Body art. A moment of indecision, a lifetime of regret.
I’ve never bought a car with a decal or any other body art. I can’t figure out why people want something like this on their vehicle – are they an overlooked delete option?
Sometimes it works, such as this Tron-ist interpretation over a superb Tron-ist shape.
QOTD with parameters. What are the the most egregious examples of automotive body art? No hand-painted Eugene-mobiles or Krappy Kustom sprayjobs allowed. It has to be a decal, commercial stencil job or suchlike. Caravans most welcome.
80s graphics are the best!
I’ll nominate the serpent hood decal from the Mustang II King Cobra. It’s not only extraordinarily tacky, it’s also an extraordinarily rip-off of the extraordinally tacky “Screaming Chicken” Firebird hood treatment.
The huge “COBRA II” side graphics/hood stripes/black window surround offered on non-King Cobra IIs was even worse IMO
Agreed. The king Cobra’s worst feature was the hood decal, the pinstripes elsewhere were nowhere near as obnoxious as the standard Cobra II stripe package!
And I disagree about the Trans Am hood decal, those cars look better with it than without. It complimented the shaker perfectly
I just Google Image Searched “king cobra mustang” expecting to see ’78 Mustang IIs, only to get an eyeful of a 2015 Mustang King Cobra that Ford Racing cooked up for the SEMA show, complete with a hood decal even worse than the ’78’s
If it weren’t for the patina the body art would look even more attractive.
I believe I have a winner (my long-gone ’79 Omni).
A related model with some serious striping.
This was most unfortunate.
…but Star Wars! 😉
+1
+2
I liked it.
Howabout the 70s Ford Cruising Wagon and Van. I hated these then and they have not really grown on me. Others who are more into the late 70s may disagree.
Those are a decade before my time, which is perhaps why I absolutely love them.
Beat me to it! This was one of the first I thought of, though I kind of like how the black paint makes the Pinto appear to have a larger, more modern side window treatment than it really does.
It would be a hoot to see a new Transit decked out with this decal/wheel/bubble-window treatment….
I have seen a Transit or Sprinter running around town with the 70’s vannin’ look, including the porthole window, but haven’t got any pics of it yet.
Your mission is to hunt down and photo that van….PRONTO! I love ’70’s retro. For me it works even on modern cars, like the Riley Hawk xB shown at SEMA ’14, . Except for having a slushbox, this xB is PERFECT.
If this was done to a fictional Transit-esque van variant of the xB, I would agree that it looks great! But the rear doors not having windows, despite them clearly still being there looks really awkward.
I don’t like how the stripes angle up and around the front. If they just extended forward and ended at the front edge of the fender, I think I’d like them better. They may need some kind of decal on the hood to make it look balanced, but it would be better than this look.
Hey BOC, I saw one of these for sale on Road 39 just north of Guelph this past weekend.
A Pinto wagon could be just the thing for you, I know practically anything would improve your opinion of Fords.. 🙂
I doubt that a Pinto wagon is the vehicle that will improve my opinion of Fords. 🙂
Just the thing for a 1970s baseball player to drive.
I remember when I moved to Jacksonville, Fl in the early 70s, Toyotas at ALL the local dealerships were ONLY sold with stripe/graphic “packages”, extraneous bodyside moldings, and the cars all got “landau” vinyl roof treatments. Since Jacksonville was THE largest port of entry for cars at that time, I imagine cars and trucks up and down the east coast were sold with these “enhancements”.
It’s too bad Detroit never got the manufacturers of these graphic packages to make their woodgraining for station wagons as these Toyota graphics seem to resist wear short of a nuclear blast whereas Detroit’s die-noc got cloudy in short order.
Ford was offering “Tattoo Packages” on Fiesta models a few years ago. Boy, did they look weird..
Automotive body art.
No photo, but I’ve seen one like that on a plumber’s truck that made it look as though the driver was sitting on a toilet. Classy.
We don’t need to see that one, lol.
I have a copy of that picture right here on my phone but it doesn’t let me post pictures on here.
Windows Phone btw….
Tasteful. Not.
When I bought my ’74 Z-28 I made sure it didn’t have those graphics.
Good man. Chevy was usually better than this.
I think it’s working rather well in that color combination though.
In the early 90’s it seemed every other pickup had graphics of some sort. And many had elaborate tailgate paintings.
