thaiman, I heard my name mentioned, so here is my take on the subject, and please feel free to accept/disagrre with it however you want. I will open this with the fact that different plants did paint cars differently. I have a 1970 442 convertible that was built in Linden New Jersey. It is dark blue (the same color as Diplomat blue for you buick guys) and the car underbelly was originally sprayed with a medium gray primer coat with tons of blue overspray on top. The majority of the floor pans were so blue that they almost looked like they were "painted blue". Anyway, I fought for years with the "Olds" guys, who were used to Lansing Michigan cars that have black bottoms, and even took it so far as to show them some pieces I cut up, but to no avail. Finally I found someone really knowledgable about oldsmobiles (an olds judge) and he agreed that many of the NJ built cars came this way. Now back to the color, near the trunk area of my car the bottom looks like a light purple. It appears there was a reaction between the blue & gray paints and the result was purple. What I believe you are seeing on the top of the firewall is due to a few factors, 1. I would bet there is a reaction between the two different colors going on 2. You are looking at 38 year old paint, and from your description of it being "grainy" my gut feeling is it is breaking down and fading, so you are not seeing it as the same color it was originally painted. 3. It may have been sprayed at a higher humidity then at other plants. (If you don't believe that humidity has anything to do with it go paint something black when it's warm and raining. The resultant "black" paint will blush and turn into a dark gray color, and even a second coat will do the same.) (Found out the hard way with this one.) 4. Fremont probably used a different paint then the other plants. That is why you are seeing this color while it is absent from the Flint cars. I also want to add this, different batches of paints/vinyls "age" at different rates. When I was making/selling interiors I had the hardest time proving to owners that the 72 GTO saddle interiors were not tu-tone. The various vinyls aged so differently that they looked like they were made that way and the owners refused to buy our single-tone interiors because they were "sure" they were wrong. Finally I had a guy come up to me at a car show that had the car with him. His interior was shot so he was going to buy an interior anyway. To settle the "color" argument I convinced him to let me open up the seams of his seats with a razor knife. Well guess what we saw in the seams where the air could not get to it? All the vinyls had started as the same color and the interiors we were making were a dead nuts match to the original color. (Made a customer for life with that one.) To sum up this long winded answer, I believe the firewall top area was originally top coated with a semi-gloss black paint, and possibly a thin coat at that, and currently you are seeing the color variations due to time and the processes above. Hope this helps. Duane
Duane, funny you mention the saddle color differences on the Pontiacs. My 71 GS has the exact same problem. The perforated and madrid grains have aged into totoaly different colors. The Madrid almost looks gold especially in the center of the rear seat. I have also seen this on a junk saddle interior and I also cut them apart and figured they were supposed to be the same. It will be nice to have a new ONE tone interior again.
Dave, The factories had lots of problems with color matches in the day. Once I talked with a bunch of Ford Engineers and they stated they had so many problems with interior color matches on the 65 Mustangs that they designed the 66 interiors to be tu-tone to stop customer complaints.:laugh: Duane
Thanks for the responses. I have gone back and looked at the color again it definately appears to be green/grey and the color carries all the way down the underside of the floorboards and the bottom of the car. it has/had the original markings on the firewall. BTW, the original color was a bronze color.
I ran into a color on a 62 Skylark floor that other's didn't know about. It had a lite green colored floorpan on the whole underside. Semi black rolled down the firewall and lapped over the green just as the floors started. The green carried all the way to the edge of the floors on the sides where they met the gloss black overspray from the exterior. I had primer sealer mixed in a similar color and sprayed everything like I found it. Now that was a decade earlier than your car. All the A-bodies your age I have done were semi black on the floors and fire wall. Who knows what happened on that given day at the plant?
