general lee interior colour

[AWSOM50]

I am basically aiming to make my General a replica of the 2005 movie as opposed to the series.  I am going to change the interior from black to tan.  But I am confused whether to use "saddle tan" or "general lee" colour.

From my understanding saddle tan was the colour used early on in ther series, then the colour they used later on was closer to "general lee" color.  But what about the film?

Which one should I buy from legendary to make it most like the film?

Thanks

[mikepmcs]

this site should help you a bit.  looks like after 82 you go with the other color not saddle tan.

i just put the correct wheel on mine which is the Grant F/X 737 with 4313 install kit.

good luck finding that venom stereo though.

http://www.hazzardretreat.com/buildageneral.asp

v/r
Mike

[Mike DC]

This one is complicated.

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There's a million things I could say about the TV-series GLs, but here's a short version:
 
The TV-series GLs were subcontracted to a couple of car-supplier shops for about the first half of the TV series.  Then halfway through season#4, Warner Bros put together a shop and let the TV mechanics start building the GLs themselves for the rest of the series.   This change in builders is a big reason that there are so many different variations in the TV-series GLs.  (The two different pushbars, the varying inteiror colors, signal lights being left alone or removed, etc.) 

--  The early (subcontracted) GLs were medium/dark tan.  The Chargers that were factory-built with a "Saddle Tan" interior were just left alone.  But the majority of the cars they used had been built with other upholstery colors, and those cars got sprayed with tan/brown vinyl paint. They were inconsistent and they used a variety of vinyl paint shades in this era, but the color was usually pretty similar to the factory "Saddle Tan" color.

--  The insides of the WB-built cars were sprayed with a lighter color.  This crew sprayed ALL of the cars' interiors with vinyl paint, even when it was factory-tan upholstery originally.  These cars were sprayed with a light tan/beige inteiror paint called "Buckskin" among GL fans.  Legendary's "General Lee color" is very similar to this color.  (It's VERY light. Ask Legendary to send you a sample scrap of the vinyl before you commit to having a whole interior set made in this color.)

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2005 movie cars:

The film crew ordered the Legendary "General Lee" color.  They didn't get it.  Close, but not quite.

This isn't commonly known, but it seems that Legendary screwed up that batch of "GL tan" vinyl that the film crew recieved, and the vinyl ended up being a shade darker than it should have been.  The actual movie-car color was still lighter than the factory-tan "Saddle" but it was darker than the "Buckskin" GL-tan color from the later TV series it was intended to be. 

When I caught the mistake and raised the issue with Legendary two years ago, they admitted it and thanked me for bringing it to their attention.  But I've heard that they've since denied the mistake happened when other people have asked them about it. 

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If you're persistent and you make it clear to Legendary that you actually WANT the mistaken color and not the normal "GL tan," then maybe they'll admit the goof and make you some seats.  I dunno. 

Gimme a PM if they won't play it straight with you; I think I've still got a little sample of their movie-car vinyl in my garage that might "stir their memories."

[Ghoste]

So is there a "generally" (get it?) accepted color that the hardcore GL fans prefer Mike?

[Mike DC]

"Generally?"  Hehe . . . well . . .       

The factory "Saddle Tan" color seems to win out, although it's not a landslide.
There are probably a lot more GL replicas overall with darker interiors, although the ones with the lighter upholstery are disproportionately found among the accuracy nuts. 

Black upholstery still shows up in a lot of replicas.  Most DOH diehards don't really endorse  black upholstery, but they won't start griping at anyone over it.  (As with most GL inaccuracies and diehard fans.  They tend to smile & accept almost any reasonable variation on a replica GL, as long as the owner isn't spreading misinformation about the real Lees to justify it.)

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Different fans prefer different eras of the TV show itself, and that plays a role.  Some people love the early Georgia-filmed episodes and they're more likely to build GA-car clones.  But the late-series era left behind a lot more surviving GLs for fans to study, so I think that has helped drive up the popularity of that "style."  The bigger pushbar seems to have an edge over the smaller one among fans, too.

What's ironic is that the most popular years of the show's ratings (1980-82) also seem to produce the fewest dedicated replicas.  The first season and the later seasons all seem to produce more clones than the middle years.  Jim Shine (he's a member on this site) has a rare example of a GL replica from about the 2nd season.

 

[Ghoste]

When showing your cars, do you find the general public spotting the different interior colors and are they less tolerant than the GL fans?

[mikepmcs]

Ghoste,

I've found that people just love the car in general(no pun, hee), kids of course get more excited and I like to let them climb in my car and take pictures and stuff.

I've never heard anyone complain or talk about my interior.

The most issues I have with adults is the correct year of the car.  meaning I had someone tell me my car was not a 69 as Jim Shine and I both had 2 69's sitting right next to each other.  when kids goof, it goes unnoticed cause they are kids, but adults seem to keep pressing the issue even when they are way off.  I just thank them for the info(as bogus as it may be) and move on, no sense arguing when you are supposed to be having a good time at a car show.

