[Slipangle]

So it's going to be a while before I get to this, but I've been working on a station wagon, but since getting married it's been little progress and priorities change, so now it's going to be restored as a fun car. I want to keep the original fake wood, no body changes, but I'll be putting in a modern interior out of an SUV and powering it with a 390.

It was originally a white car, but since I'm now planning not to go original, I'm more open to color choices.

I have some opinions, but I'll keep them to myself to see what kind of suggestions I get. Attached below are literature pictures of the '55 Mercury Monterey station wagon and the seats I'm looking to put in.

[BOBCRMAN@aol.com]

Popular non Red two-tone color combos of that period were. Turquoise and White, Coral (pink shade) and White. Coral and Charcoal (had one). Med Blue and White. Yellow and White.

[TucsonJay]

That era had some great colors, which would be unusual enough to draw more attention than a common color... and also create the feeling of the fifties. :-) Here is a Mercury color chart from '55...

I favor the "Persimmon" (coral color)... the light mint green... and the soft "Yukon Yellow". I personally think they are unusual enough, and have a strong vintage feel.

[trees]

Nothing wrong with the period colors or color schemes. In fact, metallic paint just never looks right to me on any of the vehicles from the solid color era. You are fortunate to have such an unique body style to work with. Relatively speaking. there were not many of those made.

Trees

[TucsonJay]

Originally Posted by TucsonJay

That era had some great colors, which would be unusual enough to draw more attention than a common color... and also create the feeling of the fifties. :-) Here is a Mercury color chart from '55...

I favor the "Persimmon" (coral color)... the light mint green... and the soft "Yukon Yellow". I personally think they are unusual enough, and have a strong vintage feel.

I should also add that on this chart, I believe the color names with "poly" means a metallic.

[Slipangle]

Okay... There are some pictures floating around the internet of a few options and the pictures of '55 or '56 Mercury Monterey station wagons I've seen are not what I am looking for. So here's what I've found:

There is a turquoise s/w that has been restored and was sold at auction in 2006 for $115,500 and then again in 2008 for $50,600. I also saw it listed for sale without any indication of when it was listed, and the listing shows at $44,000. It's easy to know that it's the same vehicle because this was not an original color on the exterior, and doubly so for the interior. In fact, it's amazing that they went to so much trouble on this restoration to create the original embossed leather pattern on a color that was not made in 1955 or 1956. Original interiors came in red, blue and green for the station wagon, Montclairs also had a black/white and yellow/white interior available, and in these colors you could get styleweave or chromatex inserts. I think the turquoise looks great on the exterior, but it gets a little overbearing when its carried into the interior. What's more, I find it odd that the photos from the auction site show correct white air cleaner and valve covers, but the $44k site shows an all yellow engine.

http://www.pbase.com/xl1ken/image/51238072
http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/c...74&iDNumID=839
http://www.oldcaronline.com/ocdetail269986.htm

Then there is a red station wagon out there. This particular car has a red that is more bright than the original 1955 Carmen red, which I know well because for 1955 all Mercurys had the wheels painted red and I've found a real good Imron match that I used on 2 sets of wheels I painted about 15 years ago for this car and another hardtop. I'll be using this color when I get around to restoring my Sun Valley which is going to be done 100% original with a few original accessories added in. The red station wagon that's out there does not have correct original engine colors either and the wood grain of the panel is darker and looks closer to the Ford s/w wood grain. When they restored the interior, they altered the shape of the inserts so they just go straight across. The tough thing about sorting this out, on my car they actually did this on the second row and I have no reason to doubt that it's original because it has the chromatex. My car was missing the small section of the second row and the third row seat, so I had to get those out of a Ford. I think the Chery/Maple woodgrain that is correct and original to '55 Mercury looks better than the darker walnut panel used on this car and on the Ford.
http://www.connorsmotorcar.com/55Merc.html

I don't think two tone works for this car, it doesn't really have a good clean break, particularly at the rear, and even if you did that there isn't enough exposed metal below the wood section to make it look right - it would be imbalanced and look like it has too much color above the wood side trim. For '55 the Mercury 2-tone was basicly that the roof was one color and the body another, and it was only single colors for the Monterey wagon. The Custom wagon you could get the 2-tone with the second color between the belt line and the roof drip rail, but on Monterey that is painted wood grain. I prefer the wood grain.

I was leaning towards a darker metallic, maybe blue. I don't care for the pastel colors FoMoCo had in '55-6, I hadn't considered yellow but I could go for a darker metallic yellow perhaps more like the 1955 Ford. If I did that I'd consider a black and yellow interior, given the seats I'm planning for I'd go for an interior sort of styled like the Thunderbird interior with the yellow around the outside and a black insert. But I'd have to see the yellow with the wood, the framing might get lost in the yellow I'm thinking.

My issue with the dark blue was that I wasn't sure about coordinating the interior with it. A white interior would look good with it, but I've seen how hard it is to keep white leather clean. I'm not sure a dark blue interior would look right. Maybe a dark green metallic with a dark green would look good, but I'd have to see it with the wood grain to see how the reddish hue of the cherry wood matches.

