L
LUKE'57
Guest
Race Card #102-A Well Dressed Race Car Wore Pearls.
Well they did if they were mid-sixties Fords. If you remember the first time you actually saw Jeff Gordon's Dupont car (or if you're old enough, Richard Petty's STP) in person then you know what a shock flourescent colors can be. Well back in the early sixties pearls were about the same deal.
Everything is relative so here's a little "history lesson" from stock car's early years. Holmam Moody and Ford were experimenting with pearl paints and using the race cars as an accelerated learning platform for them on their race cars. How best to get quick answers about chipping, cracking and fading than with something that lived as hard a life as a race car paint job?
I can remember being shocked at the $80 a gallon cost of the pearl white paint on Lorenzen's Ford when regular paint was only about $12 a gallon, and it wasn't even that pretty. It was a witch's brew made with ground up fish scales and who knows what else. I always thought that it looked kinda dirty in film footage and wondered why take the extra trouble. And then I went to Charlotte in the fall of '63 and saw Fireball's pearl purple '63 and I knew then beyond a doubt just what all the fuss was about.
I thought that Fireball's '63 Ford and his and Marvin Panch's '64's were some of the prettiest race cars I had ever seen. They glowed like there was lights on underneath the paint instead of shining down on it. When I tried to duplicate it on a model it didn't take a kid long to find out that just because the paint was thin, it didn't take heavier coats to paint the car. My first pearl and metallic paint jobs were unmitigated disasters of the first order.
Fast forward to adulthood and many many empty cans of spray paint later. I have picked David Pearson as my all time favorite driver but only have a Cotton Owens Dodge Charger and the memory of the '62 Chrysler I built and gave him to show for it. Things were about to change though.
Have you ever noticedd that sometimes things just seem to come together all at once. The subject of this card was just this way. Ertl released a new kit of the '66 Fairlane, a car that hadn't been around in kit form since the facelifted '67's back in '67. Pactra had introduced a line of pearl paints in their new radio controlled car paint line and I had just helped get Reynolds at Blue Ridge Decals the authorization to do the decals for the Fairlane race cars.
Here's what it looks like when all the ingredients that came together in time come together in plastic. While not as over the top as the Fireball's Ford or the flourescents to follow, I liked this one very much. I don't think it had anything to do with the fact that it was my favorite driver or that I had a '66 Cyclone sitting in the parking lot outside that was almost the exact same color......
At least I'm pretty sure it didn't.....
well OK, maybe just a little. LOL
Well they did if they were mid-sixties Fords. If you remember the first time you actually saw Jeff Gordon's Dupont car (or if you're old enough, Richard Petty's STP) in person then you know what a shock flourescent colors can be. Well back in the early sixties pearls were about the same deal.
Everything is relative so here's a little "history lesson" from stock car's early years. Holmam Moody and Ford were experimenting with pearl paints and using the race cars as an accelerated learning platform for them on their race cars. How best to get quick answers about chipping, cracking and fading than with something that lived as hard a life as a race car paint job?
I can remember being shocked at the $80 a gallon cost of the pearl white paint on Lorenzen's Ford when regular paint was only about $12 a gallon, and it wasn't even that pretty. It was a witch's brew made with ground up fish scales and who knows what else. I always thought that it looked kinda dirty in film footage and wondered why take the extra trouble. And then I went to Charlotte in the fall of '63 and saw Fireball's pearl purple '63 and I knew then beyond a doubt just what all the fuss was about.
I thought that Fireball's '63 Ford and his and Marvin Panch's '64's were some of the prettiest race cars I had ever seen. They glowed like there was lights on underneath the paint instead of shining down on it. When I tried to duplicate it on a model it didn't take a kid long to find out that just because the paint was thin, it didn't take heavier coats to paint the car. My first pearl and metallic paint jobs were unmitigated disasters of the first order.
Fast forward to adulthood and many many empty cans of spray paint later. I have picked David Pearson as my all time favorite driver but only have a Cotton Owens Dodge Charger and the memory of the '62 Chrysler I built and gave him to show for it. Things were about to change though.
Have you ever noticedd that sometimes things just seem to come together all at once. The subject of this card was just this way. Ertl released a new kit of the '66 Fairlane, a car that hadn't been around in kit form since the facelifted '67's back in '67. Pactra had introduced a line of pearl paints in their new radio controlled car paint line and I had just helped get Reynolds at Blue Ridge Decals the authorization to do the decals for the Fairlane race cars.
Here's what it looks like when all the ingredients that came together in time come together in plastic. While not as over the top as the Fireball's Ford or the flourescents to follow, I liked this one very much. I don't think it had anything to do with the fact that it was my favorite driver or that I had a '66 Cyclone sitting in the parking lot outside that was almost the exact same color......
