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. Shel > [Original Message] > From: frank theriault > On 9/3/05, Herb Chong <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > car owner make their cars as noticeable as possible when they customize. > > Usually, but not always. > > I heard that there were times, when people actually raced for pink > slips, that a sleeper or Q-ship was an advantage, insofar as no one > would want to race against a car that looked too hot. > > I recall that Plymouth made the most innocuous looking family sedan > then dropped a hemi into it (somewhere around '67). Won a lot of > street races. Any customization was (for that car at least) normally > performance related only, IIRC.
