built after 1975...

I’m not a fan of them either but it seems more and more these days if you want a new car, they come with them. My dad has them and so does my friend. The salesman said they have them so they don’t have to be cleaned.

I find that theory hard to believe. The ones I see which are highly neglected are every bit as bad as a silve wheel. A silver wheel turns grey and black, while a black wheel turns this nasty dirt-brown/rusty color as the brake dust builds up. To make matters worse, the painted black rims, seem to have really soft paint that scratches REALLY easy. I`ve noticed several GM vehicles with painted black wheels which obviously see a lot of automated car washes and those wheels look almost gray they are so swirled out.

[Setec Astronomy]

Since we`re having a confessions... I hate chrome wheels on any car built after 1975...

I was in a hurry and I really shouldn`t have used the word chrome, I have a car with the GM "high-polish clear" wheels, which is clearcoated aluminum, that`s really the look I prefer, over silver, gray, etc.

EDIT: I don`t know what I`m talking about, my other car has gray/silver wheels, and they are fine, I guess it depends on the car and color.

[Accumulator]

Heh heh, "everything old is new again", huh?

Back in the `50s, Ian Fleming got the idea for Bond`s old (sorta ratrod) Bentley from a pal who painted his souped-up one with old Royal Navy (literally) Battleship Gray paint. I followed suit by using a Flattener in the gray paint of an early project car since gray primer was too porous for my taste.

[Older]

That Smoke Show gray is not my cup of tea. To each, his own. Some of the best colors I`ve seen were the old "Firemist" Cadillac colors.

[Setec Astronomy]

Heh heh, "everything old is new again", huh?

You`re right, of course (where are the "Accumulator is always right" t-shirts?). Whether it`s fashion (hair length, tie width, skirt length, glasses, etc. etc.) or car colors.

[Desertnate]

I`m just waiting for it to be socially acceptable to break out my acid wash jeans again. My kids keep telling me it will never happen, but I`m still holding out hope!

[Lonnie]

I`m just waiting for it to be socially acceptable to break out my acid wash jeans again. My kids keep telling me it will never happen, but I`m still holding out hope!

Hey, if jeans with rips and tears are all the fashion, why NOT acid washed jeans!!!
I "despise" those jeans with the rips and tears and holes that I personally would just throw out. Probably because in my younger day wearing such clothing was a sign of being of an economic distressed (AKA poor) family and the stigma/image/social status it projected. Now it`s a fashion statement and if you wear new jeans that look brand-new without rips and tears, you are seen as snob or rubbing your economic status in people`s faces by similar age group peers. But is is OK to wear your UGG boots with them. Go figure.....

[Accumulator]

That Smoke Show gray is not my cup of tea. To each, his own. Some of the best colors I`ve seen were the old "Firemist" Cadillac colors.

Yes YES *YES* those and FireTHORN. Especially the green A family friend had an Eldo in that and teenaged me simply loved that paint.

[Accumulator]

You`re right, of course (where are the "Accumulator is always right" t-shirts?)..

HEh heh heh, oh how I wish I were!

[Setec Astronomy]

Yes YES *YES* those and FireTHORN. Especially the green A family friend had an Eldo in that and teenaged me simply loved that paint.

Firethorn red metallic?

[Accumulator]

Firethorn red metallic?

Yeah, IIRC he did get a Firethorn Red one at some point, but I really dug the Green. I never looked into it, but I wonder whether the FireTHORN and FireMIST colors were the same...

[Setec Astronomy]

I don`t know, IIRC GM would call the same color different things at different divisions; I remember getting a little can of touchup paint for some reason, for my Firethorn Red Metallic car, and it listed what the color was called at the other divisions. I think some of them called it the same thing, or maybe it was different years they called the same color something different...or something like that, down in the memory hole...I looked for the can I don`t think I have it anymore. I wonder if those little cans were how touchup paint came from the dealer before the little tubes and bottles with the brush in the lid.

[Older]

Yeah, IIRC he did get a Firethorn Red one at some point, but I really dug the Green. I never looked into it, but I wonder whether the FireTHORN and FireMIST colors were the same...

I came THAT close to buying a 1971 Eldorado in that green. It had a white vinyl top and white leather interior.

[Accumulator]

I came THAT close to buying a 1971 Eldorado in that green. It had a white vinyl top and white leather interior.

Heh heh, yeah...that Green/White combo seemed pretty common back then. The Green Eldo I was around had a white (drop) top and interior too.