Then of course the correct year of the show car as well.  you wouldn't believe how many people say it was a 67 charger.

so, general public is not less tolerant of the interior, but definitely less educated on DOH history for sure.

v/r
Mike

[AWSOM50]

awesome, thanks for all the info guys. 

TBH I'm not too bothered about doing an exact replica, I just liked the interior colour they had in the movie.  My car is kind of a mismatch anyway, e.g. I have the monster tach and B&M shifter but I also have the crossed flags on rear window and the narrow push bar.

Does anyone have a photo of a car with a "general lee" color interior from Legendary?

What about the cars in the 2007 movie, was that the "general lee" or the "screwed up general lee" color?

[AWSOM50]

just took this pic from the 2nd movie.. this is the colour I'm after I think

[Mike DC]

     
Factory "Saddle Tan" seatcovers & lower door panel:



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Legendary's GL tan (like the light "Buckskin" color from the TV series):



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2005 big-screen movie.  They ordered "GL tan" but it arrived slightly different:



 

[AWSOM50]

Thank you MikeDC.. I appreciate your help.

I think I am just going to go for the legendary general lee colour.   I made a start today and dyed some of the interior.  The colour I used looks similar to what I imagine the general lee colour to be so we'll see.

[Captain D]

Mike DC,

Hi there! This thread is awesome! I'm also about to redo my interior for my 69' Charger. I'm trying to restore my Charger as close as I can to the EARLIER Georgia General Lees.'

I found on another site that someone suggested using the SEM's brand to use. They said that it is the best stuff to use in re-coloring your interior. They also suggested to use the SEM's "Camel" color because it is a much better match to the "Saddle-Tan" than the actual SEM's "Saddle-Tan." I think they said that the actual SEM's "Saddle-Tan" is too dark (almost w/ a hint of green). So, that's why they suggested the SEM's "Camel" color instead if I were to go for the earlier Georgia General Lee version.

Have you used this particular shade (Camel) on anything? If so, what is your opinion on it? Do you feel that it is a good color math for the early version?

Thank you for your reply!!
Aaron

[JimShine]

75% of the interior shots of Georgia cars are factory tan. That means the dash stuff is almost brown and the rest is saddle tan.

On Lee1 I found one surviving rear speaker grille (yes, Lee1 had aftermarket rear speakers) that was painted/dyed to be less obvious. SEM saddle is almost an exact match. My thinking is the subtle difference is due to fading. My guess is that this is the same paint/dye used on the other fullcage car jumped at Elm street for its entire interior as the first 3 cars were built by the same people unlike the ones that followed in Georgia. It only makes sense they used the same 'ingredients'.

Lee4, the first 1968 Conversion is the only other interior we see often that didn't start out factory tan. That one used much of Lee1's factory tan interior. The back seat was dyed (Lee1 didn't have one to donate)as was the dash and eventually the steering wheel and that looks like the camel color to my eyes.

[Nacho-RT74]

I would stuck with TV show interior...

[Mike DC]

       
It goes against the grain of common opinion, but I really think the vinyl paint on the inside of the GA cars was a lighter tan than the factory-tan vinyl color.  (Well, not lighter than the factory-tan headliners.  But lighter than the factory-Saddle dashboards for sure, and I think it looks lighter than even the seats in half the shots.)

Check this one:  LEE#3's factory-built Saddle Tan front seat (which was probably at least a little sunfaded after 10 years), and the painted rollbar behind it.
 

The difference wasn't major, but I think the vinyl paint was at least as light as a 1969 factory-tan seatcover.  And when you realize that LEE#2's windshield is actually a dark tinted-glass one (unlike some of the other GLs of the time), you realize that the inside of that car must not have been sprayed very dark either.

And look at the later shows in Season#1 (shot with the mostly just the 3 Georgia LEEs), you see some tan-painted interiors that really weren't very dark in color for a while.  It wasn't until the last shows in the season when the Valuzets' darker brownish-tan interior paint started showing up in the cars as they got repair work.

   

[JimShine]

Well, I sort of agree. But the roll bar color only applies to two cars, not across the board and does not apply to interior colors. Lee1 has the lighter roll bars and padding. However the rear speaker grilles were done in a darker color. Either because the rollbar was added as an afterthought (which explains the painted door jambs), or they were painted in Georgia after the car was assembled and a new crew was involved. The tinted glass issue, well, the first 4 cars all had tinted glass. One had a replaced windshield at some point to non-tinted, but it was used a little before the change.

[Mike DC]

This is what I mean about lighter tan in Georgia-built cars:



It's a pic of a car from "Money to burn" (gotta be the chassis-braced '68 jumper).  Not a Georgia show, but I really think we're looking at Georgia-crew interior work on the car.  That tan color looks like it could be the same color on many of the rollbars (LEE#3's dummy bar in "Repo Men," etc) but it's been sprayed on the whole inside of the car.  (I've always been interested in this particluar car, and I suspect it only wore one tan spray-job for its whole life as a GL.  Or at least, only one tan spray-job from the time when it shows up with the big rollcage completed.)

