What metal flake was to the sixties, matte-finish wraps are to today. Car finishes are as hot a topic as cup holders when it comes to ongoing innovation. The question for today is: what will be the next must-have car finish option?
Image: CarThrottle
Hooniverse Asks: What Will be The Next Hip Auto Finish?
By Robert Emslie
Aug 10, 2016
Jeff Glucker
Fake wood wraps? I’m at least sure it will be something that doesn’t feel diminished by adding “fake-“…
http://hooniverse.info/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Fullscreen-capture-8192012-60351-PM.bmp.jpg
I, for one, am desperately hoping that “simulated bleached teakwood” makes a comeback.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ae/1967_AMC_Rambler_Rebel_station_wagon_Mariner_edition.JPG/640px-1967_AMC_Rambler_Rebel_station_wagon_Mariner_edition.JPG
When your car that is the size of a boat needs to look like a boat.
It’s already a thing…
http://www.justinpate.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/IMG_2424.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-l87arMldUBs/T1-MQ8JkZ6I/AAAAAAAAAG0/EmG2GOdlFcE/s1600/wood-car-from-behing.jpg
Take that Subie one step further and go with a darker woodgrain on the bumpers and you’ve got a winner.
The whole thing should be a bit darker and “foresty-er”. Then play hide and seek on gravel roads.
I’ve seriously considered doing such a thing to our Odyssey. I’d use vinyl contact paper with a grey oak finish like so:
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91nkb5HwmdL._SL1500_.jpg
For accent strips on the outside, I’d buy some 2″ wide, thin, flat-bottomed oak molding, stain it dark charcoal, seal it, and attach with some 3m adhesive strips. The color I imagine is something like this:
http://www.minwax.com/images/swatches/minwax-express-color-wiping-stain-finish/large/onyx.jpg
The Odyssey already has some strong character lines that I could use as guides. It’s too bad about the rubber strip in the middle of it, but that might be substantially diminished in appearance behind the wood grain.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/2005-2007_Honda_Odyssey_–_05-09-2011.jpg
http://tanshanomi.com/temp/animated/doit-doit.gif
Like many similar ideas, this could be out-of-the-ballpark-cool when done properly. Very hard to do properly though.
I’ve though the Ford Flex needed a”Country Squire” version for years. Ford did actually make a concept car Flex woodie but never produced it, nor did the do a Funkmaster Flex edition.
Just a matter of time until the stance nation (and similar) row of stupid stickers make their way to blocking out the rear windows of sad crossovers across the continent (since the equally stupid stick figure families are played out and they need something new).
Straight metal with no paint will be the future. Just like the aluminum overcast of old. I know that there has been some of this already. Heck that little bastard child of Canada has one but I think we will see this as an opposite reaction to the matte paint thing.
I honestly don’t know how I feel about this. I think aluminum is one thing, it doesn’t translate to ferrous metal nearly as well.
Google Image Search for “bare metal car finish”
When I bought my Insight I did a search to see if anyone had done a full body polish, but it turns out more of the panels are plastic than you might think (fenders even!) and the Insight forum guys aren’t really big on style anyway.
A lot of cars come with aluminum hoods now, though
http://i974.photobucket.com/albums/ae226/mkline321/Miata%20Pics/hoodclouds.jpg
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g216/AWDMadness/PICT0179.jpg
A few weeks ago my ride in Aluminum Overcast was cancelled due to hailstorms. Maybe riding around instead on a BMW RnineT with factory brushed aluminum tank would ease the sad… http://bmwmcmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/RnineT-Aluminum-Tank-07.jpg
Animal themes?
http://media2.s-nbcnews.com/i/streams/2014/June/140609/2D274906069488-140609-dumb-dumber-tease.jpg
Ostrich.
http://www.kellylarsonsales.com/images/ost-landing-aniline_off.jpg
Looking at my filthy fleet, I hope the answer is dust
http://cdnstatic.visualizeus.com/thumbs/f0/2d/car,creative,drawing,fun-f02d754e4ac545b14e77bb91ab078596_h.jpg
https://data.motor-talk.de/data/galleries/0/0/125/74808497/screenshot-2016-08-05-07-27-42-1-5930036734062165177-5111292998613249564.png
Where do you guys park? I only get something like “Wash me” in juvenile sribble.