At least I'm pretty sure it didn't.....
well OK, maybe just a little. LOL
Well they did if they were mid-sixties Fords. If you remember the first time you actually saw Jeff Gordon's Dupont car (or if you're old enough, Richard Petty's STP) in person then you know what a shock flourescent colors can be. Well back in the early sixties pearls were about the same deal.
Everything is relative so here's a little "history lesson" from stock car's early years. Holmam Moody and Ford were experimenting with pearl paints and using the race cars as an accelerated learning platform for them on their race cars. How best to get quick answers about chipping, cracking and fading than with something that lived as hard a life as a race car paint job?
I can remember being shocked at the $80 a gallon cost of the pearl white paint on Lorenzen's Ford when regular paint was only about $12 a gallon, and it wasn't even that pretty. It was a witch's brew made with ground up fish scales and who knows what else. I always thought that it looked kinda dirty in film footage and wondered why take the extra trouble. And then I went to Charlotte in the fall of '63 and saw Fireball's pearl purple '63 and I knew then beyond a doubt just what all the fuss was about.
I thought that Fireball's '63 Ford and his and Marvin Panch's '64's were some of the prettiest race cars I had ever seen. They glowed like there was lights on underneath the paint instead of shining down on it. When I tried to duplicate it on a model it didn't take a kid long to find out that just because the paint was thin, it didn't take heavier coats to paint the car. My first pearl and metallic paint jobs were unmitigated disasters of the first order.
Fast forward to adulthood and many many empty cans of spray paint later. I have picked David Pearson as my all time favorite driver but only have a Cotton Owens Dodge Charger and the memory of the '62 Chrysler I built and gave him to show for it. Things were about to change though.
Have you ever noticedd that sometimes things just seem to come together all at once. The subject of this card was just this way. Ertl released a new kit of the '66 Fairlane, a car that hadn't been around in kit form since the facelifted '67's back in '67. Pactra had introduced a line of pearl paints in their new radio controlled car paint line and I had just helped get Reynolds at Blue Ridge Decals the authorization to do the decals for the Fairlane race cars.
Here's what it looks like when all the ingredients that came together in time come together in plastic. While not as over the top as the Fireball's Ford or the flourescents to follow, I liked this one very much. I don't think it had anything to do with the fact that it was my favorite driver or that I had a '66 Cyclone sitting in the parking lot outside that was almost the exact same color......
At least I'm pretty sure it didn't.....
well OK, maybe just a little. LOL
Well they did if they were mid-sixties Fords. If you remember the first time you actually saw Jeff Gordon's Dupont car (or if you're old enough, Richard Petty's STP) in person then you know what a shock flourescent colors can be. Well back in the early sixties pearls were about the same deal.
Everything is relative so here's a little "history lesson" from stock car's early years. Holmam Moody and Ford were experimenting with pearl paints and using the race cars as an accelerated learning platform for them on their race cars. How best to get quick answers about chipping, cracking and fading than with something that lived as hard a life as a race car paint job?
I can remember being shocked at the $80 a gallon cost of the pearl white paint on Lorenzen's Ford when regular paint was only about $12 a gallon, and it wasn't even that pretty. It was a witch's brew made with ground up fish scales and who knows what else. I always thought that it looked kinda dirty in film footage and wondered why take the extra trouble. And then I went to Charlotte in the fall of '63 and saw Fireball's pearl purple '63 and I knew then beyond a doubt just what all the fuss was about.
I thought that Fireball's '63 Ford and his and Marvin Panch's '64's were some of the prettiest race cars I had ever seen. They glowed like there was lights on underneath the paint instead of shining down on it. When I tried to duplicate it on a model it didn't take a kid long to find out that just because the paint was thin, it didn't take heavier coats to paint the car. My first pearl and metallic paint jobs were unmitigated disasters of the first order.
Fast forward to adulthood and many many empty cans of spray paint later. I have picked David Pearson as my all time favorite driver but only have a Cotton Owens Dodge Charger and the memory of the '62 Chrysler I built and gave him to show for it. Things were about to change though.
Have you ever noticedd that sometimes things just seem to come together all at once. The subject of this card was just this way. Ertl released a new kit of the '66 Fairlane, a car that hadn't been around in kit form since the facelifted '67's back in '67. Pactra had introduced a line of pearl paints in their new radio controlled car paint line and I had just helped get Reynolds at Blue Ridge Decals the authorization to do the decals for the Fairlane race cars.
Here's what it looks like when all the ingredients that came together in time come together in plastic. While not as over the top as the Fireball's Ford or the flourescents to follow, I liked this one very much. I don't think it had anything to do with the fact that it was my favorite driver or that I had a '66 Cyclone sitting in the parking lot outside that was almost the exact same color......
At least I'm pretty sure it didn't.....
well OK, maybe just a little. LOL