I did see some pictures of a dark brown metallic on a '57 Ford Country Squire and I was impressed with how nice it looked, I never would've thought of somewhere I'd expect brown to look so good but it just worked with the wood trim. There's also a black one that looks pretty good, but then black is getting a little too basic for what I'm after.

I like the Mercury body, it has a little more length on the front end than the Ford. The body is the same on both, it's just different front sheet metal and the lost length makes the Ford's proportions look a little off and the Ford comes off to me a little stubby.

[35terraplane]

Originally Posted by Slipangle

Okay... There are some pictures floating around the internet of a few options and the pictures of '55 or '56 Mercury Monterey station wagons I've seen are not what I am looking for. So here's what I've found:

There is a turquoise s/w that has been restored and was sold at auction in 2006 for $115,500 and then again in 2008 for $50,600. I also saw it listed for sale without any indication of when it was listed, and the listing shows at $44,000. It's easy to know that it's the same vehicle because this was not an original color on the exterior, and doubly so for the interior. In fact, it's amazing that they went to so much trouble on this restoration to create the original embossed leather pattern on a color that was not made in 1955 or 1956. Original interiors came in red, blue and green for the station wagon, Montclairs also had a black/white and yellow/white interior available, and in these colors you could get styleweave or chromatex inserts. I think the turquoise looks great on the exterior, but it gets a little overbearing when its carried into the interior. What's more, I find it odd that the photos from the auction site show correct white air cleaner and valve covers, but the $44k site shows an all yellow engine.

http://www.pbase.com/xl1ken/image/51238072
http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/c...74&iDNumID=839
http://www.oldcaronline.com/ocdetail269986.htm

Then there is a red station wagon out there. This particular car has a red that is more bright than the original 1955 Carmen red, which I know well because for 1955 all Mercurys had the wheels painted red and I've found a real good Imron match that I used on 2 sets of wheels I painted about 15 years ago for this car and another hardtop. I'll be using this color when I get around to restoring my Sun Valley which is going to be done 100% original with a few original accessories added in. The red station wagon that's out there does not have correct original engine colors either and the wood grain of the panel is darker and looks closer to the Ford s/w wood grain. When they restored the interior, they altered the shape of the inserts so they just go straight across. The tough thing about sorting this out, on my car they actually did this on the second row and I have no reason to doubt that it's original because it has the chromatex. My car was missing the small section of the second row and the third row seat, so I had to get those out of a Ford. I think the Chery/Maple woodgrain that is correct and original to '55 Mercury looks better than the darker walnut panel used on this car and on the Ford.
http://www.connorsmotorcar.com/55Merc.html

I don't think two tone works for this car, it doesn't really have a good clean break, particularly at the rear, and even if you did that there isn't enough exposed metal below the wood section to make it look right - it would be imbalanced and look like it has too much color above the wood side trim. For '55 the Mercury 2-tone was basicly that the roof was one color and the body another, and it was only single colors for the Monterey wagon. The Custom wagon you could get the 2-tone with the second color between the belt line and the roof drip rail, but on Monterey that is painted wood grain. I prefer the wood grain.

I was leaning towards a darker metallic, maybe blue. I don't care for the pastel colors FoMoCo had in '55-6, I hadn't considered yellow but I could go for a darker metallic yellow perhaps more like the 1955 Ford. If I did that I'd consider a black and yellow interior, given the seats I'm planning for I'd go for an interior sort of styled like the Thunderbird interior with the yellow around the outside and a black insert. But I'd have to see the yellow with the wood, the framing might get lost in the yellow I'm thinking.

My issue with the dark blue was that I wasn't sure about coordinating the interior with it. A white interior would look good with it, but I've seen how hard it is to keep white leather clean. I'm not sure a dark blue interior would look right. Maybe a dark green metallic with a dark green would look good, but I'd have to see it with the wood grain to see how the reddish hue of the cherry wood matches.

I did see some pictures of a dark brown metallic on a '57 Ford Country Squire and I was impressed with how nice it looked, I never would've thought of somewhere I'd expect brown to look so good but it just worked with the wood trim. There's also a black one that looks pretty good, but then black is getting a little too basic for what I'm after.

I like the Mercury body, it has a little more length on the front end than the Ford. The body is the same on both, it's just different front sheet metal and the lost length makes the Ford's proportions look a little off and the Ford comes off to me a little stubby.

Well after reading your book, on the history of the 55 Mercury and why or why not this color or colors work. I think you have pretty much made up your mind what you want. You said you wanted a fun color or car, my dad had a 55 Mercury, I don't think they had any fun colors, they had colors that would make the car look good. With that said I think you know what you want, and want some of us here to say, Gee that would go together. That's what I get from your post, if I'm wrong, have a ball but IMO when someone starts reading that post, they will think like me.

