Can Someone Explain Why They Painted It Orange? Or At All?

Except for that one bit of puzzlement expressed in the title, I found this video very happy and uplifting.

[(Re)Built Ford Tough: A Flathead V-8 Rebuild Time-lapse] (Viewer #185,022)

10 Comments

  1. As every 8-year-old boy knows, flame decals make vehicles of every type move faster. Orange paint creates part of the effect, although not as well as a proper flame would. However, the detailed artwork necessary to get the full effect would smudge off due to the heat & vibrations under the hood, and would end up being no more effective than the solid orange coat used in the video.

    I hope this helps.

  2. I can guess. Judging by the truck’s body and landscape as they drove away at the end, it snows there. Snow means salt on the roads, means rust on your vehicle. Paint slows down the rust.

    A better question is why didn’t they repair and paint the truck’s body while the engine was out?

    • I did a little searching and got no answer as to why, but yours seems logical, plus the rust problem would happen anywhere. One person claimed that in the “olden days” Chevy painted theirs orange, Ford, blue. Rebuilders (this guy aside?) also like to match all colors to the original schemes. And there used to be all that space around to see and work on them yourself.

    • The retro “rat” look is big. They clear coat over the rust to stop any further deterioration, but builders routinely keep the body work to a minimum if that’s the look they are going for. That looks like the situation here.

  3. My question is what makes the flat head such a big deal? There are a LOT of reasons auto manufacturers abandoned the idea 60 years ago. 25 years before the government started trying to tell them what kind of motors to build.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.