Remember last month when I showed you a fantastic 1970s guide to Bell System vehicle liveries, filled with all the carefully considered details and measurements and tips on how to paint their vans and other vehicles Were there guides? It was wonderful. Today I want to show you another livery guide that is extremely precise and meticulous, as opposed to the Bell System. It’s far simpler, far easier for a local franchise to replicate, which may have been the issue. This is Sunoco’s 1959 guide to its paint schemes, found preserved here samba, Let’s take a look at some of these pages!
I don’t think it’s as impressive an ensemble as the Bell System did, but you have to keep the context in mind. The Bell System divisions were very large companies, with actual art departments and lots of skilled workers to bring these costumes to life. A Sunoco station can be a family-owned franchise anywhere; Keeping things simple is a smart plan for Sunoco.
The main goal of all this is stated very clearly on the cover:
Make them look alike, it screams. And, yes, that’s the entire point of vehicular attire, simply distilled down to its essence. So, what are the basic rules?
It’s pretty much blue, yellow, and logo decals. Also – the word “decal” is a short form of “decalcomania, This seems to be what happens when stickers drive you crazy. It seems to be an image transfer method, developed in the late 18th century and used by the Surrealists! It can be as simple as folding the paper with wet paint to create a mirrored image on the other side!
It also has lettering, but no intricate stripes of exact measurements or anything like that. There is no typeface specified for the text, only the suggestion that “Lettering should be done by a professional”:
There is also an example of a Chevy panel van. What other examples do we find?
Classic Ford F-100, Dodge Wagon. Some of these details look a little…cluttered in the pictures, but they work.
The generic “4-door sedan” is interesting, mostly because the generic sedan shape of that era is what we now think of as a fastback, not the three-box generic sedan shape most of us think of. Is that also a wooden push bar? There is also a jeep panel van, which is interesting.
Here are more Jeep features; The Jeep station wagon (known as the Ford Rural to Brazilians) and the Jeep pick-up all used the V-shaped grille front end.
These are my favorites: We have a Jeep cab over there, which looks like a Jeep FC-based tow truck, but I doubt it’ll work for any cabover. The Volkswagen Type 2 van is great to look at, too, even if the artist misplaced the taillights. Lots of room for text and graphics on the sides of the old Panel Type 2!
Attractive stuff! And Good Friday to everyone celebrating!
