This Opel Kadett was the very first car I owned in my life:
In 1989 I visited the Maritime Museum ‘Prins Hendrik’ in Rotterdam. They showed a special theme about the camouflage of ships during World War I. On my way home the idea came up to paint my old car in the same way as the ships.
It took a week and probably 200 meter mask tape to paint the car white and then add the black paint.
In advance I never had thought about people’s reactions, but sometimes their comments were quite amazing.
Most people were just positively surprised. In fact … often I even got unlawfully right of way, so people got a few more seconds to observe this weird thing. One day in my favourite parking street, a furious woman came out of her house, yelling out that I never may park that nasty, dirty car in her field of vision any more. She screamed that it was a shame! She was under the impression that the black parts were the sooty reminders of a fire.
Another thing I noticed were the empty parking spots beside my car. Even on a busy day the free spaces beside my car stayed empty the longest. Maybe people were afraid that some lunatic would jump out the car and do the same thing with their cars.
After a few years of fun, I had to let her go … dying in front of the junk yard, grabbing attention till the last moment.
