Carpet colors

[lloyd3]

In the middle of a resto of a '68 R/T 4-speed car. Interior is C6B Frost Blue. Is there a list of carpet colors somewhere that would be matched with C6B?  The carpet has been redone in the past (~1990) and while it's not bad, I'd like to be sure to do it right this time.

Thanks!

LM

[UFO]

Tons of info over this site.
http://www.hamtramck-historical.com/images/dealerships/colorAndTrim/1968/68_Charger0001.jpg

[lloyd3]

UFO, thank you. Lots of neat and useful info there as you said, but no specific answer to my particular question.

I went through all of my accumulated literature tonight and only Paul Herd's "Charger, Road Runner & Super Bee Restoration Guide" had any insight. But, of-course, it further muddles the issue by indicating in a chart (on page 202) that all 4-speed cars had black carpet only in 1968(?).  This UU-1 car has had a blue carpet since I have owned it (14-years now), which seemed appropriate, but I also know it was somewhat haphazardly re-done in 1990. Year-One now has (by my count) 10 different shades of blue carpet to choose from.  I have heard some questions about this resto book's accuracy in the past (from Galen himself!) so I don't know what to think now.

I guess my next foray onto the internet is to Legendary Interior's site to see what they have to say.

LM

[FJMG]

 I am in the same boat with my saddletan 69, there is ALOT of "brown" colors repro'd and w/o a swatch of the original I have been told I am SOL. I am just going to pick one I like and be done with it. Funny that the # of seat cover colors do not match the carpet color options.

[lloyd3]

FJMG:

Do you have a build sheet for your car?  Would that answer the question? (sadly, my car doesn't have one).  Also, is Paul Herd right?  Were all 4-speeds done with black carpet in '68?

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I couldn't find much on Legendary's webpage about carpet sets.  Does anyone know of another place I can search?

[Ghoste]

There are a lot of inaccuracies in Paul Herd's book.  As for the black only four speed carpet issue, it came up here recently and though there is a lot of factory documentation that shows it that way, we were also able to show a number of original unrestored cars with other colors.  

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,65614.msg736319.html#msg736319

[lloyd3]

Ghoste:

Thank you so-much for the tie-in to an excellent thread on the subject!  This forum is proving to be an outstanding resource.  So....whatever color I want, eh?  This car has a black vinyl roof and a black bumblebee stripe so a black carpet might not look so out of place?  Sadly, I'm pretty used to blue after all the time and miles I've spent in it.  I'll kick the idea around with Joe at Persistent Enterprises and see what he thinks.

LM

[Ghoste]

It's not like cutting a hole in the roof for an aftermarket sunroof, if blue is the color you like then I'd say it's the right one to use. 

[UFO]

Another not so easy way to find out the is to look thru wrecking yards.Find the same model year and take a piece from under the seat.

[lloyd3]

UFO:

It has been a long time since I've seen a '68 Charger sitting in a junkyard. Back in the late 1980s when I was chasing rust-free parts here in Colorado for friends back East, I would occationly run across a Mopar muscle example in a remote yard somewhere. It wasn't common even then, but it still happened from time to time (and those cars were almost always stripped beyond any real value). My source of hard-to-find-parts was almost always a non-muscle model that used similar parts in it's construction.  Very few yards now keep cars that old (most have bailed all their stuff older than 20-years, so even the lesser versions are long-gone now). While I haven't been a true parts-chaser for some time now, old habits are hard to break and I still eyeball just about every yard I ever happen to drive by. The only Chargers I ever see are well protected from being parted out, no matter how badly they might need to be.

[UFO]

Does not have to be a charger.Odds are the carpet supplier is the same for most of the car lines.Imperial I think has a different material and possibly the higher new yorker models.

[lloyd3]

UFO:

There are still a few yards around with older cars that might give me some clues, and frankly, just the research (i.e., "the field work") would be kind-of fun. What I have noticed out here in the dry, sunny West, however is that while sheet metal does just fine, interiors simply do not.  Where I grew up in northwestern Pennsylvania, muscle-era Chryslers had roughly a 5-year lifespan if driven continuously (salt and potholes were and still are hell in the Keystone State). When I was in my 20s back there, junkyard cars could have fabulous interiors because the bodies gave out long before the seats did.  A few years ago, I did some work in Arizona (the hot parts) and I was amazed at how quickly plastics and fabric were destroyed by the sun and heat there (unpainted PVC in Phoenix can be destroyed in a matter of weeks). Colorado isn't quite as bad, but in a yard here, and especially if any window is down or missing, the interior is totally shot very quickly.  It seems that in order to keep a nice car "nice" anywhere, a garage is simply a must.