It really works well with the era of the car and frankly, I don't think I would have had the grape nuts to have tried it. I'm always apprehensive when it comes to colors and how far to take it. Aaron...
I've been around race cars ever since I graduated high school. Prior to that I was already a big fan of the old Nascar vehicles from the 60s and 70s. There wasn't much televised coverage of drag racing but I was awed by the 1/4 mile cars I saw in HOT ROD magazine.
After work, I'd go to night school studying auto body and paint along with taking several other automotive courses. When friends of mine found out I was preparing to get into body repair they began looking for favors. I never had a proper spray booth so I shied away from painting street vehicles but gladly took on several of the local race cars. I'd shoot them for the cost of the materials just so I could gain experience. I started to study commercial art. Some of what I read were books that focused on race car graphics. The rules for planning a successful layout for products (according to what I learned) included:
1.Try to keep a scheme limited to 2 or 3 colors. # was preferable.
2.Make certain there is a high degree of contrast between chosen colors. It should be easy to distinguish a logo even in dim light. A way to test was to take both color and black & white pictures. They should be equally readable.
3.Size all major lettering large enough to be read from the distance it is normally viewed from.
4.Make sure fonts are chosen that aren't difficult to read.
5.If possible try to tie the car's accessories in with the chosen colors on the car.
I've probably painted and lettered 50 race cars over the years. It's not a huge number but I only did it as a hobby. Six of the vehicles I'd done won awards for paint. I also did some design work for businesses and sign painting.
So I wasn't too skitterish when it came to the Duster. My goal was to keep it cheap. The car was already black and I wasn't about to spend money changing that. Instead I worked with it. Black is a good color to start with when you have a car that will primarily be driven in daylight. The two colors that have the highest contrast to the black are orange and yellow. That's why the government uses those combinations for road signs dealing with caution.
Instead of a straight yellow I chose to go with more of a gold tone hoping it would tie in with the orange better. The large DUSTER logo on the sides has a metal-flake in it which in turn, ties it in with the gold.
The scheme is meant for a race car. I'm not sure it could be pulled off successfully for the street. But then again Chrysler did some very bold things with paint. - And there were Rambler Scramblers. - And Mod Tops. I guess the 'Lil Red Express is hardly a wallflower.