It wasn't hard to spot the darker tan re-sprays showing up on some of those cars' interiors later in season#1 as the Valuzets got rolling.  It would make the most sense to me to think the Cali crew recieved LEE#4 and the chassis-shop car with the lighter-tan paint inside, and then the Valuzets started the respray & replacement-car work with a darker tan color right off the bat once they had to start messing with them.  After all, the first Valuzet GLs were all showing the darker color from day one.

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I guess my conclusion doesn't say much for sure about what was sprayed on LEE#1 and #2's interior, but it does seem to point to a lighter color on the GA-built cars after that.  Maybe they hastily sprayed one hand-mixed color on the first couple of cars to match factory "Saddle," and then they went to something similiar (but slightly lighter) that they could order from a catalog after that? 

Or . . .
Don Schisler has specifically told me and a few other people: "three cars were sent from Cali to start with.  Two had rollcages, and only one of the cars was even finished." 

Maybe the LEE#1/2 darker tan paint color was something that was already on the cars when Don Schisler recieved them in their unfinished state, and then the ligher tan color was what HE used on everything else they had to paint tan in the subesquent cars?

 

[Mike DC]

(WTF? The pic is loading when I look on one of my computers, but not on my other one.)

[JimShine]

It is my opinion that Lee1 and the dummy bar car left Cali with bars (we know the dummy bar did as the bar is in the LA area promo pics). To my eyes, the Elm Street car was mostly completed in Georgia, after Lee1 and the dummy bar car. Different bends in the rollcage (was poorly thought out actually), different cage color, way different number placement from the other 2, which were close to each other, and a totally different pushbar than the other two cars.

[Mike DC]

   
I would agree with that. 

LEE#2 definitely looks like it was done with a rougher hand than #1 and #3. 
Not surprising that it was doing the lion's share of the stunt work in OAB and even did the junkyard scrape in DS.

The two different GA pushbars would be nicely explained that way, too.  Maybe the LEE#2-style "tall" pushbar was what they could get in GA, and the shorter ones were all originally from Cali?  It's worth noting that the flatbed jumper also wore a tall one, although it could also have just been the re-used pushbar from #2.)

Door numbers:
Have we even agreed upon a set of GA doors with numbers that were "original" to LEE#3?  All signs point to #3 getting #1's doors right from the git-go, as if the two cars never even both existed complete/running/numbered at the same time.  (But if the boys were indeed wrenching on #3 near the barn in OAB, and that was #1 in its place in the distance a few seconds later . . .  pretty crazy shooting order on that show, huh?)

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I'm always surprised we don't see more LEE#2 replicas out there.  I can't think of even one. 
When people talk about their preference for the GA cars' details, they usually seem to be picturing LEE#2.  (Or at least they're picturing #1 without the chromed rockers.)

[JimShine]

Here is what I learned. Its door numbers were very similar to Lee1 from the get go, but the passenger side was damaged from those mailboxes. This was done very early on, before the jump at Seney Hall. The spacing was identical to Lee1's passenger side door, but the 1 was aligned differently. While Lee1 had the number slightly off level clockwise, the stock door was off counter clockwise.

[raybeez]

Here's another excellent site.... I plan on doing my latest project (69 r/t) to the tune of the Dukes of Hazzard.

This site has a bunch of info....

http://www.hazzardretreat.com/buildageneral.asp

[JimShine]

Man, I wonder why he couldn't get pictures of more accurate looking pushbars.

[Mike DC]

 
The late-series pushbar in the pics looks like Waylon's GL.  Sort of in-between the early & late bars.  It looks sorta like the pushbars on GL toys of the era.

I wish there was some way to do an "in-between" pushbar that could resemble both the smaller & larger bar.  You can do that with the graphics, the orange & tan shades, the rollbars, etc, but not the pushbars.  I've mocked up a lot of different customized pushbar designs over the years and nothing really looks good.  The two TV-series pushbars are just too far different from each other.  Anything that's really between the two ends up not looking enough like either one of them.

 

[Brock Samson]

  what i wanna know is how many folks build their Generals with the doors welded shut?..
seems weird all this trouble about accruate int color, decals and color and pushbars etc. & yet the doors open?..   

[Mike DC]

heh, heh, heh . . .

No real welded doors on the TV cars, though.  Not practical with all that hasty body repairing, rollcage adding, etc.

I've never seen a welded-door GL replica.  Heard rumors of a few over the years, but never seen it yet.

 

[JimShine]

I only know of one Charger that passed through the show that had one door welded shut. They only did it because the body was damaged and the door wouldn't stay shut. Otherwise, like Mike said, no welded doors on the show. Infact, the earliest cars were painted with the idea that the doors would be open in some shots.

[Mike DC]

 
Yeah, they had a spot-weld holding one of the #71's doors closed, didn't they?

 

[JimShine]

Yup.