Text by Patrick Bell.
We are going to celebrate the explosion of color creativity in the mid to late fifties today. The bright pastel colors and two tone designs beyond the standard body/roof style came on strong and were followed by a somewhat short lived three tone phase. Most of these are three different paint colors, and the 3 Fords and 1 Chevrolet have two paint colors and the third is a bolt on molding.
The oranges look ready to harvest on a beautiful day likely in California with a new looking ’57 Ford Fairlane 500 Town Victoria with curb feelers to protect those nice whitewalls. The lady standing is color coordinated with the car. In the background is a ’53 Oldsmobile Super 88 4 door sedan.
This ’55 Buick Super 2 door Riviera is a conservative version of a three tone color combo, no flashy colors here. In front of it is a ’56 Chevrolet Two-Ten and behind it looks like a ’51 Kaiser DeLuxe. In the foreground is a ’51 Chevrolet with a visor.
There is one in every crowd who is not paying attention to the photographer. Almost everyone is saying ‘cheese’ in front of a clean ’56 Nash Ambassador Custom 4 door sedan with a V8 and what may be a California license plate. The younger three and the photographer may be out visiting the elder relatives.
Here we have a ring bearer for a wedding who happened to blink at the wrong time, along with his escort who probably is his mother. At the curb is a sharp V8 powered ’56 Dodge Coronet, Royal or Custom Royal 4 door sedan with a California plate. There is another photographer to the right of the lady’s head and an used car lot in the background with a white ’51-’53 Cadillac convertible on the corner.
A happy looking beach goer in a ’57 Ford Fairlane 500 Club Victoria from New York. It has a Cypress Gardens bumper sticker which was in Florida, so this probably is a Florida beach.
Coral and grey was a popular combination, and this new ’56 Rambler Custom 4 door sedan with the buyers tag in the back glass adds some white to the mix. The sun is low so it is either a early or late day photo beside a body of water where they parked while on their drive.
Now we have two ’55 Dodge’s in a row, the first a Custom Royal Lancer with possibly a New Jersey license plate. The lower color was called ‘Heather Rose’, a fancy name for a shade of pink. It was a fairly common color during this time period but some were definitely pinker than others. The second Dodge is just a two tone.
Another pinkish one from ’55, a Packard Four Hundred that looks like it has been around a few years, out in what was a good day for a drive in the woods. It appears like it has not been kept washed and waxed and the paint has gone chalky.
Those cars with all three colors on the side must have been a nightmare for paint shop production, having to mix and match three colors for a medium sized panel repair.
A man posing in front of an apartment building with a ’57 Chevrolet Bel Air 4 door sedan with a V8, scuffed front tire, and possibly a Illinois license plate. On the other side of it is a six cylinder ’55 Plymouth Plaza 4 door sedan possibly with a Pennsylvania plate, and further down is a ’57 Buick.
The backseat driver’s are having a good time and are waving at the photographer while they wait in this ’58 Ford Custom 300 Tudor Sedan. This car is unusual as you didn’t see many fender skirts over standard hub caps and black wall tires in the late fifties. It looks like a fall day in a middle class neighborhood.
We previously visited Mr. Filer’s Studebaker dealership on February 6th in a Vintage Dealer Photos gallery. He apparently took on Packard as well after the merger and perhaps that is him in the photo. This ’56 Caribbean convertible may have been the most expensive car he ever sold. It was their last drop top, listed for a base price of $5995, and this was one of a whopping 276 made. That may be a ’40 Studebaker coupe in the background.
Thanks for viewing, and to all have a great day!
I think the two tones really look great. The tri-tones were just too much….with the exception of the Packard which makes a tall car look longer and sleeker.
Nice finds, and great commentary. Consistently, over-the-top. Even by 1950’s standards. Several look almost like commercial paint jobs. Promoting a business, with custom corporate colour schemes..
I believe that my Dad’s 1950s car, which had been a two tone, and got repainted to a monotone, was in part, due to the challenges of repainting a car after a collision. Cost would have been a factor perhaps too.
I would argue that several of these cars (like the 57 Chevy) are just two tone cars with a gold or silver anodized aluminum trim piece. That’s very different from a car that has three different paint colors on it.
My Grandmother’s 56 Cadillac was delivered two tone, white roof over a nice dark blue. She did not take possession until she had the dealership, Peter Fuller of Boston, repaint the roof the same dark blue. She could be a picky customer, though polite about it.
I`m not too sure if I like the garish colors of the Packards in this feature, but they`re beautiful cars anyway. But they are still are far, far, far nicer looking colors than the boring tans, grays,white, beige and silver of today`s cars.
People get all the colors they need from screens they watch all day.
1955 DeSoto Coronado and Spring Special were notable 3 tones.
Spring Special
The Rambler is parked near San Francisco Bay.