If you have a color in mind say so. But don't post why this color will work with that, but not with this.JMO

Bob

[Slipangle]

Originally Posted by 35terraplane

Well after reading your book, on the history of the 55 Mercury and why or why not this color or colors work. I think you have pretty much made up your mind what you want. You said you wanted a fun color or car, my dad had a 55 Mercury, I don't think they had any fun colors, they had colors that would make the car look good. With that said I think you know what you want, and want some of us here to say, Gee that would go together. That's what I get from your post, if I'm wrong, have a ball but IMO when someone starts reading that post, they will think like me.

If you have a color in mind say so. But don't post why this color will work with that, but not with this.JMO

Bob

What I meant wasn't that I was looking for a fun color, but that this is a car for fun - i.e. I'm not restricting myself to originallity or putting it in a glass case, it'll be a car I'm building to be used. As opposed to the '55 Mercury Sun Valley I'm planning to do a good quality all original restoration, down to details nobody would notice like making sure I use the higher compression '55 Mercury heads and I use the correct fresh air ducts for the very beginning of the model year before they changed them to the more common configuration with the longer sleeve and shorter elbow.

I'm really not settled on a particular color, maybe more like a mood. I'm a mechanical engineer, so I can do function better than form, and I think what I'm after is something that works for a coordinated interior and exterior given the particular wood colors and shapes I intend to keep as oriignal since I know I like that. I get the sense that it's probably a formal type of mood I'm going for and that probably means a darker color.

I have gotten an idea to consider that I had not thought of, namely the idea of yellow. I would probably have to go with a darker yellow than the '55 stock colors with a metallic or metal flake, I think I've seen this with black and yellow on something and yellow with a black/yellow interior sounds like it could work.

I'd say it's probably between Yellow with yellow/black interior, or a dark blue theme or a dark green theme. The next step would be trying to figure out how to get those ideas into picture form.

[Slipangle]

So I'm not a great photoshopper, and all I have to work with is "paint", so I fiddled around with some options to try to superimpose colors on the '55 Mercury wagon with the wood trim and it worked okay... The interiors maybe didn't work as well, but FWIW here's what I came up with:

I think I'm leaning towards the dark red where I might've been leaning towards dark blue before. I like the dark yellow, but I'm not sure how the interior would work out.

[35terraplane]

Originally Posted by Slipangle

So I'm not a great photoshopper, and all I have to work with is "paint", so I fiddled around with some options to try to superimpose colors on the '55 Mercury wagon with the wood trim and it worked okay... The interiors maybe didn't work as well, but FWIW here's what I came up with:

I think I'm leaning towards the dark red where I might've been leaning towards dark blue before. I like the dark yellow, but I'm not sure how the interior would work out.

I know it's a different body style but I think you could get a 57 merc in black and yellow. We had a 55 in the light green and a 59 in pale yellow.

Bob

[1ownerT]

My vote would be for an "era" match.

[Dave57210]

Just a thought, but it seems to me that a lighter color would allow the wood trim to be more pronounced, while a dark color would make the "overpower" wood and make it lose its effectiveness as the major trim/style element of the car.

Start with the wood - that color seems to be fixed. Now tone with that - to either blend with or to contrast with/emphasize the wood color - your choice.

Then work from that design statement to choose the interior you want to complement the exterior

[Hippie]

White with woodgrain......... I'd stick with that. It's classic.

[Dave57210]

Originally Posted by Dave57210

Just a thought, but it seems to me that a lighter color would allow the wood trim to be more pronounced, while a dark color would make the "overpower" wood and make it lose its effectiveness as the major trim/style element of the car.

Start with the wood - that color seems to be fixed. Now tone with that - to either blend with or to contrast with/emphasize the wood color - your choice.

Then work from that design statement to choose the interior you want to complement the exterior

Y'know- for a guy who writes things for a living - I sure can screw up a post on here!

"[QUOTE=Dave57210]Just a thought, but it seems to me that a lighter color would allow the wood trim to be more pronounced, while a dark color would make the "overpower" wood and make it lose its effectiveness as the major trim/style element of the car."

That should read (in part): "while a dark color would "overpower" the wood and make it lose......."

Sheesh - maybe its a good thing that I quit my job last week - if this is how I write, I shouldn't be there anyway!

And I agree with Hippie - white & woodgrain would look classic!

[Slipangle]

See, what I understand well are functional things like how to improve vehicle dynamics or ride, but what I just don't naturally have a knack for understanding aesthetics.

So what I'm reminded of is some principles I read about a while back for how a big person might want to dress to create the illusion of being less big... Wearing clothes that are complimentary to the background blends you into the background and makes you look bigger. Or was it black is slimming?

So it's interesting you mention complimentary or contrasting colors... I thought the blues or the reds or the yellows went with the wood, and the panel is Cherry woodgrain which is a red - which would be complimented by the red or contrasted by the blue... And the yellow would compliment the lighter frame wood which I believe is maple.

Maybe I'm rambling again. I guess what I mean to say is thanks for the feedback, I need these kind of suggestions to figure out how to go about brainstorming concepts for a theme.