Faculty of arts employee lot? =8^)
Biodegradable, organic finishes. Fertilize often.
Not hip enough. “Boatmen’s Bank and Trust” on the bank dates this to sometime prior to 1985.
http://cdn3-www.webecoist.momtastic.com/assets/uploads/2012/07/grasscars_1a.jpg
Also, it’s a distinguished racing livery, and should only be applied to cars with the proper pedigree: http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a360/mcloed/2012%20CMP%20Race/6c79248b-1.jpg
I’m just really glad I didn’t invest in a Cosmichrome setup (which I seriously did consider about a decade ago). That played itself out remarkably fast.
http://wordpress.carthrottle.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Tyga-Audi-R8-Gold-Wrap-655×409.jpg
Thin film solar wrap?
http://topdiysolarpanels.com/images/thin-film-solar-panel.jpg
Psst. Three words: Thermal Spray Aluminum. You heard it here first.
http://www.raymondintl.com/images/thermal_spray02.jpg
+1 From Wiki:
“Coating materials available for thermal spraying include metals, alloys, ceramics, plastics and composites.”
The possibilities are endless.
Sundown stripes … I hope. Or vintage racing livery.
Maybe Saturn was onto something. They didn’t catch fire well but overall they did survive well in supermarket parking lots. Maybe it’s time for the return of the old look of body cladding.
What about a semi-environmental-friendly resin solution?
http://www.derzwickauer.de/trabant_p601_karosserie_explosion.jpg
Except that it’s horribly toxic when incinerated, which is the only way to destroy the stuff.
I’ve heard that goats will eat it.
That’s what Hollywood wants us to believe. According to the movie industry at the lower Danube, it’s pigs.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xD0DDYnf-TA/hqdefault.jpg
You’re human. You’re not supposed to think this through.
I remember reading that it can be ground up and used in cement blocks for construction.
EVERYTHING can be ground up and used in concrete, it’s a great way to “get rid” of toxic stuff. Why do you think they add fly ash to concrete?
How long before somebody takes that padded cloth they use for aftermarket carriage tops and just covers the whole body with it?
For some reason this is what came to mind when you said that.
Somewhere on the Internets, I saw a car (Viper?) wrapped in a green ivy photowrap. It was remarkably similar.
Mod tops really need to make a comeback!
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/7b/c4/59/7bc4598d2809aeb794e9366bf54d4791.jpg
The Mohs Safarikar was ahead of its time.
http://www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/mohs-safarikar1.jpg
http://o.aolcdn.com/dims-global/dims3/GLOB/legacy_thumbnail/750×422/quality/95/http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2009/11/blackbisonalphard—03.jpg
I saw this at SEMA in 2009, I’m still a little sad it didn’t catch on.
Catch on…
https://media.giphy.com/media/oZYBdbW7TnhEQ/giphy.gif
?
No, but it felt like 40 degrees outside today. Ask me again in 5 months.
Short, shameful confession: if I had the money, and knew a wrap shop that could pull it off, I would go full Ken Block with the FiST.
Who wouldn’t?
I’m hoping that solids will return, especially in subtle colors. And if I really get my way, 2-tones and even 3-tones will come back like we saw on 30’s vehicles. Although cars aren’t as “panelized” as they were back then, some creative possibilities could exist. Gorgeous black/grey/grey with orange accent photo not mine, pulled from google.
The Johnny Dangerously look.
I hate wraps. It’s disgusting that the tortillas are never steamed.
Quite seriously – the next big thing will be see-through Lexan car hoods (bonnets for you Brits)…
They’re starting to appear already