I bought an Explorer sport that had some graphics. I kind of liked them but they didn’t age well.
Look at Le Idiot.
This, kids, is why you don’t do drugs!
I have always loved that look.
+1…my dad had a ’79 F-250 4×4 with this exact stripe kit. Sharp truck even if it was a “Furd”.
Way cool.
This is why you should do drugs!
A very recent one… Interesting Choice for the name
Gag!
In the ’70s, you could get your new 911 with these tacky stripes…
I’ve never seen that before. I wish I could un-see it.
Hahaha!
Seriously, there couldn’t be a more distinctive and identifiable car than the 911, is a gigantic callout taking up a third of the nose really necessary???
Maybe they’re advertising the emergency telephone number.
Looking on the bright side?
Sure it is. Its another $500.00 in the dealer’s pocket. What could be more necessary?
I recently bought a used vehicle to be my new daily driver. Other than being silver, it was exactly what I was looking for. I don’t like silver because it’s the default “inoffensive” colour, only notable because it hides dirt well so it’s chosen by people too lazy to look after their stuff. I only like silver as part of a two-tone combination, such as the bottom colour on my ’94 pickup.
I want to change the look, but I’m not going to spring for a full repaint in a “real” colour that I prefer, so what are my options? Some kind of vinyl decals are an obvious choice, possibly a tail stripe at the back or a strobe stripe down the sides. One friend suggested some old-school hand-painted pinstriping. More expensive than vinyl decals for sure, but more personalized as well.
Anyhow, I hope that answers your question as to why someone would want to put “body art” on their vehicle. Whether it winds-up tasteful or tacky is another story.
Whats the new vehicle? That makes all the difference in how you should personalize it. Or if at all.
It’s a 2007 Megacab with a Cummins 5.9. Since this picture was taken, I debadged the tailgate and replaced the ill-fitting chrome gas door with a factory-style one.
That’s a nice rig. When you said ‘silver daily driver’ I was thinking you snagged a corolla or something. That’s MUCH better. Id lose the shell unless you live in a wet climate and/or plan on keeping a lot of things back there. Unless its a single cab and the shell has no side windows, Ive never cared for them….but that’s me.
Against silver…plenty of black and a splash of red would look nice. Or a ‘shark blue’ metallic. Id black out every bit of chrome on that and since you seem to dig the ’70s vibe like I do, Id start googling pics of suburbans, dualies and vans from that era. Find a style that you like, make it your own and run with it.
Thanks. This is a replacement for my ’94. My brother is buying that truck from me. I actually bought the cap separate, the truck didn’t come with it. It makes the truck infinitely more useful to me, and I also like the SUV look. Part of the reason I bought the Leer cap and not an ARE like I put on the ’94 is the side windows come right to the front and bottom edges, so they line-up better with the lines of the truck.
I want to get a set of aftermarket LED taillights for it eventually. I really dislike that they restyled the taillights to look like Chevy ones for 2007.
Authentic Opel Swingers.
I’m rather partial to strobe stripes. The “rays of sunshine” coming out of the rear wheel is just weird.
Interesting how the Swinger name swung from Mopar to GM.
Here is a Swinger RV – probably the best/worst use of the name!
Um – the door swings if you leave it unlatched?
That’s the only swinging thing I can imagine about that!
Pick you campground carefully and you might find all sorts of other variations on the term.
The worst use of the Swinger name would be if “Free Candy” was painted on the side.
For whatever reason, it seems de rigueur to festoon the sides of RVs and conversion vans with big wide colored stripes. I never thought these looked good. I’m perhaps most bothered by the stripe decals on the awesome ’70s GMC motorhome which was such a clean shape for a big RV and looked better unadorned (the stripes were optional, but most of them have them).
Well how about this GMC motorhome with the era-correct psychadelic graphics?
I agree. There are many specific examples of hideous graphics on certain cars (and don’t get me started on motorcycles) but the continuing use of excessive graphics on RV’s, even as they migrate to more modern interior trim materials, is ubiquitous. Is there a practical purpose, to hide wavy fiberglass panels??
While a neat car that last few Rx-3s were a little hard on the eyes
See, the marketing guys clearly missed the beat on that one. They should have charged $395 to leave the graphics off, not the other way round. They’d have made a mint.
Proving yet again that ‘ in matters of taste , everyone else is wrong ‘ .
I’m greatly enjoying the pictures , please keep ’em coming .
