As I’m wrapping the cleaning and rebuilding projects up, I’m down to the bare inner fenders today. After degreasing and scrubbing and drying the surfaces, I notice that my inner fender color is distinctly more blue grey than the black brackets and items such as the battery tray. Is there a color and finish that any of you have used to replicate this color? Or has everyone just moved to the more easily matched black for the inners?

 

I painted my under-hood panels (inner fenders, radiator support, etc) SEM ultra black on my 68. Mine were originally the blue-grey color like you have, but I could not find a color that gave me a finish that looked correct. You could probably have something custom mixed though.

 

I mix my own color for these parts using black paint and tinting white and flattener.
The color is what is termed Lansing gray and is used on a lot of sheet metal around the car.
Sample of a finished product on my 67 442.
Second photo is my original paint core support.

 

That nails it for sure. I'm not doing a full restoration here, but as always, I find myself at least wanting to do the "correct" thing when freshening up pieces and parts as I go. I was really hoping to find a rattle can source, and a Krylon dark gray was close - but too light. I'll check around a couple more places before making a decision. Thank you for the excellent pictures!!!

 

Awesome, Paul

 

A friend sent me a link to your earlier "Newspaper found" post including mention that this Toronado came from Ralph Braun. Of course, we all know Ralph was a real Toro fan and started and for many years ran the Toronado and Aurora Chapter of OCA. So, you have a very special Toronado. Just wondering, I think Ralph had this '67 repainted in his favorite color, Autumn Bronze (from 1966) - is this true, and if so, are you keeping it this color?
I remember seeing his Toro at an OCA National meet one time - it was driven from Ralph's farm, complete with a mouse running underneath it that obviously had hitch-hiked for the ride from Kansas.

 

More than 50% of the reason I bought this car was because it belonged to Ralph. He was friends with my aunts and uncles in Council Grove for a number of years, and from the time I started reading his articles, I wanted a Toronado. It's actually painted Garnet Red over the original Sauterne gold. I'm struggling with the final color scheme as I figure repainting is about a year away. The current paint is really failing badly. I may be able to coax one more cut and buff out of it, but wear areas and bolt attaching points are flaking to the gold underneath. I love the Garnet Red, but I also find that the Garnet interior color with the not-recommended Sauterne exterior color would be quite a conversation starter. It's "so 1967" lol. And Im sure I found relatives of Ralph's mouse in the door cavities as I cleaned the car from years of barn and gravel road dust. Their houses were completely intact from hood to trunk hahaha. I still have the dash to swap out once the engine is running, and I know there's at least one more nest above the heater controls to be taken out. My ultimate goal is to have this car roadworthy for the trip to Springfield this summer - but so many things out of my control have slowed that progress. Still, there's a chance. I'll be there no matter what. Time will tell if I can bring the car!

 

That's the color mine was! When I was emailing with Ralph about the bucket seats, he never mentioned he had a '67 that originally matched mine. Maybe color never came up.

 

From what I see with color chip samples on the internet, your Sauterne gold appears to be a metallic beige. If that's the case, I don't see why it's not recommended to use the Garnet red interior - actually, I think it's a great combination, plus got to see that interior color in your 'package shelf' postings where the end product turned out amazing.

 

It really isn't much "gold", per se. Kind of greenish in some light. Somewhere I saved a picture of a Sauterne 67 with the Garnet interior, so the combo was certainly sold more than once. I think its a super cool combo, and I like the contrast - it's not a color clash, like Garnet and Autumn Bronze would be. Thanks for the thumbs up on the package tray

Here is as good of a sample of the Sauterne as I found online, understanding everyone's monitors are different, of course...

 

 

^^^^ Beautiful!!! ^^^^

 

It's a matter of personal taste, but when the green shows, then I think the Garnet Red wouldn't be as complementary compared to without the green 'tone'.
Again, it's a personal opinion, and any Toronado is better than no Toronado.
Good luck as you continue with your project.