The original candy apple red car paint had no metallic (tiny flakes of silver metal or plastic) or pearl (tiny flakes of plastic or possibly real particles of the reflective surfaces from seashells). This gives real 'candy apple red' paint more 'life' than more conventional solid red or metallic red paints used on cars, trucks and other vehicles. Because light reflects in different directions from objects like cars, as you move around the vehicle and see direct and reflected light from different angles, the appearance of the candy apple red paint changes as the light getting to the car and reflecting off of the car changes. A more neutral/pure red is the result when silver reflective undercoat is used. The gold gives the color a warmer look while the silver undercoat gives an intensely red appearance to the paint without the extra warmth of the gold. But because of the complexity and time (and cost) required to apply real candy apple red paint to a car, until the introduction of the Soul Red option by Mazda in 2013 along with its proprietary robotic painting process that mimics the laborious hand-painting process required by true candy apple red, no production cars have been factory-painted with true candy apple red paint other than cars (or trucks) from smaller specialty manufacturers willing to provide custom finishes per customer's request/sample.Ĭandy apple red paint with silver metallic reflective undercoat looks quite different from candy apple red with gold metallic reflective undercoat. An early use of candy apple red by an automobile manufacturer was Ford's 1963 Thunderbird Italian concept car that appeared in North American auto shows (including Autorama shows) in 1963 and in the New York Worlds Fair in 1964 in Ford's pavilion. Electric guitars, home décor items, loudspeakers, and a variety of other items have been available (or their owner's had custom paint applied) with candy apple red finish. Candy apple red' paint has been used on many objects other than cars or trucks.

This causes real candy apple red paint to look far more intense and attractive than conventional paints that happen to use the name 'candy apple red' without actually being real candy apple red paint. Candy Apple Red appears so intense, because light passes through the paint, reflects off of the metallic base color, and passes through the paint a second time before we see the color. Once the candy apple red color reaches the proper appearance of depth and color intensity, multiple coats of clear paint are applied to protect the paint job and add to the feeling of depth of the paint. Many coats are required to achieve the proper appearance-of-depth and richness-of-color. This candy apple red paint is transparent. The candy apple red paint is applied on top of the reflective metallic paint. The key with this first metallic color layer is to reflect as much light as possible. This is usually highly reflective silver paint, but the color effect can be modified by using metallic gold or other tinted metallic paint. Then a highly reflective metallic paint is applied first. After the body is properly prepared, primer is applied as usual. The phrase candy apple red, describes a very specific paint process first used on custom cars and hot rods sometime in the early 1950s (date not specified, per audio interview with Joe Bailon, candy apple red, inventor, In the candy apple red paint process, the body of the car or other object to be painted must be finished as perfectly as possible to avoid easily visible problems in the finished paint. The 'candy apple red' is not just the name of a color, it is also implies a specific paint process for cars and other objects: Ĭandy apple red is a popular color for car companies to manufacture automobiles in because 'candy apple red' colored automobiles sell quickly.

An automotive paint search of 'apple' shows that historically the name was associated with a green color going back to the early 1930s. It was not until 1996 that Chrysler, and GM in 2001, had a similarly named production paint. ( December 2019) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)Ī color named Candy Apple Red was first officially used on a production car by Ford in 1966, but it was a bright, non-metallic red. Please help improve this section if you can. The specific problem is: Lengthy section with minimal wikilinking.

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Translucent spray paint