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Is It Time To Reintroduce 2-Tone Exteriors?

Two tone paint jobs (and sometimes even three) had their post-war hayday in the '50s. Arguably, the popularity of vinyl tops in the '60s and '70s kept the trend going longer, albeit in a different form.
With cars becoming more generic in appearance in recent years, would tastefully done two tone exteriors allow designers to add some positive visual interest to car styling? Could this complement recent improvements in interior designs of many models?
Take a look at drawings of the Maybach coupe (by Xenatec) that will be introduced. You can view it on the AutoWeek site. What do you think of its two tone styling?
With cars becoming more generic in appearance in recent years, would tastefully done two tone exteriors allow designers to add some positive visual interest to car styling? Could this complement recent improvements in interior designs of many models?
Take a look at drawings of the Maybach coupe (by Xenatec) that will be introduced. You can view it on the AutoWeek site. What do you think of its two tone styling?
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I've always been fond of old VW Bugs with doors that contrast with the rest of the body. And don't forget the MINI roof treatments.
Works for me. I'm not quite ready for airbrushed van sides again though.
Once the cars started getting more aerodynamic though, it seemed like two-toning really started limiting itself to the lower body, and was often accomplished with plastic cladding.
Nowadays though, cars are enough of a mix-and-match in styling, with re-hashes of styling themes that have come and gone before, that it might work on some of them. For instance, I think 2-toning would look good on something like a Chrysler 300. It's squared-off enough to pull it off.
That Maybach coupe manages to look rounded and slab-sided at the same time, and has strong enough creases to pull off that two-toning, IMO.
I don't see it coming back...I bet the expense alone, especially on non-cladding setups, makes it prohibitive.
one the best 70's cars for a two tone paint job was a mid/late monte carlo.
I was actually thinking about doing this to my last previous car, until I got it in an accident and had to replace it.
What will be interesting to see, is if Honda, Nissan, and Toyota copy and have two tone options on their next round of redesigned models, Altima/Camry next year, followed by the Accord the year after!
The black on the sides was very rich and deep and shined up well. It took a lot of work to get a shine on the hood.
The roof was another story. In the later years, kept it till late 2003, I had to get up on a ladder (twice over time) with orbital sander and fine sandpaper to remove remnants of paint and very light rust. Roof never rusted through. I was lucky to find popular brand spray can paint (Rustoleum), masked off the sides and hood and used many cans to spray. It matched the original color very well. Unless you were a basketball player, you could not really see the top of roof, only a little bit of it.
I decided to refinish the roof by myself when I got some estimates from auto paint shops that quoted the work to be more than the value of the truck.
Unfortunately, the divider decals GM used then were no more durable than a model-car decal, and often washed or flaked off too soon.
I'd be all for two-toning again. That, and red and blue as interior colors.
Remember the '76 Monte Carlo "Fashion Tone" two-tone? There was a huge blob of second color around the 'pontoon' lines of the front fender and onto the door. Worst-looking two-tone ever, IMHO. And otherwise, back then at least, I was a big fan of that Monte Carlo generation.
Bill
This isn't beautiful? :shades:
And now for something completely different...inspired by the VW Polo Harlequin:
Here's what I was talking about...although the photo in the link is small and the colors are closer than many were:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://images01.olx.com/ui/1/08/96/3400296_1- .jpg&imgrefurl=http://bloomington-maryland.olx.com/vintage-1976-chevy-monte-carl- o-iid-3400296&usg=__bsuuDsekwZ8UkYf5iehZeY2ASU8=&h=132&w=200&sz=8&hl=en&start=5&- um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=_cSdIv96qMY2WM:&tbnh=69&tbnw=104&prev=/images%3Fq%3D76%2BMonte- %2BCarlo%2Btwo%2Btone%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26tbs%3Disch:1
Bill
There was a Chip Foose Mustang a year or so ago that was two tone, and I thought it was a looker.
Do you have any old pics of that Monte that you could scan and post? I'd LOVE to see that...sounds like a gorgeous car! My '82 Cutlass Supreme was only one color, light jadestone, I think. There was another color GM had that year that they simply called "silver-green poly", and it looks close enough to that light jadestone that I can't tell which one my car was!
I remember one day, driving to a junkyard in my Cutlass to find some new grille inserts, I passed another Cutlass of similar vintage that was the dark jadestone. That was the only time I think I've seen a car in the dark jadestone. It was beautiful. I imagine a two-tone of the two must have been drop-dead gorgeous!
About the closest I've seen to that 2-tone was a 1979 Dodge St. Regis that used to be in my neighborhood. It was this color scheme. And ironically enough, it went up for sale the day after I bought my '79 NY'er 5th Ave, for only $500! My 5th Ave has a bigger engine and is more luxurious, with leather and power galore, but I'd much rather have that 2-tone green! If I'd had the money to buy it and a place to store it, I probably would have bought it, too. But this was like a month after 9/11, when the economy was plummetting, and I had just quit my second job delivering pizzas...so I didn't exactly have money to burn!
In '81 the Dark Jade was lighter than the '82 Dark Jade I also had on an '82 V6 Monte Carlo that I bought to replace the '81 when it was stolen and not recovered. I much-preferred the '81 for its V8 (even though a 267) and the narrow bodyside molding. In '82 they had a wide molding that (IMHO) was too low and too closely situated to the rocker molding.
My '81 had the V8, posi, AM/FM radio w/ rear seat speaker, tinted glass, whitewalls, remote-control outside (chrome) mirror, and Custom Two-Tone paint. It had the standard metal full-wheel covers. For options, that was it. No air. Come to think of it, it had the tilt wheel too. Odd options. Most Montes in '81 were the V6. My folks had an '80 Monte V6 and although it had Rally Wheels, belt moldings and sport mirrors my '81 didn't, I much-preferred the '81 styling, and the V6 sounded agricultural to my ears!
My parents' '80 was a dark green with gold factory pinstripe. It was sharp in its own way.
Bill
Green shades are unusual in that they are always coming in and going out of style for some reason. I once owned a' 71 Plymouth Sebring in dark green with a gold pinstripe. Nowadays I prefer silvers and golds that don't show dirt.