It must have something to do with late spring, for a number of old and attractive Detroit iron has been appearing at the Cohort lately.
JC captured two Continentals in the last few days; first a ’63, in light baby blue, sitting under a lovely shade.
A couple of days later this ’71 appeared, in a deeper shade of blue, looking very straight; and with the right amount of wear and patina we enjoy here at CC. What will summer bring us?
Looks like the same color as the one on the road in front of Clarke Griswold’s house in xmass vacation
The ’62 Conti is the same pale-blue color as the 1960 (possibly 61 or 62) Falcon my family had until I was 6 years old in 1971. I still have the official Ford touch up spray paint in this color (the can showed it was used on the all of the “Ford family of fine cars” including Edsel), but I can’t find the can at this moment, but I did find a snippet of the actual car from a 1962 Kodachrome below (of my older brother). The Continental is one car I think would look good in modern grayscale colors – white, silver, grey, charcoal, and black all flatter it. Pale blue is interesting but I think it suits smaller cars like Falcons and Mustangs better.
I like the 71’s color better, but the car itself looked too much like the huge Mercury Marquis that was sold at the same time, although still pleasant. Styling of the ’70s Continental peaked in ’75-76 IMO.
Great… Thanks Rich… Now I’ve got Billy Joel’s “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” stuck in my head. 😉
I assume the OEM wheel covers on the ’63 were snazzier than those dog dishes. Did an owner install them to be ironic, or for some other reason?
I was looking at those wheels and thinking “nah”.
I love the look of the original 1961 – 1963 Continentals (they made them slightly bigger and went back to non-curved side glass for 1964 🙁
But I also really love the look of the 1970 – 1973 Continentals. To me, just as classic and elegant a look as the originals on which they’re based.
All beautiful cars.
I have to say that baby blue is one color I don’t really yearn for among all of the interesting colors that have fallen out of the new car catalogs. It was popular (or at least commonly available) from the 40s to the 80s, but not seen often since.
In 1970 I took an auto body course at night school in preparation for an unsuccessful attempt to keep my rusting car on the road. One thing I remember was the instructor saying that light blue paint was the cheapest. I don’t know if that is true, but he had no reason to lie about it.
I think it works better on some shapes than others. There are a fair number of older Italian designs where baby blue or robin’s egg blue is lovely, and it works on something like a Nissan Figaro or New Beetle. On a ’70s land yacht, arguably less so.
My ’79 VW Rabbit was baby blue. It was the first year of Westmoreland, PA assembly, and it had the full “Malibu” treatment — matching blue on the seats, headliner, steering wheel, and even the shift lever boot. I think the color looked good on such a small car, if perhaps overdone inside.
But I agree baby blue does not best suit a battle cruiser vehicle.
Saw a light blue with white top new Ford Bronco. Naturally caught my attention after seeing this post this morning about baby blue.
“Nowadays you can’t be too sentimental. Your best bet’s a true baby blue Continental.” – Billy Joel
That, or “Soulful Shade of Blue” by Buffy Sainte Marie.
I have long wondered about that lyric. Is it a true baby blue Continental, or is it a true (baby!) blue Continental? We’ll probably never know, but the Continental that always comes to mind when I hear this song is one of these:
Since that song is full of references to specific locations in the area of Long Island where Joel grew up, I’m thinking “true baby blue Continental,” and less the late ’70s Marks than ones he would have seen as a teenager, e.g.:
http://www.oldcarbrochures.org/United%20States/Lincoln/1967_Lincoln/1967-Lincoln-Continental-Brochure/slides/1967_Lincoln_Continental-12-13.html
(I think Lincoln called that Huron Blue.)
You may be right; I may be crazy.
Either way, don’t make it loud or bright, just make it a sweet and gentle style.
You lost me on that last curve.
That’s a line from the aforementioned “Soulful Shade of Blue” by Buffy Sainte Marie.
Has anyone here done a write up about the great songs written about various cars through the ages?
I had a 1979 Corvette in Corvette Light Blue; for the life of me I don’t know why I ordered that color rather than red. Maybe I wanted something a bit different. Anyway, if was so pale that many simply took it for an odd shade of white.