Peter Behrens's Blog, page 96

Mystic Cobra

 

Thanks to DC Denison for the heads-up on this....

Open in app or onlineThe Mystic Cobra EditionOn Ford Mustangs, prismatic platelets, and government agents.GUEST CONTRIBUTORFEB 15∙GUEST POST  [image error] [image error] [image error] SAVE▷  LISTEN 

Ryan McManus (RMM) is a product designer at Ford and a longstanding friend of WITI. He has previously written about the end of spare parts, the simple elegance of SecuriCode, and how to start your own town. He has never owned a gray car. Well, one—but he was young.

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(photo copyright Ford)

Ryan here. If you were running a body shop in the mid-1990s, there was one car that might have given you pause if it showed up on the back of a truck for a respray: The 1996 Ford Mustang SVT Cobra, in a color called Mystic. First, the car would have looked purple, black, green, or even gold, depending on how the light hit it—meaning you had to be very precise in technique to get a perfect blending. Second, the paint itself was 40x more expensive than any other color you were spraying, meaning any waste or screw-ups would be deleterious to your business. Oh, and third: you would be watched the entire time by either a Ford employee, a BASF employee, an officer from the U.S. Treasury, or even the Secret Service. 

Why is this interesting?

Back in the early 1990s, BASF had patented a new pigment for inks and paints, which used a novel patented technology: Prism Platelets. Developed by a company called Flex Systems, these tiny lenses were suspended in a clear liquid pigment that could be sprayed or printed over existing colors. As the pigment dried, the tiny prisms would harden and line up to create a holographic foil that coated the base paint. 

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The effect on light was like nothing else in the market at the time. While automakers and customizers had been playing with metallic flake and pearlescent paints for decades, nothing approaching a true holographic effect had been perfected, and certainly not at scale. BASF knew they were on to something special, so they decided to shop the pigment around. One of the doors they knocked on was Ford Motor Co. (disclaimer: my employer), which was interested in the new color technology for use on their storied Mustang brand. Ford’s Special Vehicle Team (SVT) had been cooking up a new Mustang Cobra, the highest-powered variant at the time, and this new pigment would ensure the car turned heads even when standing still.

But Ford needed some convincing, so they shipped BASF 2 black Mustang GTs to be painted in the new color, dubbed “Mystic”. After seeing the test cars, Ford ordered enough pigment to paint 2000 of the 7500 1996 SVT Cobras. The option cost $1,152.

When you see a Mystic Cobra for the first time, the color that your brain sees depends completely on both the lightning conditions and your angle to the car. There is actually no color in the pigment itself—it is simply millions of tiny prisms sitting atop a gloss black basecoat. But because your eye sees color by the wavelengths reflected back at it, the prisms break the reflected light into different wavelengths, hence different colors (this also makes it extremely difficult to photograph accurately).

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(photo copyright Ford)

While the actual painting process is a simple tri-coat (Black base, Mystic pigment, clear coat on top), the sheer cost of the pigment meant that Ford had to pull the Cobras off the assembly line and paint all 1999 together, in order to minimize any waste in the process. Indeed, while an average pint of automotive single-stage paint costs about $20, Mystic was reported to cost 40 times that. Now you can see one of the reasons our hypothetical body shop employee might be sweating during a routine respray…

But what about the government oversight? See, Ford wasn’t the first door BASF knocked on with their revolutionary pigment. They first approached the U.S. Treasury Department about using the Prism Platelets in their printing process to create unique holographic inks on currency. The Treasury, always looking for a foothold against counterfeiters and in the midst of redesigning the $100 bill, began using the BASF pigment to create holographic “100”s that could not be duplicated by anybody else.

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Unless, of course, they could get their hands on this elusive prismatic pigment—the same one Ford was now providing to body shops who needed to do paint repairs to the SVT Cobras. You couldn’t buy Mystic in a store—Ford maintained a repository of the paint specifically for body shops to use, and any resprays needed to be monitored by either Ford or BASF (and yes, even reportedly the Secret Service on some occasions) and all unused pigment needed to be bagged up and returned. The dried pigment wasn’t a risk, but any liquid leftover could have the platelets extracted and used in counterfeiting.

Sadly, Mystic vanished as quickly as it appeared. There were plans for a new, gold version for 2000, but a costly recall canceled the program. And while color-shifting paints and wraps would reappear on Mustangs and other cars, none would ever use that costly, secretive pigment again. (RMM)

1990 Dodge Ram Cummins Diesel

 

from Reid Cunningham: "I ran across this early 90's Dodge Pickup in Milford, NH.  By this point the Dodge pickups were really out of date, compared to the Fords and Chevrolet/GMC's, but the Cummins diesel kept them competitive.  The eventual replacement Dodge truck kicked off the competition for ever bigger and more garish pickups that we have today. The clearance lights are a real throwback to the 70's, but I really like them in this body style.  AL: We have posted several Dodge trucks of the era, like this Power Ram in Maine. And the Ramcharger earlier this week. Here's a 1991 Power Ram.

c. 1969 Ford F-250 Camper Special

 

Markus Anstadt caught these on a snowy day in Denver. We posted another of these F-250 Camper Specials, on the block at Hemmings a while ago. Late Sixties was the era of the truck camper: here's a Dodge D-200 Camper Special we've posted.

c. 1969 Ford F-250 Campoer Special

 

Markus Anstadt caught these on a snowy day in Denver. We posted another of these F-250 Camper Specials, on the block at Hemmings a while ago. Late Sixties was the era of the truck camper: here's a Dodge D-200 Camper Special we've posted.

Ford Ranger. Texas Chicken.

 

AL saw the truck just down the street from Harvard Business School. Texas plates. Long way from home. Long way from an inspection sticker. Feathers on the hood. There's some kind of road movie suggested here; misfortune and poultry perhaps are its themes. The chicken coop on the back lifts the Ranger out of, and perhaps beyond, our 'wheelbarrow truck' category. Did any chickens make the trip to Cambridge? (Allston, actually).

1987 Dodge Ramcharger

From Jonathan Welsh: " Ramcharger sightings are rare among the vintage SUVs. I see many more Ford Broncos and Chevy Blazers from the same era. This one has a few suspension mods but is not overdone. Plenty of patina. Looks like a 1987 or so. Columbia is one of several neat Pennsylvania towns on the old Lincoln Highway."

AL: Here's Joanne Kaufman's WSJ review of Amor Towles' novel, The Lincoln Highway. 

US 40 was/is another of the transcontinental routes predating the Eisenhower Interstate System. AL has posted several pieces on George R. Stewart's remarkable "US 40: Cross Section of the United States:

https://autoliterate.blogspot.com/201...

https://autoliterate.blogspot.com/201...

  

Joe's Body Shop

From Jonathan Welsh: "This nearly matched set of 30-series Chevrolets contributed to the back-in-time feel of Columbia, Pa., during a weekend trip. I estimate 1985 for the tow truck and around 1978 for the flatbed. I love the hand-painted doors."

1967 Volkswagen Beetle. Cambridge, Massachusetts

  Henry Behrens caught the Veedub on Cambridge Street. Mild winter so far; old cars are coming out of hibernation.

Work-A-Ford

 

1975 GMC C-10 Stepside

Henry Behrens caught this truck, a very rare bird on the winter streets of Cambridge, Massachusetts.