The American Automobile Paint Code Interchange Manual

Americans, of course, love nothing quite as much as their cars. A perusal through the one hundred and fifty-odd pages of the American Automobile Paint Code Interchange Manual presents a national psychogram of sorts, one that moves from wartime colors – South Sea Blue, Military Blue, London Gray – to postwar middle class 1950s fantasy (Cambridge Maroon, Sportsman Green). The social striving of the early 1960s – Executive Gray – turns cheeky (Smoker’s Lung Gray) by decade’s end. This light cynicism is superseded by a shockingly socially conscious series of colours, particularly at Ford, in the 1970s (Counter Revolutionary Red, Anti-Establish Mint). Some even directly reference the war in Vietnam, from an indubitably Peacenik perspective (Bring’em Back Olive). By the 1980s, this flair is gone, replaced by blander, more commercially appealing colors: French Vanilla, Medium French Vanilla, Pastel French Vanilla. There is less fantasy, more Antique Cream. By 1990, even Midnight Wine had given way to Mary Kay Pink. Join us for a quick stroll down America’s memory lane.