-Nate
How about this travesty from Steve Lang’s article in The Truth About Cars…
These vinyl graphics produced well before the shrink wraps of today were almost impossible to apply without having to pin prick or slice air bubbles out of them.
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2011/05/hammer-time-conversion-vans/
Does the 1968 Mercury woodgrain option count?
Chrysler also offered the “sportsgrain” option on 1968 Newport convertibles and 2-door hardtops.
And don’t forget the 1976 Chevette Woody. Actually, do forget it….
There was also a Dodge Omni woody.
The Jeep ‘Golden Eagle’ package was quite audacious.
As was the Honcho…
oooh, I like that one.
Loved the G.E. then, and I still think its kitchy and cool now. Im pretty partial to the Laredo and Renegade packages myself, since I owned CJ7’s in each. Thing is, these rigs are loud and audacious and yet the overall look definitely enhances the Jeeps. The blue/orange combo on that Honcho has my name all over it! Always loved an intense blue and a burnt orange together. All of this reminds me of my hotwheels, slotcars, and Stompers that I had as a kid in this time period…perfectly replicated the real thing in smaller scale.
Lets contrast these late 70’s stripe packages, which at least make sense on SOME level vs the garbage that was slung around in the late 80’s/early 90’s. No doubt, the spatter graphics and brush strokes were influenced by the lowered minitruck craze from that time which usually were eyesores.
What was the inspiration for the ‘Sport’ graphics on this 1993 Wrangler? Looks like a unicorn wiped its ass on this poor Jeep.
I don’t want to sound sexist, but many of those tape packages in the 70s were aimed at men. In the 80s and 90s, I’d say many were aimed at women.
Id say youre right on the money. Me, being the ‘macho sort’…Id be a sitting duck for those marketing types! haha!
My current rig has a touch of ‘sticker performance’…being a standard Ram SLT Hemi with a little old school Mopar stank rubbed on it. Clearly, it too is aimed at men. That said, even though its the crappiest of modern Hemis (1st gen Magnum, 345 hp) its still a monster. A pickup this size has no business hauling the way it does.
As an aside what was the contemporary reception of these decals / appearance packages?
Depending upon your perspective, they were either embarrassing to be seen in, or the owner loved the attention. They weren’t as popular as they may seem looking back, and given all of the packages each manufacturer offered. The adage, ‘all show, and no go’ was very real back then. And teenagers would easily laugh at a car that was over done. Stripe packages certainly didn’t enhance any cars credibility, if it didn’t have a decent reputation to begin with. At my high school, a sleeper 60s big block muscle car would get far more respect than virtually any late 70s domestic car with or without a stripe package.
There were also the Volare and Aspen ‘Street kit’ packages paying homage to Richard Petty.
Never cared much for the look of those. The Aspen/Volare were potent performers for their time if equipped with the 360. Im sure more than a few were stripped of add on smogger crap and whipped into proper shape once the warranties ran out. Ive always been partial to the Super Coupe variants. Still gaudy and stripey but they flesh out the look of these cars nicely. The wheels alone make it. Later, these would become the infamous cop car wheels on many a Diplomat….but with the bright rings and center caps….these look tough!
The King! Nice!
I totally dislike graphics on automobiles-most of the time they’re egregiously terrible;
the screaming chicken on the 70’s trans-Ams come to mind, and also those graphics on the sides of mid-70’s Mustangs that screamed “Cobra II”. Totally tacky and tasteless, just give me some pin stripping and let it go at that.
I have always found the Tahoe Hybrid “H Y B R I D” lettering (which is in addition to many other “hybrid” badges elsewhere on the truck) obnoxious.
I actually find the upper-front-fender badge slightly more offensive than the straight-outta-1987 graphic. Come on, GM, you know you’re not supposed to have any front fender badging on any truck made after 1991.
The green H looks surprisingly tasteful. That C-pillar is a good place to put trim badges.
I don’t have pics to post up (how do I load pics here ??) but here are a few I though of:
78-81 Camaro Z-28
77 Pontiac Can Am
74-76 Dodge Dart Sport Hang 10 (you even got an awful interior to go with the stripes)
Way to ruin a fairly attractive body design, Olds.
This is so hideous I’m almost ashamed to post it.
Of all of those mid 70s Buick bird graphics packages, that one may have been the best looking. And it is butt ugly.
