huskalade

restoring my metal dash on my 1970 442 holiday coupe and was wondering was the original vin on dash painted same as dash or raw metal when it came from factory?

Allan R

It was painted the same color as the interior trim. Match to the color of the metal on the dash structure.

huskalade

Thanks Allan much appreciated.I thought so just wanted to make sure.
So when you say trim does that include Metal pillars,dash pad,dash inserts,console etc etc...?

huskalade

nice car also

Allan R

The metal painted parts. You'll find the plastic may be different color. Using the A pillar cover to get your color match is a great idea, seeing it's very portable. Take it to your auto paint store and they should be able to match it up very close.

huskalade

thank you for help Allan. good to hear because That is exactly what i Did to match metal. I will do the same to match my plastic pieces which appear to a darker gold also.

My exterior paint is galleon gold. my metal on interior pillars and metal dash is like a darker gold almost greenish.

Another question if you can please help Allan...about carpet,headliner and package tray. could they be possibly saddle color? when i looked it up it seems to not come in gold just saddle. thanks in advance i really appreciate i will post more pics

Allan R

Yes, the carpet, headliner and package tray recommended colors for Galleon Gold in 1970 are Gold, Saddle and Sandalwood - and the obvious Black.

If you need a source of information on the colors, the 1970 SPECS booklet is your friend. Your description of the color being slightly green looking leads me to suspect it is Sandalwood. Easy way to verify if the interior is original - look at your Cowl tag. On the second row of the tag should be the letters TR followed by a 3 digit code. I'm betting that code is 908. If it was Gold, it would be 904, and Saddle would be 979 (for Bucket seat car) or 999 for bench seat

huskalade

Second row followed by tr numbers are 934 then followed by B80

huskalade

Allan I have bucket seats and after the TR are the numbers 934 followed by B80

huskalade

Allan,
Here's my tag. What color should that cowl tag be also?

Allan R

My bad, TR 934 is Gold bucket seat car. I was looking at the 3277 gold instead of the 3687 gold. The color remains the same, but the variations in the TR numbers is used to designate the stitch pattern on the door panels and seats. The f85 was different trim pattern than the Cutlass S.

Your cowl tag is properly painted black. Here's how it decodes


ST70 - 1970 model year production
3 - Oldsmobile Division of GM
44 - model: 442
87 - body style: 2 door holiday coupe
BF - Fisher Body Works at Freemont California
01983 - Body number assigned by Fisher - not related to VIN
6 - Freemont stamping - no one seems to know what this is. 6 is the highest number I've seen. Usually they are 1, 2, 3 or 4
TR 934 - Interior trim: Gold with bucket seats
B80 - Roof drip moldings
PNT 55 A - Lower and upper paint. Galleon Gold lower, White vinyl upper
06A - time build date at Fisher Body works. (A) first week of (06) June, 1970. This indicates it's a relatively late build for the model year.
493374 490295 - Fisher body works numbers that relate to the build sheet (usually in boxes 1 and 10) at the Freemont Assembly Plant (where the car got its final assembly - stuff like chassis, front clip, brakes, exhaust, finishing trim etc.

huskalade

Allan thank you so much for super break down. Wow great site I'll be sure to let all my buddies know. Very helpful. I will post pictures after thank you so much Allan

huskalade

Allan,
Thanks for the help.Just wanted to share some pics.

The picture if the paint is not final but close to what I'm looking for.Just bought another dash pad online to replaced my older warped one.I'll add picture too. It's the stock gold greenish color.just waiting for it to get here so I can match up.

On the corners of the metal dash the seam was tooken down to metal my buddy working on car wants to fill it with sealer.what do you recommend Allan?

Allan R

Looks great! New dash also looks really nice and will probably be no problem. If your car is AC, you'll have to replace the vents on the side with the proper ones. They and the box they connect to are different on non AC cars. The center one is a no brainer....Not 100% sure, but I don't think the A pillar and base of the dash were metallic. You'd be a better judge of that by looking at your original pieces.