My dad bought a new Dodge Royal Lancer new in 1956. It was a a 3 tone dark green, light green and white on top. Twin antennas on the rear fins. I learned to drive on it and with no power brakes or steering it eas a handful for a 16 year old!
I love two-tone cars, and wish they’d make a comeback. But I’ll agree with some others here that three-tone cars a little too much.
That said, I will make an exception for that ’55 Buick Riviera. But the reason that one looks just right (to my eyes anyway) is that in that car’s case, all three colors are from the same area of the color wheel. The car doesn’t look like a disjointed mess.
One of my favorite two(three*?)-tone cars ever was the late seventies Impala or Caprice Classic in Black over Silver with *Red Pinstriping. Put a red interior in that car and it was quite a looker…
Very nice hardtop you got there!!
Yeah, I thought the same thing… I do not recall that from the late seventies!
I think whomever posted that picture must’ve been playing with photoshop!
If you look closely, you can kinda see where they cropped out the B pillar. 😂
Parking a ’57 Ford on a beach probably started that car’s eventual rust problem. Most ’57 Fords rusted, even my grandpa’s Country Sedan, and he lived in Mississippi. He worked for the Illinois Central railroad, and he traveled to Chicago for an IC stockholders meeting, but drove the Ford. I never asked him why didn’t he just ride a train north (like the City of New Orleans). He never got around to washing the road salt off it, so his car rusted in places that other ’57 Fords don’t.
It looks like all the tri-tones seem to have been ‘a colour’ plus black and white. Can’t go wrong there.
How about two different colours plus black? Or two different colours plus white? That shouldn’t be too difficult; I’m sure I’ve seen photos, probably on here.
Three different colours that go together might be a challenge though!
Maybe I was mistaken Peter on that ’55 Buick. To me it looked like 3 shades of the same green, a seafoam, a forest, and then an extremely dark green.
Perhaps that latter ‘colour’ (on the roof) was in fact, not a color, but black.
Perhaps our resident Color Whisperer (JPC) will chime in. He has an eye for it, and likely knows the history of these three tone Buicks.
Have you ever done one of your models in a three-tone color-scheme?
I wondered about the Buick myself. My eyes/screen read the roof as black, but it could be a very dark green. I didn’t feel sufficiently motivated to consult a ’55 Buick colour chart. By all means I would defer to JPC.
Have I ever done a three-colour model? Yes, if you include white.
Nice ‘56 Ford!
OK, you guys sent me down a rabbit hole on the 55 Buick. Some Buick resources indicate that there were only 4 tri-tone options on the 55 Buick, and this is not one of them. BUT – they introduced some spring colors, and those included 3 separate greens: Spruce Green (darkest), Nile Green (medium) and Mist Green (lightest). Those three were offered as a tri-tone.
BUT Buick literature says those colors were only supposed to be light on the roof, medium in the middle and dark on the bottom. So, maybe that specific combination got reversed (to dark over medium over light) by special order.
It is hard to tell and possible that the roof is black, which might indicate another possible special order or maybe a dealer paint job that added a black roof to the two-tone green car.
Also interesting that those colors were added in spring of 1955, then discontinued for the start of 1956 production, then brought back in the spring of 1956.
Thanks Jim… Much appreciated. I actually thought that it would be nice to see these reversed, with the lightest green on the top and the darkest on the bottom.
But I recall when Chevy switched the black and silver on its two-tone B bodies like the one I posted above, and I personally liked the black over silver better than the silver over black.
The lighter color on the top makes more sense in a sunny climate, but the dark color on the top really looks sharp.
I can imagine collision repair would be tough with the colors, big body panels, and things like fins. How did they match colors with single stage paints? Today you can blend into adjacent body panels and cover it with clear, they must have just panel painted back then. And without today’s color matching tools.
My parents drove a ’57 Chevrolet 4-door in Honolulu in the early ’60s. It was black with a white top, and many people mistook it for a taxi. Random people would just climb in at a stop light and rattle off an address.
Made for some great stories.
That’s a good one !
I can just imagine some soldier or sailor hopping in the back seat and saying “take me to person/place/thing” before realizing their mistake. Oops!
Hey Phil,
That’s exactly the scenario my mom remembers from those days.
BTW, I guess taxis at that time in Hawaii didn’t require any special markings, so it was bound to happen!
Great to see the Carl E. Filer dealership here again – I remember it from a few weeks ago. I was able to find a picture of Mr. Filer from the early 1950s, and that does appear to be him in the photo. Here’s the picture of him:
I have never not liked the looks of 1957 Fords .
These are all just dandy .
The ’58 Ford’s skirts are Foxcraft brand .
-Nate
Hard to beat the 55 Packard Caribbean tri tones, would have been tough to choose one to take home, they all look good to me. Today I like the red one.
