When you think about categories of vehicles that tend to have striking or notable paint jobs, there’s not really all that many. Sure, RVs tend to always have some sort of brownish-beige-ish color schemes with improbably brown stripes, and both wildly expensive supercars and wildly inexpensive economy cars often come in fun colors, but what else is there? Well, at one time, in the glorious 1970s, hard-working utility machines like big rig cabover trucks could be ordered, from the factory, with paint schemes that seem downright fantastical today. But, it wasn’t a dream. Just look at this page from a Kenworth brochure that lists “typical” paint schemes. Dazzling.
Look at all those typical options! A riot of color and stripes! I suppose when your finished product has the same shape as the box it came in you kind of need to put a little extra design effort in there somewhere, but nobody was forcing Kenworth to have this much fun; they just did it because, let’s face it, it was the right thing to do.
Look how great these looked with their exuberant paint:
That paint scheme isn’t even on the list of “typical” ones! What was the process here? Could buyers pick from some huge list of colors and stripe patterns? Was there some big board of pictures of options at a dealership like the flash tattoo wall at a tattoo parlor? I should look into this.
These K100 cabover-type Kenworths haven’t been available in America since 2002. In other parts of the world, a cabover design still makes a lot of sense, but length is less of a premium commodity here in these vast states, so trucks with hoods dominate.
The current Kenworth lineup is full of much more advanced trucks than the old K100, and while there does seem to be an impressive variety of solid colors available, the “typical” paint schemes have sure gotten a lot more timid.
I work in the paint shop at Kenworth. Actually my position is to create all the custom paint designs. The old catalog of cab overs is a really cool one. But i guarantee the custom designs have definitely risen to the curent times.
And yes! I worked with Gary.
Snowman’s 1973 Kenworth rig from “Smokey And The Bandit” was “coffee brown” with gold accents. It very tastefully balanced the wild custom painted trailer – “anybody who painted his truck like this would go to a minister’s funeral dressed in feathers.”
And hey, I just realized – it was brown with a manual. If only it were a wagon too.
Those were the days…. at least some people try to keep it alive. Hurricane Trucking stripes up their Petes real nice. Sigh. And my boss prefers white.
Can the second round of Autopian t-shirts feature this illustration?
Do ya know who did a bunch of that striping on old Kenworths? That’s right, everybody’s favorite serial killer, Gary Ridgway! AKA the Green River Killer. That’s actually how they caught him, some Kenworth specific paint fragments were found on some of the bodies of his victims.
Goddamn. I had never heard of this.
BJ and the Bear called, they would like their truck back. BJ’s truck was red and white, obviously, but seared into my brain.
Rollin’ down to Dallas,
My wheels provide my palace
I’m off to New Orleans or who knows where.
Places new and ladies, too,
I’m B.J. McKay and this is my best friend Bear.
I don’t think it’s just the parking space that keeps these from being more prevalent in the US. To paraphrase my favorite egineering professor on the subject, while the frontal area may be the same, the conventional layout will slipstream a bit, but the cabover has a drag coeffecient of about 2.0
I think I heard once that the cabovers came about because of length regulations. If your truck was shorter you could get by with something or not have to pay something… I’m a little sketchy on the details. Then US did away with those rules so there was no point in this layout anymore.
Yeah, was because they had an overall length cap on semi traffic, so with a long nose you were stuck with a 48 or 52 footer where a cabover would have a 56 or more. Which allowed more freight, so everyone had em till the rules were killed off, then everyone went back to conventional trucks
That’s an amazing graphic. Would make a beautiful poster in my dream dreamy hipster architect/lothario atelier.
DeBoss Garage on YouTube is midway into a partial restoration of a K100, most of it is posted on their second channel (DeBoss HD). The repaint was especially interesting because the cab is riveted aluminum while the roof is fiberglass. Lots of repairs and prep work to get those materials renewed after decades of aging. But, for reasons noted above, they went with vinyl for the decorations and logo. Still came out fantastic.
And it even has a white steering wheel!
I love those and have it in most of my old cars.
