That iridescent/prismatic tape from the '70s

Factual Questions
1

There was a tape/adhesive sheeting that was popular in the late-1970s. It was nominally silver and looked like the cowl on the Spirit of St. Louis in that it had the ‘circular polishing’ look as found on the cowl. These ‘circular polishings’ gave the tape a prismatic effect, so vibrant colours were seen depending on the angle of the light hitting it. For a few years, this stuff was everywhere. ISTR seeing more than one Pontiac Trans Am with the entire dashboard covered with it.

Does anyone know what I’m talking about? What was this stuff called?

2

:smack:

Looking up ‘iridescent tape’ returned virtually nothing – until I noticed the specific stuff labelled ‘prismatic tape’. :smack::smack::smack:

So… Never mind. (Unless you’d like to comment on the former ubiquity of the stuff.)

3

it wasn’t tape, it was actual metal. And the effect was from “engine turnings.”

(skip ahead about 2 minutes in)
4

It’s still available.

5

I mentioned the plane because that’s what it reminded me of. It was descriptive, not suggesting that a 1920s airplane had 1970s tape on it.

I was asking about the tape that was popular in the late-'70s.

6

Oh, er, derp.

7

At least you reminded me of the proper term for the work done on the Spirit of St. Louis’s cowl. :wink:

(Not a feature on any Cessnas or helicopters I’ve flown.)

8

Its now called “engine turn tape”, “engine turn vinyl” and so on.

eg
http://stores.ebay.com/Paper-Street-Plastics/Brush-Gold-Leaf-Engine-Turns-/_i.html?_fsub=1470367

9

We called it Space Tape at the time. Not sure why.

10

Because when you were spaced out on all the spacey drugs of that late Space Age era, the tape really looked cool and you, know, spacey. Yeah, really spacey.