My ant and uncle
This’ll probably be of a question than a comment, but here we go.
My folks had a ’56 Ford Convertible back in the late 50’s. I don’t think they bought it new, but it must have been close to new. Three tone blue, I remember that. I recall back then 2 tone cars were advertised a lot, so counting my years on one hand I figured 3 tone must be better. Plus it was a convertible. Didn’t know much about cars at that age, and my Dad wasn’t a gearhead, but I liked that car. Convertible and T bird engine sounded good to me.
Anyway, to the question part. I remember him talking about it and saying it had a 300HP T bird engine. Not 300 cubic inch, 300 HP. Yeah, yeah, blah blah blah. But I also remember watching the speedo as he was passing a couple of trucks on the open road and seeing said speedo hit 120. OK, even now speedometers aren’t known to be exactly instrument grade. But late in his life he mentioned something about a trip to the White Sands Proving grounds in NM. He was doing engineering and sales then so it was a business trip. Mom and I were probably stashed in a motel in Alamogordo, but I don’t remember that part. Anyway, I guess they had a strip where they would do top speed runs and have Military grade equipment to time them. He said he clocked at 126 and they gave him a little plaque for the dash, which my Mom wouldn’t let him put on the dash, but instead went in the glove box. He spoke well of that car.
So, my question is, WTF did that car have in it? A stock 312, even 4 barrel wasn’t going to do 126. The 300 HP T bird engine didn’t come out ’til ’57 from what I see. He wasn’t ignorant of cars and engines, but not an enthusiast either and as an up and coming Electrical Engineer definitely wasn’t into working on cars.
Anyone know what it might have been? To complicate matters, it was really my Moms car, in a daily driver sense, so driveability had to be at least OK for the era.
For photo #1 Corner of Irvine Blvd and Brittany Woods Dr.
That “58 Ford”, with the fender skirts; eeek! They gotta go. The “Packard Caribbeans” are cool!
Anyone remember the Papermate pens designed to match “tu-tone” car colors? I had several of them as kid in the 50s, including one to match my great aunt and uncle’s new 55 DeSoto Firedome.
Regarding the Rambler photo…that’s Cavallo Point; an area at Fort Baker – directly below the northern terminus of the Golden Gate Bridge.
My first car was a two tone 55 plymouth and loved the colors… and now I own it’s twin. Great fun to show and drive!
In 1957 my Mother’s Father bought a new Hudson Hornet Hollywood 2 door hardtop in the same color combination as the cover of the brochure. Lime green and black with a cream colored roof. We had that car till 1963 when it was rotted out. Western New York salt, I now know it was a rare car when new in any color.
Very cool I like twotone cars but we only got solid colours locally assembled if you wanted two colours on your new anything here it was a dealer installed option in the 50s and 60s and plenty were done that way it was a trend Kiwis liked but had to pay extra for.
You could get a genuine US model with paint like those shown but postage and RHD conversion was murder on your wallet and you waited even longer for it to show up and the sea voyage did nothing towards durability.
On the ’57 Ford hardtop that looks llike a stock version of an early Daytona 500 race, as before ’59 half of the race was actually held on the beach as the enclosed racetrack hadn’t been built yet. Also, they raced convertibles then (with rollbars, of course).
It’s quite appearant that many people today , really appreciate those vintage autos ! Years ago , I recall riding around in many of these old cars . I remember being in an old Kaiser ( about a ’47 model .) Very RARE automobile today ! Other makes of cars that were commonly seen in the sixties were Edsels , Plymouths , Pontiacs , Oldsmobiles and Buicks . Sadly , a lot of those older cars were junked for different reasons , making any survivors more scarce .Let’s preserve these time pieces !!
RE.: The Filer Caribbean:
Ed (Carl Jr.) invited me to their home maybe 30 years ago, to view color slides of the “garage”, as he called it. By then, they lived in central Ohio. Ed told me, “They’re not that great”. I drove the 2 1/2 hrs. down and I couldn’t believe my eyes. The color was vivid, and they looked like they were taken yesterday. He allowed me to have several reproduced into photos, and I subsequently posted those on Studebaker and Packard sites online. Every pic you see of FIler’s s because I originally posted them online.
The Caribbean was 18th from the last (serial 5699-1258) and was sold to Dr. Arby L. Bailey of Greenville. He traded in a ’55 Thunderbird on it. The Caribbean, even though a late ’56, did have shifting problems due to pushbutton unit. The Dr. eventually traded on a new Cadillac. A Packard buff in nearby Orangeville, OH had the car until the mid-’70’s. It is now in the Netherlands in restored condition, sitting on wire wheels.
WOW! Thank you for all of this. I never imagined we’d be able to track down the history of one of these specific cars.
And thanks too for posting these photos online – they help create a remarkable resource.