1949 Fleetwood Dashboard and window frame finish - black leather grain?

[Doc Hubler]

Victor,

Jeff Maltby's dash really looks like the authentic leather grain to me.  His is the brown version, your dash would need to be in the gray/black (shorthand for the colors) version.  I'm getting ready to do a 1951 Hudson Hornet dash and door panels which has the leather grain that looks just like Jeff's car, but of course the color values are different.  Hudson used a more orange-carmel base coat and perhaps a darker grain pattern color. 

The suggestion that you contact others with 48-49 60S cars and see if you can get pictures is an excellent one.  I know that I have for sure seen this on 1948 60S cars with the type of grain you are referring to.  THe other thing I would suggest, if possible, is that you maintain all the pieces from the car and leave them undesturbed as they may have the clues to the correct base color on the backside.  I can't remember if you've disassembled all of this or not.  If it has been disassembled and bead blasted, then it's too late, but you might find a spare panel/piece from another member that you could use to get the right colors.  I think we could help you do this if you decide on how you want to do your dash.  Let me know.  I will look around for some pictures again.

[49 Sedanette]

Doc: thanks! Yes Jeff's pictures are of a lot of help, and to find an original car in such a condition is fantastic luck and a great resource for future restorers!

I just came back from taking some closeup pics of my car's lower dash, to the left of the steering column, which is the only place that has the original remains in good enough condition (all of the upper part was painted metallic gray). I see what the leather grain means... my main question is still the 'black leather grain' according to the Originality guide. If it is the same, but in shades of black, or black and gray, then I think I can have my friend copy it.

Still puzles a bit why they would use a black leather grain on the top dash and a dark grayish-greenish brown (I guess different than on Jeff's car) on the lower dash.... but hey, who am I to criticize Cad's interior designer work? It may have been like that and it may have looked terrific.

I am enclosing the close up pics of my car. Do you or anybody else thinks this is the same pattern that the black leather grain used?

Thanks,
victor

[Doc Hubler]

Victor,

You have to make some decisions.  I use the Grain-It Technologies method and have done their leather grain pattern (have the pattern).  For Jeff Maltby's dash, go to the following page, click on the leather pattern, and then click on the second box at the bottom for color choices.  I think his pattern is leather or possibly redwood burl.  Just guestimmating from colors over the web, his base color is CE-2 with Carpathian Elm Ink.  In actuality, you would have to use that pattern and adjust it with some additional pattern, possibly.  There may be some additional patterns out there that are closer as well.  For example, I did a fabric or burlap dash on my 1950 Hudson Pacemaker (that was difficult!).  I'll give an example below.  I have found you also have to adjust the inks a little to get the coloring just right.  Same for the basecoat color if you have the a good piece you can get color info from.  For your Cadillac, I am almost positive that the base coat color is a dark metallic gray with almost black woodgrain pattern. 

http://www.woodgraining.com/album/

I'm going to redo a 1951 Hudson Hornet which has leathergrain pattern.  I've included some pictures here of the door panel off the rear door.  You can see the leathergrain pattern, but additionally, it has more "pimples" in it than the straight pattern, so I have to add those in and have a method to do that. In this case, you can see the basecoat color is actually an "orange caramel" color, which is close, but not exactly like some of the basecoats suggested or available by Grain-It.  So we have the paint shop match that.  You can see the result of what the item looked like before weathering by looking at the bottom tab, just below the base coat stripe.  The basecoat  color hasn't faded there, and makes the piece look more brilliant and the lacquer clear hasn't really worn off yet.  If you look carefully, you can see where there are fingerprints from the factory person that leathergrained the piece originally on that bottom tab.  I could also see where the very top lip of the piece (not really visible when installed) could not easily have the pattern laid down, so the worker just swiped these with a brush making the ink cover the basecoat color and give it some pattern appearance if you were to be able to look closely.  So this is how we do these.  I'm fairly certain that we could replicate this for you.  Would want to do some more research and find a nice example, have some good pieces to copy from.  I have to add that the pattern on your car that you show, I'm not sure what to call it.  It seems a little different than anything I've seen yet.

[Doc Hubler]

BTW, I'm also just going to suggest that Jeff's dash aged differently (mostly glovebox door) because the clear coat probably yellowed at a different rate or was applied in a different amount on on or the other parts.  The old coatings usually yellowed and darkened over time, while the base coat colors are often faded by sun.  Since sun seems to be less of a factor based on the history of his car, as I understand it, then the former seems more likely.  I'm thinking that the redwood burl is the more likely pattern based on what I saw from Victor's pictures and Jeff's dash.  Let me know what you guys think.  That means they really changed the pattern from 1948 (leather grain) to 1949.  Again the 60S cars that I've seen have been 1948 cars done in the dark gray with black leather grain pattern.  All the 49s that I have seen I thought were painted dashes.

Tim