I dunno, Indian/Pakistani trucks still seem to be one of the top contenders for striking and notable paint. Those things are awesome.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truck_art_in_South_Asia#/media/File:Pakistani_truck.jpg
My guess is that, at least in part, the paint and stripe designs were influenced by the colorful paint and stripe schemes used on American diesel locomotives in prior decades. It was a way to make a big ol’ slab of steel look appealing and hopefully less like a giant box on wheels. Kenworth (and longtime sister PACCAR company Peterbilt) have always had a strong sales focus on owner-operators and smaller fleets that want high-end equipment; custom and semi-custom striping were appealing to their core market.
It’s possible that Kenworth paint is even more badass than you think. I seem to remember reading an article in Car and Driver a few decades ago where they reviewed a Kenworth, can’t remember which model. In the article they were extolling the quality of the Kenworth (I don’t know firsthand but apparently Kenworth sits high up on the HD truck food chain).
As one example, they said was that for stripes, the entire truck was first painted in the stripe color, and then the stripes were masked off and the entire truck was painted again in the “base” color. Remove the masking and you have your stripes.
I have no idea if the assumed benefit of doing it that way was stripe durability, but it seemed excessive then, and I don’t know if the story has ever been confirmed elsewhere.
I can’t find the actual article, but any chance it was one of Road & Track’s April Fools articles? Looks like they did a Kenworth in ’84.
Well I was a hardcore C/D guy at the time so it’s unlikely I read it in R&T. I still have every issue since 1985 so I could probably find it if I had any idea what year it would have been.
A little bit of googling shows they did a Kenworth article in August 1988, so that may be it.
chopped with flames…
https://imgs.search.brave.com/r1uqq8nzLQXdBRw2WPpMqqEFlWecfxMFBaE7ETRpQlQ/rs:fit:900:623:1/g:ce/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cu/c3VwZXJmbHktYXV0/b3MuY29tL3dwLWNv/bnRlbnQvdXBsb2Fk/cy8yMDIwLzA3L21h/eWN2cnBpYzAzLmpw/Zw
Growing up in logging country, I saw a LOT of trucks with various paint jobs. Kenworth, Peterbilt, International, Western Star…they all offered a lot of different paint colors and most offered some sort of stripes. Didn’t realize how many different patterns were factory options, though. Most regional fleets would pick a color combo and all they’d have to do is get their info painted onto the side. Most owner/operators would buy something used and try not to buy it from a local fleet, lest they be mistaken for that company.
My dad had a yellow Kenworth with a red stripe, then a purple Peterbilt with custom striping in lavender and light blue. then a blue International with darker blue striping. I think I’m forgetting one, but he never had to go with a black, white, or grey.
One of my favorite examples of this phenomenon is that the Hughes 500 series helicopters could be had in a variety of paint schemes, including a quite striking brown/orange/yellow diagonal stripe pattern.
That’s right, T.C.’s iconic helicopter in Magnum PI was an off-the-shelf product!
I’ll be damned. Today I learned.
On a related note, a couple big things has all but killed paint options from truck manufacturers: vinyl and cost. While some fleets still do elaborate paint, most go plain or use vinyl instead. It is cheaper (obviously) and when it comes time to resell plain trucks get more value than one in custom fleet colors. That said, you can still get paint to order from a lot of the manufacturers, especially when having an exact color match for branding purposes is important. The options are just far simpler.
Let’s channel some David Attenborough… Here we have the wild Kenworth K100, putting on its best show in hopes of attracting a mate. Will these plumes of color and metallic be enough to draw the desired partner from the opposing Peterbilt? For should it fail, the poor K100 will be delegated to the local lot lizards, until he continue Eastbound and down…
Worthy of the K-whopper name
The pictured Kenworth is amazing – it even has multi-colored seat-covers!
In 1958, Crayola introduced the 64-count box of crayons (with built in sharpener!). The first generation of kids to grow up with this plethora of playful Pantones became the artists and designers of the 1970s. Coincidence? I think not.
I remember that one year Mom sent me to school with that 64-count box of crayons. I thought we were rich.
I’m pretty sure there’s a photo of me from the 80’s in a winter coat that matches that brown, orange, and yellow Kenworth (lower left, too photo). I do love the flat nose trucks. Without the trailers, they always look as if they are risk of tipping over onto their noses.
That bottom left one is the purest Seventiesium I’ve seen in a long time. I suddenly feel the urge to find a velour shirt and a pet rock.