I did something today I don't usually do and I paid the price, I took the Olds out for a morning errand, I don't usually take it out when it's this hot (109) even though it has A/C but I had the itch to drive it and it was early so temps only around 95.
I return to the Olds and there is a guy admiring her, cool I always like that. He then ask me how I decided on that color combination ? I advised I didn't it was like that when I bought it but I advised him it was repainted in the factory colors, Tropical Green and Alcan White he says no way !! Olds or any other manufacture did not make a color that loud in 1956 !! I advised that admiralty it may not have been my first choice if I was the original purchaser but it is the original color scheme, he said I don't believe it it's to candy apple 70's, I don't think he meant it as a insult but he wasn't buying it as original !! so finally I said here look and I opened the trunk and showed him the under side of the trunk lid which still sports the original paint, (buy the way who ever painted the car matched the color probably 99%) he inspected it but still seemed determined to stick with his opinion that it was not a original color.
Now I am not a Oldsmobile expert but I have done my research and know that per paint code these are the factory colors. This is about the third time I have run into a person that thinks they know more about my vehicle than I do ( I know there are people out there that do but I have not run into them yet)
I may have to start being one of those crabby old ****** that avoids a conversations and just gets in and rolls away !!!!

 

I've found I have to be gruffer than I want to just to simply get on my way sometimes. There's a fine target to hit between rude, and starting conversation polite that is just polite enough to get by, but not start a conversation. I find short answers and keep moving do it.

 

Or, show the clown this

 

Wow, 21 actual colors to choose from in '56. These days, most cars have just black, white, a dozen shades of grey/silver (including that putrid glossy grey primer with zero depth), and 1 shade of champagne. Yuck.

 

I’m with you. I like that people like my car, but I didn’t build it so you’d ask me stupid questions while I’m trying to get gas. Can’t you just give a wave or a thumbs up at a traffic light and then move on with your life like everyone else??? If you want to loiter, go to a car show.

 

Every conversation I have when I'm out in my olds...

Nice, what year?
me: 72
Oh, I me me me, I, my uncle, me me me, I have a _______ at home, I, me me me.

 

The one I get the biggest kick out of is when some guy comes up to me at a car show and says something like "my daddy had one just like it except it was a green 56 4-door". I just smile and say something like "yeh, they are really good cars". I rarely have anybody come up to me at a car show or when I am getting gas and argue about anything on the car. Years ago I bought some 57 Pontiac headlight rims and had them chromed and put them on my car because I thought the original ones made it look bugeyed. In all the shows I have been to I have had one person notice it.

 

I think pretty much sums up our entire culture in a nutshell nowadays. Remove car and insert _________ and you’ll have pretty much the same experience.

 

I've had a person argue and was adamite with me that my car isn't a 55 but a 56. No logic would convince him. Didn't matter that I have had it fore 20 years and built it from the ground up he knew better. Please move on so I can talk to some real people....Tedd

 

If he didn't believe Oldsmobile and everybody else had loudass colors in the 50s then he was obviously not around in the 50s.

I think car colors are a reflection and influence of the general mood of the country. 50s 60s and even part of the 70s cars were colorful and cheery and the mood was for the most part optimistic.

Then along came the Germans with their 1980s "high tech" silvers and grays, and everybody fell in line with boring cars in boring colors, and the mood of the country followed suit.

I have a rule the last ten years or so. I will not own another white, gray/silver or black car. They have become turn-off colors for me and I will not own another one.

For that matter if I had it to do over, I would not have put gray vinyl siding on the house and outbuildings, but that was 30 years ago before I became so averse to boring and depressing colors.

The one I really can't figure out is that awful battleship gray that so many Chrysler products are wearing now. The local Mopar dealer had about 20 in that color on the lot last year. Trucks, cars, SUVs, all in that awful color. Mopar bud calls it "wrist-slitting gray".

What are the color stylists thinking?

 

It's being risk-averse. This is why there are no good new movies; they won't dare take a chance on something that could flop. Black, white, silver and gray sell. Nobody hates those colors, and it doesn't matter that not many love them; they just have to like them enough to buy the car. Whereas, not many people like a nice green, but some people love it.

I think my plant cranks out 25% white or pearl, 25% greys/silvers, 20% black, and 10% red, 10% blue, and 10% any other color combined. What's interesting is a return to no-metallic paints, which looks good in a dark color in a 50s way, but looks like a kindergarten classroom for a bright light color.

As the book goes, all Corvettes are red. We've lost a lot of that swagger. Safe choices aren't always the best ones.

 

I think they should leave the paint off the cars and be like airplanes

 

It is always funny (and somewhat disrespectful) to me that people that don't own your car or even one close come to you and say what isn't right about it. You know how many times people came up to me and told me that my 70 Rally Red (orange) 442 was not an original color. First few times I would point out that it was 100 percent original paint. Point out this and that. They won't listen. I finally got to the point where I wouldn't even argue. Hell I had a guy want to fight me because I wouldn't admit that is wasn't a Challenger??!!

 

before i bought my last truck i said any color but grey !!!

a short time later i found a deal to good to pass up on a gray truck

it grew on me but it was more of a charcoal, ive seen that almost flat battleship grey RR was talking about , its about the worst grey there is

 

Why don’t you do something about that rust at the bottom of your fenders for Heavens sake!

 

Zero rust. The original owner got happy with preventing rust. Should have seen what he did to the door. Looked like he was chasing bugs. Ha ha. That picture is from 1985 or so.

For heaven's sake. 🤪

 

I always liked that color! I almost bought a new 70 442 in the rally red color. If I remember correctly, I think there was a Rally Red W-31 in the sales brochure that year

 

Super cool story on the car. I swear it was the car on the brochure that year. Optioned very odd. Rally Red dash marks no number. Dual gate. Sport mirrors. Had the hood. Rally rims and that was it. Standard wheel. No AC. I prefer that. AM radio. Idiot lights. 2.78 open rear end. No clutch fan under the hood. Still had the original plug wires on it in 85.

The guy I bought it from was in the Navy from 64-70. He took the bus back to Colorado. 8 hour layover in Grand Junction Colorado. He read his book on how to buy a car for x amount of money. This was 1970. People read books. Walked into the Olds dealer. Jim Fuoco. It was sitting on the showroom floor. Actually sitting next to a turquoise W-30. My brother ended up having a friend that his Dad bought That car new. He made an offer. Wrote one check and took it home. His Dad was pissed. He never raced it because of the open rear. I still have the build cards. Factory invoice with the check amount and check number. I found it sitting on the side of his driveway. Oh the eighties and cheap muscle.

 

Oh and yes you are correct. I fell in love with that Rally Red W-31 in the brochure. Yellow W-30 the same. I think there was a Nugget Gold car too right? I will have to dig that out.

 

Yes, The Nugget Gold 442, I have the original sales brochure as well somewhere, along with other 70 sales brochures, I wanted a New something or other but settled for a 68 Cutlass Convertible instead.