Shop Stories: Why is it red, not orange? Huh?

Getting used to the people in North Austin was one of my biggest challenges. I thought for the most part they were weird. Here’s a case in point.

This little Chinese man bought his YELLOW Cadillac in to replace the back glass. This was around 1979. It was a brand new YELLOW Cadillac. For a few years, Cadillac made a small box shaped car that was on the same chassis as some other GM models. This was one of those Cadillac’s.

Anyway, he was a nice man and owned a Chinese restaurant nearby. His car was YELLOW. The outside was YELLOW, the padded vinyl top was YELLOW, and the interior leather seats were YELLOW as was the dashboard. When you looked at this car all you saw was YELLOW.

Replacing the back glass on this car was a challenge. You had to pull up the padded vinyl top around the back glass. Then you had to drill out the rivets to remove the frame around the back glass. Only then, could you replace the back glass. We had just replaced the back glass and were waiting for the vinyl top man to put the vinyl top back down to finish the job.

I was sitting at my desk in the office, when this nice man comes in. Apparently he had looked over his car and had a question? Why is it red not orange? Now I had trouble with his Chinese accent in the first place, but I couldn’t understand what he was talking about, the car is YELLOW. He kept insisting that I tell him why it was red and not orange. I was getting a little frustrated with him, when I finally told him to take me to the car and show me the red. He agreed.

The car was sitting outside just around the corner. I followed him up to the YELLOW car. When we got there he pointed to the little red lines in the back glass that were the defroster lines. All heated back glasses have these little lines. I remember thinking; he’s got to be kidding. He really caught me off guard, cause for a minute I didn’t know what to say.

I finally gathered myself and told him that the lines were red instead of orange, because they have to be burnt in. I said that they would turn orange after he used the back glass defroster a couple of times. It was hot summer, so he would have no need to use the back glass defroster for some time. It seemed to make some sense to him, so he said ok.

I made that up on the spur of the moment, but I think between the sun fading those lines out and using the defroster some, that those lines would fade. Never really settled that one in my mind though, I just know that it satisfied my little man.

He left and I went and found my vinyl top man and told him to get on that Cadillac right away. Top Priority. I wanted that car gone. I never heard from that little man again after he picked up his car, so I guess he was happy.
But this is one of the reasons that a South Austin boy couldn’t understand those crazy people in North Austin.

Here's a video from The Clash: Brand New Cadillac