Posted on 04/11/2007 6:21:10 AM PDT by eraser2005
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- As I drove north on the New Jersey Turnpike recently, a Mary Kay cosmetics saleswoman in a Cadillac DTS passed me on the right, her big car's paint job hitting me like a punch in the eye from the Pink Panther.
As it zoomed on past the car gradually changed color. Starting at the edges, the pink faded and turned to a pearly white.
Back in New York City, during the media preview days for the New York Auto Show in early April, I spent some time talking to Chris Webb, General Motors' Exterior Color and Trend Designer. He helped design the paint used on that car.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Great.
GM's newest idea to save the company is to design paints that look dull as a dusty chalkboard on purpose.
What ARE they thinking?
the new Harleys already have dull finishes on some of them.
These paints won’t save money. They are very expensive to produce (it’s not just flat spraypaint, they literally have no reflectiveness). This was alluded to earlier this year, when an article talked about how the high-gloss/lots of chrome look was going out. The new thing is the ultra-subdued look, even the wheels and “brightwork”.
From the 45 points of the 1963 Communist Takeover Of
America...
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to “eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.”
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. “Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.”
Must be fun to try to touch up or paint match a repaired panel.
I used to work for Astro cap making caps and lids for trucks. Often a dull finish was a means of avoiding the cost of fixing a crappy paint job. We would change the tag to say “flat finish”, run a sander over the whole thing, give it a light buff and ship it out.
Are things so bad at Ford that they had to exhume Henry the First...
Primer?
Hmmmm. Is it dull in the IR and to radar?...
It’s all marketing. They’ll sell the idea to a gang-bang hip hopper and kids will fall for it.
... and imagine what a fingernail could do to this finish.
Retro is in! Now where they gonna find those straw hats?
I’ve seen that color shifting paint on older Ford Probes. Very ugly I thought.
I’ve seen both kinds of cars on the road lately - the very dull finish and the iridescent one.
The dull finishes were mostly on older cars like Grand Nationals and old Monte Carlos. The iridescent one was on a Saturn van, believe it or not. I looked at it and said, “That van is blue,” and the next moment I had to change my mind and say, “No wait...that van is green!” I kind of liked the iridescence because it was very subtle.
I could do without the matte finish.
Regards,
It could be dull in the IR if they put flecks of ice in it... No, wait...
Hmmmm, sort of like large fleck candy apple red...
Did you read the whole article? Most of it dealt with the beautiful new effects paint researchers are trying to create, subtle irridescent shades and a glowing appearance. I do’nt know about the dull black thing, but it might be cool and menacing on a Hummer, a truck, or some other big tough vehicle, and it will sure be easier to keep clean than a shiny finish. They won’t sell it if it doesn’t do well in consumer testing.
There is a whole genre of show cars that are painted in flat black. They just use a color coat of black paint and no clear coat. Many of them that use flames on some other design in the paint will put the clear coat on the design elements which creates a very vivid contrast.
Doesn’t look bad on a show car. Not sure I would want my daily driver looking that way just yet.
Ohhh, I used to LOVE that color when I was a kid! Best red ever. Don’t understand why it ever went out of fashion with hot rodders. I think the Big Three would do very well to bring it back for their production sports cars.
49. Stock pile all of the tungsten in the world so no more light bulbs can be produced - mmm hahahahahahaha!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.