Hi I have a 70 El caninio with the custom interior, saddle, with dark saddle carpet, the bench seat was recovered in light saddle other than that, it is original. When I look at the whole interior there seems to be about 4 different shades used, the dash is not the same as the seats, the pillar post is another shade, kick pannels, like the dash, but very different than door pannels, which do match the seats. So how do the pros match these colours? I've bought the light and dark saddle interior dyes, which match nothing in my car.
I guess I could use what I got and make it all look clean and the same, but I like the way it came from the factory.
Interior guys might also have a opinion. Thanks
Rick 70 El Camino

I think a lot of the custom color interiors came in many shades of whatever the primary color was. I'm currently doing a blue interior and had the same problem. I called my local upholstery shop and he gave me the number of a local paint/body shop supply company. They can custom mix vinyl dyes, such as the SEM products. I brought the new blue seat cover, the original dash pad and the glove box door and had them match the 3 shades of blue that I needed. The trick is you have to find someone who is REALLY good at matching colors as the 2 older samples I brought in were a little faded and you have to be able to take that into account for the final color. Here's a few pictures for you. I think they did a great job with the matches. I just finished the console and head rests, the color looks dead on to the new seat cover and you can see for yourself how close he got the dark blue dye for the dash pad. There are other companys out there that others have used but to me the local angle was the biggest help as I could drop off the samples and not have to ship them. I ordered 1 can of medium blue dye as a test color from one of the larger vendors and the color was way off, so this is how I got it done. Hope this points you in the right direction.

Hi Rick,

I have a saddle interior, but not deluxe. You are right about the colors, but I have found that there are two colors that are close, light saddle and dark saddle. I used dark for the kick panels, dash, instrument bezel, and dash pad. Light for everything else, like the pillar covers, door trim, rear panels and rear compartment. The light matches the seats, door panels and headliner better. It's close, but not perfect. I used all SEM stuff. Landau black for my console and dash bezel. I bought my paint from NPD, but you can get the stuff almost anywhere. I think the factory wanted only the lower front part to be dark and the rest light.

Al