[LILRED66]

Originally Posted by RWilliams

I've been watching your build thread, and the work looks great!

I wanted to ask a couple of questions that will help with the '65 Short Bed that I am restoring. The colour that you chose for the interior looks like the original colour. I've had a difficult time matching this with my local PPG Dealer. I have the paint codes, but they say that this is for lacquer, and no longer " in the books ". What colour code did you go with?

Also, on the transition from the outside colour to the inside, I noticed on the door skins, you wrapped the outside colour around to the inside of the door. Is this how it would have been done from the factory?

Thanks for the kind words.

The owner took an original door panel to an auto paint retailer and had them color match the paint to the panel. We are not doing a "points" concourse restoration, but we wanted to closely match the factory interior color. The sheen is more glossy than the factory interior finish, as well as lacking the very slight metallic look. The actual color we used is DuPont, Chroma-Premiere, Shadow Wood Frost...I believe it is actually a blue oval color.

With regards to factory paint breaks, I researched this topic extensively through my manufacturer's reference books, Historical Chevy Truck books and the many 4-5-6 Chevy Trucks I own or have owned, to ensure there was a concensus on the paint breaks at the cap, doors, side stripe, cab, hood, grille support, front fender lips and firewall.

A dead give-away of a fresh paint job is the paint breaks at the doors and grille support. The grille support has an Underhood Semi-Gloss Black backdrop, wrapped with an Off-White ring, boardered by the body color, that carries through the front fender lip and coincides with the concentric rings around this assembly. If you look closely, you can identify the rings I am referencing.

Again, we are not making a splash into the concourse restoration realm of things, however I find it important to make every effort to maintain the original integrity, in fit and finish. My goal is to bring my 4-5-6 Chevy Trucks back to their original glory, with the exception of adding a set of mild, custom wheels and tires and a bed wood kit. I like the phrase "better than new" or "better than factory" when it comes to the quality of work, fit and finish on one of these trucks.

I understand it is all a matter of taste and I am not a hater of all the "mild-to-wild" modifications being done on these truck, but I gravitate toward the ageless approach of revitalizing them and not reinventing them. I like the quirky misdeeds the GM engineers designed into them and that is what makes them so desireable and unique when we finish a 4-5-6 Chevy Truck...it has rust-free sheet metal and many of the dealer-installed accessories of a well-optioned truck from the sixties. Back then, a truck was more utilitarian/pedestrian, to fit the needs of the construction worker, farmer, forestry service, EMT professional, search/rescue and the like, in lieu of a lot of bells and whistles, like the trucks of today.

Thanks for following the link and we will keep you posted on our progress.