As far as the sealer issue, I don't think you really need anything there as it's entirely within the cabin area of the car. If it was my car, I'd just shoot it with an epoxy primer/sealer and then paint over it. That will seal the metal very well. Not sure if your friend is talking about this or just filling it with a butyl material? The dash pad and A pillar trim will cover the area anyway, and adding a butyl to that area isn't really needed IMO. That's just how these cars were put together at Fisher Body Works back in the day. Joints and welds weren't anywhere near the production standards of today.

huskalade

Allan thanks for the great info. very helpful. just wanted to share some more pics. my buddy helping me with my car sent these pics. freshly sprayed primer,still needs to be dried and sanded. The neck of the steering might look long because part of it is from a grant woodgrain detachable steering wheel.I still have original. Its probably the only thing not original looking on this car but looks great and helps with safety of the vehicle IMO. more pics to come

Indy_68_S

Is this a '70 (or '69 or '70 on up) thing ?

My '68 VIN plate is black & the dash is red.

Allan R

I've been interested in this topic for awhile so I started looking carefully at the VIN tags whenever I saw a vintage ride. I'm not 100% on the pre 1970 bot all the 70 and on were color coded to the dash. Last year I was lucky and found 2 1971 CS at the boneyard. One was blue, one was green. The VIN tags were color coded to the interior. I used to think the tags were always black, but have learned otherwise.

I have a theory on the tag color and it relates to Fisher production. Each Fisher plant built the body and installed the interior components. That means they also painted the interior trim. Fisher and the Assembly plant had mandatory sharing of car information related to the build. Since fisher installed the dashes, it makes sense they also riveted the tag in too. So it would likely have been painted when the interior color of the dash subframe was sprayed. I guess this all hinges around when the car interior was sprayed and when the VIN tag was installed. IDK if ALL Fisher plants followed the same exact build sequencing. Anyway, I'm open to discussion on it.

huskalade

Where was your 68 built?

Indy_68_S

Lansing

Allan R

336679M??????
Interesting VIN.
3 - Oldsmobile
36 = Model and engine: Cutlass with V8 engine
67 = Body style: Convertible
9 = 1969 model production
M = Lansing Michigan Assembly Plant
?????? Your VIN sequence is all rusted over or something??? It's not decipherable. Did a PO do that? It makes me wonder if the VIN tag on your car is original or not.

Indy_68_S

Ha... You internet detectives


It's 336678Mxxxxxx. Hard to tell the '8' from the pic and the last 6 digits were obscured for security's sake with some creative MS-Paint work...
VinClose.jpg

Allan R

Ok, 1968 model year....my eyes are old, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.
I wondered about that last 6 digits, now I know the reason. They're not that important to the thread. You know what they mean anyway.

huskalade

Lol

huskalade

Allan I found the correct trim paint. It should be getting sprayed tomorrow morning. The paint is metallic.
Should there be any clear sprayed on top of the metallic, on the metal dash and trim??????

huskalade

I was thinking it may look too glossy...

Allan R

Nope. The original paints never had clear coat. If you want to tone it down though you can try putting some satin clear over top. Do it on a test piece first though to see if it suits you though. Generally GM didn't put any glossy paint in areas forward of the dash - obvious reason is glare.

huskalade

Great thank you Allan. I'll be sure to get some pics up soon.

huskalade

So I've been trying to match the paint to this original piece. They did not have a code so they tried to match as best as possible.I've been there back once already to try to match and this is what came out.I know pictures don't give it justice. There are two kinds of paint vinyl and plastic paint and metal paint that are shown here. The top strip of paint is the plastic vinyl paint.the metal paint is obviously painted on the pillar. They don't seem to match

huskalade

Sorry pic went sideways. Marlboro lights lol matches better

Allan R

I honestly wouldn't worry about the results you got. They look really good - especially the pillar. Most plastic pieces weren't exactly matched anyway. Even if this was a concourse restoration, it would pass the scrutiny of a judge IMO. A man on a fast horse wouldn't give it a passing glance..

huskalade

Allan thanks for the support and the super help. I also like the way that paint on pillar looks. I think that's what I'm going with.also going to go with a flat clear over it all, just for protection. we'll see how it turns out (crossing my fingers).I'm doing vinyl and plastic later so I'll think about that then.Getting sprayed tomorrow morning.I'll be sure to get some pics up soon.thanks again

huskalade

Just got sent these pics

huskalade

Update pics

Allan R

Great job! It looks just like it rolled off the line. Once the dash pad goes back it will look perfect.