The history of automobile colours

Not only does an automotive finish protect the body – it is also responsible for a car’s beauty, its visual identity. Reason enough to have quite a close look at the subject of colours. Kindly join us on a short journey back into the history of automobile colours.

In the first days of the automobile, the range of colours used was still very limited. The picture was determined by earthy colours because, as a rule, it was mineral pigments that gave the paint its colour. Cars were painted in subdued colours: blue, green, red or beige - and, of course, in the classic automotive colour: black.

After World War I, chemists succeeded in producing synthetic pigments on a large scale for the coatings industry. Colours were then not quite as earthy, but the colour spectrum of the nitrocellulose paints remained limited. It was not until the 1930s that brighter colours became a possibility as the new alkyd resin-based paints were less prone to yellowing.

Colour came hand in hand with progress

After World War II, the car increasingly evolved into people’s favourite means of transport. The paint manufacturers developed more and more sophisticated paints and simultaneously enlarged the range of colours immensely. Car owners, and vehicle and paint manufacturers demonstrated that they had a heart for colour and effects.

The 1950s saw the market launch of the first metallic colours, but metallic direct-gloss finishes were not very weather-resistant and refinishing work proved difficult. The numerous complaints prompted some car manufacturers to temporarily cease production of such coatings. Only Glasurit’s metallic basecoat/clearcoat system, which introduced in 1964, ensured that these coatings retained their metallic gleam over quite a long period, and thus ushered in the triumphal march of the metallic colours.

Soon, the variety of different hues on car bodies knew no bounds. To enable the constantly-growing number of colours needed for refinishing jobs to be reproduced to perfection, paint manufacturers such as Glasurit developed colour mixing systems. These now allow professionals to reproduce nearly every colour produced by practically every car manufacturer.