It’s like a model kit that had two optional decal sets, and the kid that built it decided to put both of them on it.
Exactly! I may have done that a few times myself.
hmm… eye-searing, although I like a few of these.
FSDusk’s Road Runner and tonyola’s 911 – quite egregious
GGH06’s Omni, XR7Matt’s King Cobra and BOC’s GMC. Most egregious so far.
Honourable mention goes to MoparRocker74’s incisive art critique re: 93 Wrangler
‘Looks like a unicorn wiped it’s ass on this poor Jeep.’
CC effect. Caught this ‘tasteful’ white on white Mazda Shades yesterday.
Near where I grew up in southern Connecticut, there was an 80s Rabbit Hatch painted in even, straight, black and white stripes. We called it the “Zebra Car”. This was about 1990. New England is not known for egregiousness in aesthetics. This was quite unusual then, and would still be so now.
From Australia, I less-than-proudly give you the “Superbird”
And the “McLeod Ford Horn Cars”
What the deuce is a “Horn Car”?
One last horror, before I go.
Chris that is a great pic!
BMW Alpina. Actually, I liked it then and still do. However, they were about to put the Alpina script on the front in mirror image, so the slow pokes will be able to read in the rear view mirror what approaches from behind. Now that would have been tacky!
BMW caught flack when they put “Turbo 2002” in reverse on the front of the car of the same name. Later cars did without the lettering.
There you go, this must have been the story I did not recollect correctly.
Some of those Kia Soul graphics packages sure are tacky and/or funny. The Ford Ranger Splash sure is eye catching.
My ’93 Ranger has to be one of the few with the surviving Sport graphics. I think most people had them pulled off. I know I had to remove lots of striping on trucks when they sold where I worked in the ’90’s. (Ford.)
Love real authentic ’70s custom paint jobs on musclecars and I hate when restorers remove them to return them to original, which I believe was the case with this GTX.
the custom vans too.
Wow, that’s actually a great job. Makes me want to own two of these; one in clean unadorned orange and this one.
Those are awesome, LT D. True works of art…they remind me of the old school style customs Id ogle in 10 year old CarCraft/Hot Rod mags back in high school. Of course at the time, what was on the news stand was Minitruckin’. Ugh!
While I wouldn’t replicate it on another car, that GTX with the authentic “day two” custom paint is very cool and I’d be inclined to keep it like that. The factory rallye wheels look good on it too, but a set of Motor Wheel Spyders would look great and period-correct on it.
Classy factory MG decals on this Metro. Not waving but drowning.
The 1930 Ruxton had some eye-catching (some would say eye-searing) striped color schemes – not just in red, but also in brown, blue, and green too.
Corvette and an official Indy Pace Car and the stuff of nightmares:
Yeah, but they make the car go faster….!
Winner! Worst part was they seemed to sell boatload in that livery, I remember in the immediate years following it there were utterly tons on the roads in my area, ruining the summer cruise nights. Haven’t seen one in ages thankfully, no doubt tucked away in garages under bubblewrap waiting to become high dollar as collectors items like the 78…. Oh wait…
1977 Pontiac T/A. What was it called…the crazy chicken…? The most craptastic GM sticker job ever dropped on the market.
Totally disagree. Plus for smog era 70s standards this was the only car that had a legitimate excuse for sticker performance.
Plus it’s color combo dependent, I don’t know how anyone could not like this.
I bought a new TransAm in 1981. The hood decal was an option and my car didn’t have it. It was … for the time, and for a TA … quite tasteful.
How about those psychedelic vinyl tops from Chrysler in the late ’60’s. They were pretty.
There’s a good reason that these are rare collector cars today.
How pretty is that:
How about this Ford craziness? Their take on the Pontiac Firechicken, I suppose. Pure sticker power madness. I love it personally, all of it!
Can’t seem to make my picture right side up. You get the idea…stupid technology…
1. Save image
2. Select image
3. Select “rotate vertical”
4. ???
5. Profit!
EDIT: I had the image already done, but the comment system is doing that thing where it’s not letting me upload an image. And if I try to do it again by responding to this comment, it’ll just make a new comment with no image again.
Either this comment will show what I mean, or it’ll have the image. Either outcome is desirable.
EDIT: Well, that worked. That’s actually a nice-looking sticker, IMO. Fits the early-’80s-but-still-stuck-in-the-’70s aesthetic of Middle America well.