Tuesday, March 09, 2021
Pointless pigment ponderation
Looking at Collectible Auto as usual while eating, a pointless question about pigment popped up.
Most restored cars are bright colors. Restored woody wagons or early wood-bodied trucks always use transparent urethane on the wood parts, showing the bright grain beautifully. These restorations are wrong and unnatural.
Real cars were mostly dark until 1950 or so. It wasn't a matter of taste, it was just the quality of pigments. Dark paints lasted longer, and dark paints were easier to apply for some reason. Furniture or vehicle woodwork looked nearly black because it was stained and varnished. Varnish gets darker with age.
According to some sources, Duco developed better light pigments around 1952, so carmakers began using more bright colors.
Trying to roll back through memory, when was the change noticeable?
Some expensive cars had light colors before WW2. Buicks and Caddies were often light tan. Most others were dark blue or black.
My memory wants to place the line for lower-priced cars at '49, not '52. The newer and sleeker '49s, especially Fords, were generally light tan or light blue, sometimes white.
Commercial trucks were a major exception. Trucks were often white or bright varied colors, to stand out and carry the signage better. Businesses were willing to pay for frequent repaints to maintain the brand.
Later ponderation: Varnished wood seemed more resistant to rot and termites than painted wood. Is this true? Yes. Varnish wasn't just beautiful!
Labels: Answered better than asked
¶ 6:42 AM
