Ok, this has intrigued me for a while now. What is with this paint that in one light it looks red and in another it looks orange??? I love the color and the way it does this. Has GM ever made any other paints that do this so easily back in the muscle car era and if so what were they on? I've seen plenty of pics of Rallye Red cars via Google images and they have the same qualities. It is definitely cool, but what is the term for this? Or is there one?

 

Anyone have an answer to this? My neighbor that helped push the car off the trailer when I first got it down here said to me the other day: "I thought this was red when you first got it, did you paint it?" haha

 

They're prismatic paints - new thing in the early 2000s (far as I know).

I think I saw some Lincolns with them about ten years ago.

- Eric

 

My mom has a pristine 1991 Toyota Celica with under 4,000 miles. Still smells new! She has the original paint which changes from dark green metallic to blue metallic to purple metallic depending on where you are standing. So those paints have been around since at least 1991. Not sure how they work.

 

I remember the Chromalusion paints they came out with in Nascar. I think in the late 90's.
Jeff Gordon drove on looked red and orange in different lighting.

 

To answer the original question, the metallic paints reflect/refract light to make the appearance of color deviation. It depended on the angle of light vs viewing angle.

 

And it depends on the light source. A missing wavelength here, an extra wavelength there, and you've got either red or orange.

 

I was beginning to wonder if my eyes were getting worse. I know those other paints that the earlier replies were speaking about, but my question mostly pertained to the Rallye Red. Eric and Brian hit it right. Guess I never gave much thought to that.

I know when I first took pics of the car in PA it was a super bright orange, but they had a fluorescent shop light in the garage. I don't have fluorescent lighting in mine, but I use halogen stand lights. If my camera hits it at the right angle then it can look red like in my avatar

 

Pic comparison of what I was talking about in my last post:

 

Those paints have been around for a long time. Pearl, pearlessence, etc. were common names. They actually used the inside of oysters, abalone, etc. as the catalyst to make the paint change color. Anyone who has ever seen the inside of these shellfish will know exactly what I'm talking about. I believe mica is another ingredient used.
Back in the 70's I used to race at Connecticut Dragway (remember that place anyone?). The owner of the track had a Lincoln that was painted in this pearl color. Whenever there was an accident down track he would race down to the end of the track in this car and it would change color all the way down the 1/4 mile. Pretty impressive to see.