The color quickly became one of Fender's most popular colors after Sunburst and Black. Minneapolis post punk trio hГјsker DГј entitled an album 'Candy Apple Grey'.ДЇender introduced Candy Apple Red as a custom color for their Stratocaster and Telecaster range of guitars in 1963. The song Candy Apple Red Impala was released on a 45 rpm record in 1962 by rock and roll musicians Little E and the Mello-Tone Three ('Little E''s actual name was Emil O'Conner), although the bright red offered in 1962 on an Impala had a promotional name of Roman Red. The Avenger Monster Truck use this color in the 2011 Monster Jam World Finals. There is a big difference between real candy apple red paint and some car or locomotive color that just happened to be named candy apple red without being real candy apple red paint. All follow same process of superior body preparation, primer, multiple coats of highly reflective metallic undercoat, many coats of the candy color, and multiple coats of clear paint on top. Candy apple red has expanded to a whole range of 'candy' colors in every shade imaginable. More recently, painters have mixed-in metallic, pearl, or metal flake with candy apple red to produce different effects in the finished paint job. When you viewed the original candy apple red paint, it was simply transparent red paint with no 'add ins'.

The original candy apple red car paint had no metallic (tiny flakes of silver metal or plastic) or pearl (tiny flakes of plastic or possibly real particles of the reflective surfaces from seashells). This gives real 'candy apple red' paint more 'life' than more conventional solid red or metallic red paints used on cars, trucks and other vehicles. Because light reflects in different directions from objects like cars, as you move around the vehicle and see direct and reflected light from different angles, the appearance of the candy apple red paint changes as the light getting to the car and reflecting off of the car changes. A more neutral/pure red is the result when silver reflective undercoat is used. The gold gives the color a warmer look while the silver undercoat gives an intensely red appearance to the paint without the extra warmth of the gold. Candy apple red paint with silver metallic reflective undercoat looks quite different from candy apple red with gold metallic reflective undercoat. But because of the complexity and time (and cost) required to apply real candy apple red paint to a car, no production cars have been factory-painted with true candy apple red paint unless the car (or truck) came from a smaller specialty manufacturer willing to customize paint to customer's request/sample. An early use of candy apple red by an automobile manufacturer was Ford's 1963 Thunderbird Italien concept car that appeared in North American auto shows (including Autorama shows) in 1963 and in the New York Worlds Fair in 1964 in Ford's pavilion. Electric guitars, home decor items, loudspeakers, and a variety of other items have been available (or their owner's had custom paint applied) with candy apple red finish. Candy apple red' paint has been used on many objects other than cars or trucks. This causes real candy apple red paint to look far more intense and attractive than conventional paints that happen to use the name 'candy apple red' without actually being real candy apple red paint. Candy Apple Red appears so intense, because light passes through the paint, reflects off of the metallic base color, and passes through the paint a second time before we see the color. Once the candy apple red color reaches the proper appearance of depth and color intensity, multiple coats of clear paint are applied to protect the paint job and add to the feeling of depth of the paint. Many coats are required to achieve the proper appearance-of-depth and richness-of-color. This candy apple red paint is transparent. The candy apple red paint is applied on top of the reflective metallic paint. The key with this first metallic color layer is to reflect as much light as possible. This is usually highly reflective silver paint, but the color effect can be modified by using metallic gold or other tinted metallic paint. Then a highly reflective metallic paint is applied first. After the body is properly prepared, primer is applied as usual. The 'candy apple red' is not just the name of a color, it is also implies a specific paint process for cars and other objects: The phrase candy apple red, describes a very specific paint process first used on custom cars and hot rods sometime in the early 1950s (date not specified, per audio interview with Joe Bailon, candy apple red, inventor, In the candy apple red paint process, the body of the car or other object to be pained must be finished as perfectly as possible to avoid easily visible problems in the finished paint.

Metal flake candy apple red paint