On 9/6/05, Shel Belinkoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > In the fifties, and perhaps even into the early sixties, when it came to > customizing a car, one often heard the phrase "Prime is fine." What that > meant is that, after the cars were modified - most often by nosing and > decking (shaving the hood and trunk of ornamentation - the automotive > equivalent of taping over the camera logo) and other frequently minor, and > sometimes not so minor modifications, the car would be given a couple of > primer coats (a primer coat is the underlying paint coat before the color > coats are applied), and left that way, with no color coat applied. Primer > was usually a dull, flat, 18% grey. > > The "Q ship" concept, as far as US muscle cars were concerned, often > involved stuffing the biggest engine and heavy duty suspension and running > gear into a stripped, bare-bones, bottom of the line 2-door sedan, the > idea, in part, was that this configuration was the lightest body and > therefore offered the quickest performance. Unfortunately, the street > racers (street shooters <LOL>) were able to recognize these cars because > they were so innocuous, just as it's easy to recognize an unmarked police > car today. The Plymouth Belvedere and the Dodge Coronet were the cars of > choice into which the big hemi engines would be dropped. >
Yes, well, you're probably right, Shel. I'm not actually old enough to have a direct memory of the 50's... <LOL> <g,d&r> cheers, frank -- "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson
