Car Colors: Answer me a question.....if you can!

[CassTechGrad]

You're kidding, right?

Out of deeply ingrained homophobia, men are the ones who voluntarily restrict themselves within a tiny conformist spectrum of color/fashion/style. Anything too colorful or the least bit creative is now considered "gay".

Today, any man that would dare to violate the code by wearing a pair of shorts that might expose a bit of thigh is considered "flamboyantly effeminate" and illicit chuckles. Hell, the Archie Bunker era of 50 years ago was more open-minded than it is today. A young guy driving a VW bug in the 70s was considered status quo. Imagine the kind of taunting a young man has to endure driving a similar vehicle nowadays?

[Richard]

I do not know but anybody cruising around in a 70s bug still gets the cool factor as they did back then,you could buy them for $200 back then in decent shape and there were plenty of them,not anymore.

Now of course if somebody were to sport about in a flamingo pink Ford pinto it might raise some eyebrows,but probably more so questioning,why?verses what their sexual preferences might be.

[Zacha341]

^^^ Those VW Bugs where horrid in the winter with low heat and hard to cool in the summer with the weird engine config. But fun to look at....

[Richard]

^^^ Those VW Bugs where horrid in the winter with low heat and hard to cool in the summer with the weird engine config. But fun to look at....

They used box channels under the car that would pull the heat off of the exhaust manifolds into the car they would rust out from the salt.

In the early 80s I got a job in Minnesota as a facility trouble shooter for 60 locations,at the start I had a full size blazer that got about 10 miles per gallon so I bought a 1973 Beatle,the channels were rusted so I ran a metal flex hose between the seats to the windshield,it provided enough heat to defrost a frozen windshield a circle of about 8” in diameter,enough to see to drive.

I used to drain the oil or heat the motor with sterno cans at night when it got 25 below zero so it would start in the morning.

In a snowstorm one night a semi truck blew by me and literally blew me off of the road into the ditch and spelled the end in that one.

On a brighter note,I have an acquaintance who has a sea turtle rescue and hospital in Marathon Fl,he has an operating room for the injured sea turtles that rivals most hospitals.

He made millions in the 70s off of VW Beatles on the service and repair and junk yard.

Thats what he did with the money,bought a 60s motel on the ocean and created the rescue part,if you ever get down there it is pretty cool to check out and easily search on the net for location etc.

Interesting enough during WW2 the VW bug factory was damaged from the bombing beyond repair,it was the British that salvaged the left over parts and rebuilt the factory because they needed cheap cars fast.

But now most of the 60s and 70s models are being shipped to Mexico because they bring more money down there.

To bad the younger generations will never get to experience the ever so popular “punch buggy”.

[DetroiterOnTheWestCoast]

I do not know but anybody cruising around in a 70s bug still gets the cool factor as they did back then,you could buy them for $200 back then in decent shape and there were plenty of them,not anymore.

Now of course if somebody were to sport about in a flamingo pink Ford pinto it might raise some eyebrows,but probably more so questioning,why?verses what their sexual preferences might be.

“Sexual preferences?” What is this, 1970?

[pjbear05]

Good: Mazda's Crystal Soul Red. Deep candy red metallic, stock color, pigments must cost a mint, but it's a keeper.
Bad: Fly, Chrome, or Speed yellow. In S FL I've seen it on everything, including Porsches, 'Vettes, Lambo's, Ferrari's, Challengers, Hummers, you name it. Imho there's not a vehicle on earth that looks good in that hue.

[Dumpling]

He made millions in the 70s off of VW Beatles on the service and repair and junk yard.

Thats what he did with the money,bought a 60s motel on the ocean and created the rescue part,if you ever get down there it is pretty cool to check out and easily search on the net for location etc.

Richard, is your Turtle Hospital acquaintance this person? Richie
Moretti?

https://fla-keys.com/news/article/7129/

Can you remember if he had some connection to the "VW Parts
Place" with the large VW mural that could be seen by passers-by
near I-75 north of Detroit? If so, he has had a fascinating path.
There is still a place with that name but it seems to have different
owners now.

[Side note - I learned to drive a powder blue VW Bug with a stick
shift that my mother owned in the mid 70s. She'd unconsciously
learned the trick of rushing through the first gear so fast that this
Bug would not stall on her. As a newbie encouraged to take things
step by step, until I got the hang of it all, the Bug would stall each
and every time in first gear for me all throughout the entire lesson
in what is now the Royal Oak High School parking lot. The
football players piled into their two sports cars after their practice
and buzzed me, one on either side of the Bug. But then they
left us to our stall routine! This Bug eventually failed due to
the battery falling through the rusted out body and cracking.
This car was not worth saving after that.]

[Richard]

^ yes that is him,I am not sure if he has any Detroit connections but I can ask him,he has been out of the bug scene sense the 80s though.

Leave it to California to force change on cars,who knows maybe the two tones will be back in style.

California will become the first state to mandate that by 2035, cars must cease to be visually interchangeable.“You’ve got the Accord that looks like the Camry that looks like the Sonata, and this just has to stop,” says a high-ranking state official. “It’s incredibly boring to get on the 101 and drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco and maybe see three cars that don’t look like every other car. And it makes it harder to catch speeders, because all the cars look the same.

”https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-new-r...rd-11609441006

[bust]

Once paid $400 for an old Dodge Omni [[dark red). Sold it less than a year later for $200 to an acquaintance who had a friend with a body shop. He took it there for an inspection and tune-up, they put it on a lift, and as they were having a conversation in the office, heard a loud strange screech from the garage. The front of the car had bent toward the floor under the weight of the engine.

He didn't want his money back, said "fair is fair". I was twice lucky I guess.

Side note, back then Amica auto insurance for that car only cost something around $600/year with a Grosse Pointe address, and at the end of the year they gave some kind of a profit-sharing dividend back. Mid-90's.

[Zacha341]

^^^ Yargh! That sounds as bad as my need to have my shock towers welding with extra metal [[a common issue) on my junky college-life Chevy Chevette. Then the floor boards rusted out, followed by the turn signal breaking off in my hand! I drove old Honda Civics for a decade after that. At least they weren't coming apart from under me as I drove.

Color wasn't even a thought those days and Honda had few options.

[enio]

^ yes that is him,I am not sure if he has any Detroit connections but I can ask him,he has been out of the bug scene sense the 80s though.

Leave it to California to force change on cars,who knows maybe the two tones will be back in style.

California will become the first state to mandate that by 2035, cars must cease to be visually interchangeable.“You’ve got the Accord that looks like the Camry that looks like the Sonata, and this just has to stop,” says a high-ranking state official. “It’s incredibly boring to get on the 101 and drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco and maybe see three cars that don’t look like every other car. And it makes it harder to catch speeders, because all the cars look the same.

”https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-new-r...rd-11609441006

You do know that the WSJ piece was satire. Is it any wonder that you have problems navigating the real world. BTW, do you know the difference between 'since' and 'sense'?

[Richard]

You do know that the WSJ piece was satire. Is it any wonder that you have problems navigating the real world. BTW, do you know the difference between 'since' and 'sense'?

Everybody else is posting pretty cool stories and experiences and along you come injecting dumb crap into it.

I thought WSJ was the most trusted source in news,are you implying that they print deceivable media?

Sometimes it is better for some to worry about their own issues then others.

What is your favorite car color,or do you prefer to delegate to others that they can choose any color,as long as it is black?

[RaumVogel]

Henry Ford: Therefore in 1909 I announced one morning, without any previous warning, that in the future we were going to build only one model, that the model was going to be "Model T," and that the chassis would be exactly the same for all cars, and I remarked:
"Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black."